Smitten Before the Sunset: True Love Through Time, #2

By Jemma Thorne

For two hundred years their romance has stirred hearts…

What if Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy are destined to meet time and again, their souls searching for their true love through time and space?

And when they meet, there’s always magic.

Lizzy Bennet doesn’t want to return to Texas, but her father insists she take up the vacant schoolteacher post on the family ranch. Fitzwilliam Darcy is in search of a new life, after a year spent outrunning his past. He takes a job at the Bennet ranch, a thousand miles from the home he lost. At times chance places a person exactly where they should be, as fate takes notice of desires the heart can only whisper.

Smitten Before the Sunset is the second volume in the True Love Through Time series of romances inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The beloved couple meets again…and again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jemma Thorne
• Release date: Nov 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781519918161

Jemma Thorne

Jemma Thorne is a romance addict. She loves the thrill of new love to be found again and again in the pages of books, whether it’s a modern or historical setting, or better yet, one full of magic and mystery. She’s been writing for years (and years). She lives in a stunning land of magic and mystery herself, a place called Oregon, along with her husband and daughters. 

Book preview

Chapter 1

Lizzy Bennet slowly closed her book and gathered her things as the train lumbered into the Archer City station in Northeastern Texas ranch country. Though the old saying maintained you can never go home again, here she was. She gave her dust-free apparel a final farewell glance as she prepared to disembark. And then she dared a look out at the bleak landscape she knew all too well.

Color still lit the eastern horizon from sunrise. A new day. In Texas.

She missed Philadelphia already. Who knew when she traveled there with her older sister Jane last spring that she’d fall so in love with the city, or that she’d be called back to teach in her hometown’s one-room school by fall? Father’s letter had been a disappointment. Jane stayed in Philadelphia, the genteel society paramount to finding the eldest Bennet daughter a husband of means. Lizzy had hoped for the same, but when the schoolteacher married and left for her new home, Mr. Bennet offered his second daughter for the post.

Lizzy wasn’t interested in teaching. She had the spare qualifications needed in the classroom, but she had never pictured spending her days training farm and ranch kids, most of whom would happily return to the fields and streams when the hours of instruction had run their course.

She and her sisters had attended the one-room school when they were young, but as they grew each of them had taken their education in the city, where her mother’s family maintained their living in Pennsylvania. Mama had passed eight years ago, just before Lizzy turned twelve.

She and the other Bennet girls had spent the last eight years moving back and forth—ever since the train came through and made such travel possible.

The train stop was at the edge of town and when she took her final step from the great black locomotive, she found a lonely wait ahead of her. No other passengers disembarked and she watched the train pull out as she craned for any sight of a plume of dust that would mark a wagon come to pick her up.

Nothing.

When the locomotive was out of sight, Lizzy sat atop her trunk and tried to get used to the idea of Texas.

She was no closer to coming to grips with beginning life as a schoolteacher when she saw a cloud of dust rising in the northeast.

Finally.

It was Old Ben; Lizzy knew from his hat. No one else had deigned to join him on his ten-mile excursion to the train station. And that left only him for company on the way back.

Lizzy gritted her teeth.

Some welcome this was. She would have words for her father about it.

Old Ben was a good man. He’d worked for her father since before she was born, and had moved in recent years to light jobs he could still manage. And a team of horses was one of those. The old man had once been among the best horse trainers in Texas. Her father’s ranch couldn’t have become what it was without him.

Hello, Old Ben, she called to him as he pulled the horses to a stop next to the train tracks.

Lizzy, it is a blessing to rest my eyes on you, girl. Get up here and give an old man a kiss.

Lizzy giggled.

Despite his words, Old Ben jumped down from the wagon and made to lift her trunk. Lizzy helped him without a word. She wasn’t going to risk the man’s pride, but there was no way he should handle its weight on his own. She internally cursed her father for putting him up to it. What did father have to do that was more important than greeting his own daughter at the train station? And did he believe she’d return from Pennsylvania with no more than one or two bags?

