Mr. Darcy Forever (44 page)
Authors: Victoria Connelly
Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Contemporary, #General
‘
Because I'm falling in love with you,’ he said.
‘
But you hardly know me,’ Mia protested.
‘
That doesn't seem to matter. I'm still falling in love with you.’ He gazed at her and his eyes seemed full of love. ‘I know I'm not good enough for you. I know you think I'm way too old and I know you've been through a terrible relationship and I really don't want to put any more pressure on you but I just had to tell you how I feel.’
They stared at each other, their eyes locking, as strangers in the street pushed by them, unaware of the importance of this moment.
At last, Mia spoke. ‘I’m glad you did tell me,’ she said.
‘
You are?’
‘
Yes,’ she said. ‘Because I think I'm falling in love with you too.’
He looked at her as if she might be teasing him. ‘You do?’
Mia nodded and the wonderfully warming sensation she’d felt when looking at him up on the stage returned.
‘
If you’d told me that all this was going to happen to me during the Jane Austen Festival, I might have been too scared to come here,’ she confessed to him.
‘
But then I wouldn't have met you,’ he said, a frown shadowing his face.
‘
I know. Isn’t that awful?’ she said, placing her hands inside his. They felt so warm and comforting and
right
,
and she knew that, if she placed all her love and trust in this man, it would be returned ten-fold.
‘
But you
did
come,’ Gabe said, ‘and we
did
meet.’
‘
Yes,’ Mia said with a huge smile. ‘Jane Austen couldn’t have written it better herself.’
******
To Helen Wilkinson from the wonderful
Pride and Prejudice Tours
– I highly recommend their holidays. And very special thanks to the Barton Cottage group: Kelli, Kay, Susan, Sharon, Reeba, Asha, Geoffrey, Jim and not forgetting the amazing Thomas, Betsy and Toby!
To Joseph WJ Collins and Sara Jackson Kemp, Cally Taylor, Linda Gillard, Ruth Saberton and Sue Hobbs.
To Annette Green and the whole team at Sourcebooks who have been wonderfully enthusiastic about my Jane Austen addicts trilogy. It’s been a pleasure working with you all.
To Ann Channon and the team at the Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton who have been so supportive of my books.
And it’s about time I acknowledged Jane Austen too because she’s been such a huge influence on my life. I adore her books and, when I read
Pride and Prejudice
all those years ago at the tender age of seventeen, I little thought that, one day, I would be inspired to write three of my own linked to her wonderful characters.
Finally – as ever – to my husband, Roy, who is my own real-life Mr Darcy!
***
It's Magic
- Three magical romantic comedies: Flights of Angels, Unmasking Elena Montella and Three Graces
Other Austen Addicts novels in the Trilogy:
The Perfect Hero
(Published in the US as Dreaming of Mr Darcy)
Short story collections:
One Perfect Week and other stories
(Chick Lit Shorts)
The Retreat and other stories (Chick Lit Shorts)
Victoria Connelly was brought up in Norfolk and studied English literature at Worcester University before becoming a teacher. After getting married in a medieval castle in the Yorkshire Dales and living in London for eleven years, she moved to rural Suffolk where she lives with her artist husband and ever-increasing family of animals.
She has had three novels published in Germany and the first,
Flights of Angels
, was made into a film. Victoria and her husband flew out to Berlin to see it being filmed and got to be extras in it.
Her first novel in the UK,
Molly’s Millions
, is a romantic comedy about a lottery winner who gives it all away.
For more information about Victoria, visit her website:
www.victoriaconnelly.com
