Four Obstinate Ladies: A Pride and Prejudice Reader

A Collection of four romantic Pride and Prejudice stories by Kate Bedlow. THE WAGER When Mary visits Charlotte at Hunsford, she meets Major Carleton Quartermaine, a brash relation to Lady Catherine de Bourgh. "Carley" sees a side of Mary she's always kept hidden, and he utterly disarms her when they sing a duet together. The attention is unexpected and thrilling, but can prim Mary give her heart to a man she cannot trust? NOT ROMANTIC Even the ultimate marriage of convenience deserves a little romance! Charlotte Lucas marries Mr. Collins only to discover her new household dominated by another woman ~ Lady Catherine de Bourgh. To escape her husband's oppressive patroness, Charlotte goes to London with Mr. Darcy to visit her friend Eliza Bennet. There a charming rogue takes an unsettling interest...in Charlotte! But the inevitable has merely been delayed, and Charlotte must stand up to Lady Catherine or never truly call her home her own. Meanwhile, what Mr. Collins has been doing in her absence will change their married life forever... MRS. HURST AND THE HUNTSMAN A dark and steamy romance ~ the secret story of Louisa and Rackham Hurst. Rackham Hurst has no one but himself to blame for the disaster that is his marriage. For too long, he has respected Louisa's need to put distance between them, but he can no longer stand to see her so unhappy. During a visit to the country estate of her brother's wealthy friend, Rackham decides it's time for a reconciliation--but first he has to find his wife. The vast Derbyshire estate belonging to Fitzwilliam Darcy is beautiful, but to lonely Louisa Hurst, Pemberley's perfection is suffocating. One day, desperate for solitude and fresh air, she takes a curricle out on her own and gets lost in Pemberley Forest. The reclusive huntsman who finds her decides to keep her. AN AFFECTIONATE HEART After last year's hectic Christmas, the very shy Georgiana Darcy looks forward to a holiday of peace and quiet at home with Darcy and Elizabeth. But when Pemberley's rector cruelly and publicly censures a young girl for losing her virtue, Georgiana feels anything but peaceful. Struck by the unfair difference in how the world treats her and Hannah Brown for nearly the same mistake, Georgiana takes the disgraced girl under her wing, and though this incurs her brother's wrath, she refuses to stand down. Everyone is shocked when Georgiana receives support from Mr. Drake Midwinter--the dashing young visiting curate at Lambton Church who happens to be the nephew of Pemberley's rector. Civil war erupts at the edge of Christmas, with uncle versus nephew, brother versus sister, Lambton versus Pemberley... and even Darcy versus Elizabeth! What havoc Georgiana has wrought--and all because of her affectionate heart.