Requirements for Love Excerpt and Giveaway
- Heather Moll
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
I’m excited to tell you about my next Love in London kisses-only book Requirements for Love. In all of these books, Darcy and Elizabeth meet again in London the winter after the Netherfield ball.
In this excerpt, Elizabeth considers Georgiana's offer to help her new friend find a husband as she recovers in Darcy’s house. Elizabeth goes along to make her happy, but what could Darcy be thinking about the scheme?
In the long silence that followed where Elizabeth could not raise her eyes to Darcy, Miss Darcy asked, “Have you given any thought to my helping you find a husband?”
“Certainly,” she answered, not knowing what she said. Surely that would be better than this awkwardness with Mr Darcy.
“Truly?” Miss Darcy cried. “It would be so romantic to introduce you to some gentlemen while you are here. We will find one perfectly suited to your character and interests.”
She was all smiles and animation, and Elizabeth strove to match her enthusiasm. “It could be a charming exercise, but if you have no gentlemen friends and I can go nowhere, I am afraid we will make little progress.”
Her eager expression fell, but then she said, smiling, “My brother has single friends! What if we compile a list of the characters and qualities you wish for, and he can select a few that might suit you and have them call?”
“Yes,” Mr Darcy said from behind his paper. “For what reason does a man have to make friends if not to match them with his sister’s friends?”
Miss Darcy thought for a moment and said, “What about Mr Bingley? He lives near to you, I understand. You would be settled near to your family.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “Mr Bingley is calling on my sister today, and she will be thrilled to see him.”
Miss Darcy gave her a blank look and then said, “Oh. Then that would be inappropriate.” She pursed her lips in thought. “My cousin is single, the one who carried you in from the street. Was it romantic of him to come to your rescue?”
Her new friend was naïve to think being swept up in someone’s arms was enough to make one fall in love. But Elizabeth might have felt the same when she was fifteen. Lydia and Kitty would have planned her wedding breakfast if they had seen her in Colonel Fitzwilliam’s arms yesterday, but the bar for a husband must be low if all he had to do was be appalled that she was knocked down. “He was kind to help me,” she said judiciously. “But there was nothing of romance in it.”
“Forgive me for interrupting,” Mr Darcy said, still behind his paper, “but Fitzwilliam is a younger son who, by his own admission, must marry with some attention to money.” She noticed he had not turned a page of his newspaper.
“Oh,” Miss Darcy said again. “I ought to have asked about your fortune. I am sorry. I did not think—I presumed…” She was bright pink and could not raise her eyes. “I am not good at this.”
Miss Darcy looked so crestfallen that Elizabeth strove to comfort her. “I am not offended. And I have done nothing wrong by not being rich enough for your friends. But perhaps the exercise ought to be abandoned.”
“Not all our friends and acquaintances are preoccupied by money,” she said quickly. “Rank and wealth have their place, of course, but there are worthy men in town who can marry wherever their heart leads them, just as my brother can.”
Elizabeth had often thought her parents had done wrong in not adequately providing for her and her sisters, but there was nothing she could do about it. “I have a thousand pounds after the death of both of my parents, so whomever of your brother’s friends who would suit me must be able to afford to marry a poor woman.”
“Well, first we ought to consider what you are looking for in a husband. My brother has told me that my preferences matter as much as the man’s station and wealth, so before we begin, we must settle that.” She rose to beg writing supplies from Mrs Annesley and returned, pulling a side table near to her chair. “What are your requirements?”
“My requirements?” she repeated. “Are you placing an order at a shop to be delivered by close of business?”
“If only it were that simple to find one’s life companion,” muttered Mr Darcy. He tossed aside his paper and rose. “Speaking of Fitzwilliam, I am meeting him now. We are going to have a look in at Tattersall’s.”
“If you have any friends who might suit Miss Bennet—”
“Yes, yes, all my single friends are yours to dispose of,” he said in a voice that was more curt than Elizabeth had heard him use with his sister. In a milder voice, he added, “I am dining out, but will be back in the evening. Please do not allow Miss Bennet to hobble back to her room on her own if I am not here. My valet has been told to help move her in my absence.”
He bowed to everyone and strode from the room. When he was gone, Miss Darcy took up her pen and said, “If you list your requirements for a husband, we can begin."
What does Darcy think of his sister's plan? Read Requirements for Love to learn his thoughts and see what happens when his friends start visiting the invalid.
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