Don’t look cross, Lizzy. Things have been strained at the ranch. It’ll be good to have you home.

Strained? Lizzy asked warily.

Stable man left. Had it out with your father and then out he went. He curled his lip and spat over the other side of the wagon as Lizzy hitched her skirts and climbed up.

Oh. That would have her father doing double duty, at least. She remembered the man who’d managed the stables; father had hired him last year. Lizzy never had a great feeling about him—he was the type she wouldn’t want to run into alone in the dark.

And seeing as she was a Texas ranch kid, she invariably ended up out alone at night, under the expanse of stars, wondering at her own path to this place and how in the world she’d get out of it.

She wasn’t sad to see that particular worker go, but she hoped Father wasn’t too overworked. Their little community, which was made up of the ranch and a couple of smaller farms, a smithy and a grocery, could only handle so many defections at one time.

You’re going to teach school, Lizzy? That’ll be good, it’s a good crop of youngsters around the ranch right now.

Now that Lydia and Kitty are grown, you mean? Lizzy joked, giving Old Ben a sly look. Her sisters had been challenging as children. They’d only managed to grow slightly better as they matured.

Old Ben grimaced and did not confirm her words.

His silence spoke volumes, and left Lizzy wondering what hadn’t changed at the ranch.

Chapter 2

Fitzwilliam Darcy gave his young sister his hand as they stepped from the rough wagon that had graciously carried them from Wichita Falls. He squinted against the relentless Texas sun, and lowered the brim of his hat.

Georgiana was quiet, withdrawn.

How could she not be?

It seemed in recent weeks that they could not find a single stroke of luck.

Thank you for the ride, sir. It was Bennet you mentioned—the man who might need an able back? He would perform whatever manual labor needed performing if it meant a warm home for Georgiana to sleep in.

It was hard to believe the position they found themselves in, nearly destitute and a thousand miles from their old home. If ever there was a time to start new, this was it.

Yes. Mr. Bennet owns the ranch. You’ll a find him in that white house over there. The leather-skinned man—who was probably a good deal younger than he looked—pointed across a dusty road and a golden field of grass to a stately house under a grouping of arched trees. The house stood away from the working buildings of the ranch, where activity swarmed.

Darcy couldn’t make out any movement up at the house, but that’s where he and Georgiana walked.

He held her arm and felt that she was shaking. He patted her hand. It’ll be fine, Georgiana. Look at this lovely white house. And I can see a breeze stirring those trees. It’s not such a bad spot.

If they’ll have us, she mumbled.

Don’t worry. I will take care of you no matter what happens.

She stood straighter. Of course you will. We’re from a good family, you know, not like they’ll think… She gulped, looking around.

Don’t assume the worst. Let’s just go talk to them. Darcy looked up at the two-story house with its large windows like eyes behind a wide porch complete with a swing and upholstered rocking chair.

He gave a firm knock at the door.

It opened a few seconds later, but before it did someone started to say, Lizzy! Oh, thank goodness you’re home. I don’t think I could have stood it another day! The speaker could finally see Darcy there and one hand flew to cover her mouth. I’m sorry—I thought you were my sister. What...what can I do for you? She made a point of looking around behind him, as if wondering how in the world he’d arrived at her doorstep.

Hello, ma’am. My name is Fitzwilliam Darcy. A man named Davidson dropped me off just over there. He said you might be looking for help on this ranch. Is it your father I need to speak to, or…?

Oh...Father is out. He’ll be down at the stables. The girl, who appeared to be about eighteen or so, with light hair and big brown eyes, was staring at Georgiana.

Georgiana didn’t meet her gaze. Her eyes were focused on her skirt, which was not the sort worn by a woman accustomed to living on the road. Georgiana had been used to fine things, before… Darcy hadn’t the heart to make her give up her clothes. They were more worn now, but still fine.

"This is