[Comprehensive Book] A Rose for Catherine

Things start after dinner.

Dinner time in London is a little later in the evening than in the countryside of Longbourn, and it gets dark earlier in winter. After dinner, candles have been lit in Brett’s mansion, and the warm yellow candlelight warms the house. Chatting with Aunt Gardner by the roaring fireplace.

Catherine and Uncle and Aunt Gardner's family were very close.The couple had no children of their own, so they took good care of the Bennet ladies, and because Uncle Gardner was engaged in business activities and dealt with various people, he was more open-minded than many people. After Catherine decided to give the publisher I offered a lot of help when I submitted the manuscript. Later, Catherine accidentally met her pen pal, and it was Aunt Gardner who turned you around and acted as a medium for their conversation.

Catherine has always been grateful to them.

Bright's mansion is resplendent and resplendent with the glory of the ancient family of the last century. Every brick on the wall of the house is a hundred years old. It is solemn and solemn, and it is incompatible with the country girls in Longborn.

Catherine felt that such a house was a bit depressing, but Lydia didn't feel it at all. She was amazed at the exquisite layout of the room, and regardless of the planned itinerary to visit the entire mansion the next day, she directly said to Brett: "You can take me To see the house? It is so beautiful! I should be very happy if I could live here!"

Elizabeth was embarrassed by Lydia's ignorance, and she unconsciously became a little harsher, saying to Lydia, "Lydia, you should be quiet."

Lydia, who never took her sisterly behavior seriously, made a face at Elizabeth and ran out the door with her skirt in her hands.Brett smiled helplessly, ordered the head maid and the butler to entertain them, and followed Lydia out.

Catherine was chatting with Aunt Gardner at that time. Uncle Gardner had recently negotiated a big deal. He and a gentleman who has been very popular in London recently reached a cooperation. The two will import from China in the new year. Bisque, and then ask craftsmen to draw biblical stories on bisque, make "Porcelain of England" and sell it to London's high society. ①

Chinese porcelain has always been sold at a high price due to the long distance of transportation and its fragility, but the ladies and gentlemen in London don’t pay attention to the price.But the patterns on oriental porcelain are naturally traditional Chinese patterns, and the bible stories and so on painted on the porcelain embryos have more local characteristics. Once they are made, they will definitely sell well.

Aunt Gardner knew this too, and her only worry was that Uncle Gardner was going to invest all the money on hand, so they might have to give up part of their original business.

Catherine didn't know much about business matters, so she could only express her opinion in a few words, saying: "If there are enough interests in this matter, even if it is a risk, few people can refuse it. If the partners are reliable enough, then this is indeed a very good business. Perhaps you and uncle can ask Mr. Bright, he may not be proficient in how to do business, but he must know what kind of things people are willing to spend pounds. "

Mrs. Gardner nodded: "We are going to meet with our new business partner in a few days. We believe that he is a partner with high moral character and excellent reputation."

"Then I wish you all the best." Catherine was distracted as she spoke, and realized that Lydia was no longer in the hall.The maid brought them exquisite snacks, and the butler came halfway to ask if they would like to play cards for a while.The ladies refused, preferring to sit together and talk, and Catherine asked him politely if he could send someone to ask when Lydia would be back.

The butler responded respectfully and asked a maid to go out and look for Lydia and Brett.

After a quarter of an hour, the maid followed Brett and Lydia back into the living room. Brett once again greeted the guests politely and asked if they were going to rest now.They were not too sleepy yet, and Catherine was about to speak when Lydia agreed first: "Yes, it's late, we want to rest."

Lydia cast her eyes on Catherine, implying that it was obvious, and Catherine followed up and said that she was a little tired and hoped to rest early.

Brett glanced at Lydia with a smile, then turned and went out to order the maid.Lydia looked away awkwardly, her fingers pinching the lace of her dress.Catherine looked over suspiciously, but she only lowered her gaze guiltily.

Catherine clearly realized that something was wrong.

She regretted leaving Lydia and Brett alone, and hoped it wasn't such a bad thing.

The maid arranged separate rooms for the ladies. Lydia evaded her eyes and stopped talking. She only muttered and asked to share a room with Catherine.

Catherine expected that Lydia had something to say to her, but in the middle of the night, when she was so dazed and unable to hold on, Lydia turned over from the bed and said suddenly: "Kitty, Mr. Bright proposed to me tonight."

Catherine woke up instantly.

"Did you promise?"

Lydia pouted: "I don't know, I told him about this and I have to discuss it with my family."

