Swipe Left on Mr. Darcy — Out of Office, Page 1
By Suha · Published
Transcript
A modern car cruises a scenic summer highway above a lake and rolling green hills in golden light. Inside: Maddie Gardiner at the wheel (silver-streaked dark hair, camel linen duster, sunglasses on her head), Ed Gardiner in the front (short dark beard, glasses, teal quarter-zip), and Lizzie in the back seat in her olive-green jacket, watching the countryside with a small wistful smile. Caption: 'There is a special kind of peace in deciding you will never see someone again.'
Image description
Lizzie Bennet rides in the back seat of a car with her aunt Maddie and uncle Ed, gazing wistfully out the window at sunlit summer hills and a distant lake.
About this chapter
Certain she's made sure she'll never see Darcy again, Lizzie takes a summer road trip with her aunt Maddie and uncle Ed to reset — and lets her aunt talk her into touring a famous house-and-gardens open for the weekend, only to realize on the drive that the estate is Fitzwilliam Darcy's. She goes through with it for one reason: he's away for the summer, out of office, no chance of a collision. But his home is nothing like the cold glass world she convicted him for — warm, personal, full of sunlight and evidence of a man she never met — and the housekeeper who has known him for years speaks of him with plain fondness that dismantles what's left of her old verdict. Then he comes home early. They meet on the garden path, and instead of the wall she braces for, Darcy is warm, courteous, almost shy, genuinely glad she came, and gracious to her aunt and uncle without a flicker of the old snobbery. By the last page the man she was sure she'd never see again stands in front of her in the golden light, smiling — at her — and Lizzie understands she doesn't want to be safe from him at all.