Revelations an adaption of Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 101

Author's note

I hope you're all still enjoying reading Revelations as much as I am writing it. Of course it does ramble on, not much drama happening, but then isn't life like that at the best times? Also, when I'm reading books, strong plots make me nervous, I like to read (and write) about feelings, and they tend to get drowned in the action when a story follows a classical setup: flawed heroine (or hero) has her (or his) life ruined and needs to fight to put it back to rights. This story is more like a soap, it follows the story of people's lives, with up and downs occurring throughout and not saving it all up until the end. And as to what seems to have developed in a main theme of Revelations: I do think one could not have avoided getting close to servants emotionally in those days, when they were always about, and knew such intimate details from one's life. Of course most gentlemen and gentle ladies would not have crossed the borders into love, but some must have.

Now I promised someone this chapter would contain a lot more E&D than the former chapters, and that is not true. I was mistaken, they're in the next chapter. So, to make up for my mistake, we're publishing that, too. Also, I'm currently re-writing Revelations to past tense and editing out some errors and anachronisms like underwear for ladies. After some heavy censoring it will be offered for sale as ebook on Amazon, where it has been all this time but received scathing reviews over 'experimental sex', which didn't help sales. And more sales means more time to write, so I'm willing to sell my soul there and stay true to myself here on Fanfiction. Enough talk, while you start on this chapter, I'll revise the next. Enjoy!

Chapter 101

Despite showing mainly relief to all outward appearances, the near-drama of last Wednesday has left traces on Frederick's soul as well as Elizabeth's. He can see the impact it has had on her, and he will ask why and what he can do to make up when she returns from Newcastle. It's not easy to show your feelings when you've been training from puberty to hide them. Only the agony of losing Elizabeth and Darcy could force them out. And not just Elizabeth and Darcy, but Eric and Georgiana as well, and most likely even Simon.

But he didn't even realise that when he begged them to forgive him and not remove him from their protection. Because it has felt like that for some time now, as if they keep him safe, and for someone who is older and has a lot more experience with the world outside, who has been independent from the moment he took possession of his estate and his fortune on his twenty-first birthday, it is a very disturbing realisation. They're not his parents, they cannot tell him what not to do, but then his parents never did that, never got the chance. School raised Frederick Manners, and as it turns out, made a few glaring mistakes in his education.

Riding towards Grenfell's wedding Frederick knows this is the last time he will seek out his college friends as a group. He will see Lascelles, of course, and Bingley, and maybe he will visit some of the others after his marriage, but he will no longer be the one who keeps them together and who arranges the entertainment. He offered Elizabeth to break off all contact with the group, and though he suspects she will not hold him to that, he regards it as a promise and he will keep it to prove his commitment to their family. Is he looking for another group to attach himself to? A group more suitable to his stage of life? And if so, is that a bad thing? If one has no family of one's own, is it such a bad thing to find one elsewhere? It has felt so good to finally belong, to find a place where he can be himself, where he is accepted despite forming a decided risk to their reputation with his shameful preferences.

And Anne? Is she his ultimate effort to gain respectability, to start a family of his own where he will feel safe? Will she be happy and free as he envisions the situation he has proposed to her, or will he merely draw her into his perversions? Smudge her name as well as his own? What will Elizabeth and Darcy have to say if Anne decides in his favour?