She paused, then went on in disbelief: "This is really strange, Kitty, we both hated each other so much two weeks ago. Do you think he's trying to tease me about it? But He was so sincere... God, I don't know what to do..."

She became irritable.

Catherine simply sat up, ready to have a long talk with her all night: "Then do you like him?"

Lydia thought about it carefully, and said: "I like his house, it's so beautiful here. He said that if I agree to his marriage proposal, he can give me this mansion."

"Then you only like his mansion, but you don't like Brett at all?" Catherine calmly analyzed for her, and at the same time sighed secretly, asking for a two-life single who can't even write the plot of first love The author analyzes emotional problems for her younger sister, it is too difficult for her to be an older sister.

"...this...not at all, I quite like his appearance, he looks much better than those people I've seen!" Lydia got up with the pillow in her arms, and said distressedly, "But Ki Tee, my dream was to marry a red uniform, you know. So why isn't Bright a red uniform?"

"You can pretend he is," Catherine said deadpan in the dark.She can now be sure that Lydia has a crush on Brett, otherwise the question she should be struggling with now is "How dare he propose to me when he is such an annoying person? Is he going to cheat me first and then abandon me severely?"

"I can't pretend," Lydia grumbled softly, adding another concern she worried about, "but if I say yes to his marriage proposal, won't I be the first girl in my family to marry? Can't stay with you all the time, and what about mother? London isn't at all near Longbourne."

Catherine was stunned for a moment, but she couldn't help laughing. She never thought that Lydia would worry about these things. Lydia is the youngest child in the family, and Mrs. Bennet likes her the most. The only trouble is that the pocket money is not enough to buy two new hats.But today when Lydia said these words, Catherine realized that the youngest sister in the family had grown up unknowingly.

She lowered her voice: "If you like him, you can promise him that my mother and I can often come to London to see you."

From the current point of view, Brett's character is not impeccable. He also really likes Lydia, and he doesn't value family background. No matter how you look at it, this marriage can't make her say anything bad—except Brett's marriage proposal was premature.However, the date of the marriage can still be discussed, even if you agree to the proposal, there is no need to get married right away.

"Forget it, I'll talk about it tomorrow morning. I'm so sleepy, Kitty." Lydia buried her head in the quilt, heard an indistinct voice, closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep.

"Good night."

Catherine was helpless and funny.

The next day, Catherine got up early, the maids were still preparing breakfast, and the mansion was quiet.She planned to go across the street to the address she reserved before breakfast to see if anyone was taken advantage of. ②

No. 142 Grosswino Street is a hotel. The nephew of the hotel owner is the director of the Meryton Library, and the director has always had a good relationship with Catherine. He has lent many books in private collections to Catherine. Catherine and him Said that he immediately wrote to ask his uncle to collect letters for Catherine.

Catherine paid an extra ten pounds for the innkeeper to do it for her without asking.

Catherine walked over on foot and got her own letters at the counter. To her surprise, there were a lot of letters. There were about twenty or thirty letters, which was ten times more than the two or three letters Catherine expected.

She didn't know that her identity as "Lyan Appleton" was gaining fame among the London literary salons. Although the gentlemen didn't admire novels, they read them more and more with gusto, and the ladies made no secret of their admiration for the author. As soon as "Lianne Upton"'s name appeared in the newspapers, many people who had no intention of custom-made novels also wrote to her, some said they were "his most loyal fans", and some reprimanded "the shit you write It doesn’t work”, and even more letters are still on the way and have not been delivered. There are not many people who seriously want to ask her to write custom novels-one is that some people who are willing can’t afford the price, and the other is that many people do not have custom-made novels. need.

Catherine didn't think of this for the time being, and now she was worried about how she would hide such a thick stack of letters and take them back without anyone noticing.

When she was thinking about it, she didn't notice two well-dressed young ladies standing by the railing on the second floor of the hotel.

After taking a good look at Catherine, the older woman said to the young lady beside her: "You think she is 'Ryan Upton'? Maybe she's just running errands, really Ryan Upton didn't show up? She's just an ordinary lady, you see, and it might have been a gentleman who could have written something like that."

"No," said the young lady to her companion. "I read her books, and women wrote differently than men, and I knew then that she must be a very different woman. Now I see You're right. She's the 'Ryan Upton' I'm looking for, I'm sure."

The young lady raised the corners of her mouth as she said, "Now let's go downstairs and meet this Miss Ryan Upton."

Another older woman subconsciously picked up the hem of her skirt as a courtesy.

"Yes, Your Highness."