With Quill and Ink by Leenie Brown ★★★☆☆
Mr Enfield, long time resident of Netherfield Park, took a grandfatherly interest in the vivacious second daughter of his neighbours, the Bennet family.
Elizabeth Bennet loved to walk through the countryside and admired a particular area of Mr Enfield’s garden. He invited her to enjoy it whenever she pleased and renamed it ‘Elizabeth’s garden’.
When he died, she was stunned and delighted to learn that he had left the garden to her.
But gifts can come with strings!
Fitzwilliam Darcy was fond of his uncles' cousin, Mr Enfield. He would visit whenever he traveled along the road to London, which passed Hertfordshire. When the gentleman left Netherfield to him in his will he was pleased but planned to sell, feeling he had sufficient property to manage.
His friend Bingley wants to buy an estate after a time leasing to learn estate management. What could be better than for Bingley to buy Netherfield?
Except Darcy discovers that the estate must be complete before it can be sold and part of it is owned by a neighbour.
When Bingley becomes enamoured of Elizabeth’s beautiful sister Jane, the perfect solution seems to be that Elizabeth sell her garden, allowing Darcy to sell to Bingley.
However, they are all shocked to find a condition of the bequest is that Elizabeth cannot sell until she is married. As Elizabeth has no suitors, Elizabeth reluctantly agrees to attend a house party in order to meet a list of eligible gentleman.
But what if the right man is not on the list?
The character of Elizabeth was well drawn but I could not quite see why she put up with a lot of unpleasantness in order to sell something that she wanted to keep.
Darcy was initially suspicious but rapidly became a kind friend. Nice to skip the usual haughtiness!
A happy ever after is of course guaranteed.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. All views expressed are my own.
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