Mr. Darcy's Unlikely Attachment

Mr. Darcy’s Unlikely Attachment

A Pride and Prejudice Variation

When Mr. Darcy begins to visit Longbourn more often than politeness requires, the change does not go unnoticed.

It begins, as such things do, with something entirely reasonable: the engagement of an Oxford tutor to improve Mary Bennet.

Mr. Talbot is expected to correct her music, recommend a little Latin, and otherwise remain politely invisible.

He does not.

Mary improves—alarmingly. Conversation sharpens. Even Mr. Bennet begins to listen more closely than is strictly comfortable. Mrs. Bennet approves of everything she does not understand, Kitty reports what she ought not, and Lydia improves nothing at all—while even Mr. Collins submits, with surprising good grace, to having his Latin corrected by a tutor he finds quite admirable.

Mr. Darcy, who was never meant to be interested, finds himself returning to Longbourn far more often than politeness requires.

Talbot is not a man easily dismissed. His wit is quiet, his judgment precise, and his influence difficult to ignore.

Elizabeth Bennet, who misses very little, observes the change with increasing satisfaction.

For Longbourn is not a house in which anything remains hidden for long.

Not from the family.

Not from the neighborhood.

And certainly not from Mr. Wickham.

In a society governed by appearances, even the most careful regard carries consequences.

And when admiration deepens into attachment, discretion may prove insufficient protection.