[Comprehensive Book] A Rose for Catherine

【Szabadság, Szerelem】

This is not the first time Catherine has participated in a wedding, but she still couldn't help but feel a little sad when she thought that Elizabeth would leave the house soon.

Catherine watched the parish priest preside over the wedding. Mrs. Bennet was beaming. She proudly showed off to Mrs. de Boer next to her. Mrs. de Boer listened to her. Mrs. Bennet shut up.

She glanced at Elizabeth again, and resentfully thought how blind Darcy was.Georgiana is also really, not persuading her brother at all, but happily talking to the Bennet girls here.Check it out!She and that impolite Lydia had such a good time talking!Oh my god, her Anne came over too?

Mrs. de Boer's face was ugly for a moment, she barely restrained herself, and did not make any noise at the wedding scene.

Catherine followed the Bennets, and Mary stood shoulder to shoulder with her.Because of Mrs. Bennet's troubles, Mary's trip was delayed, so she simply wrote a letter to Europe and waited for Elizabeth's wedding to be over before leaving this Christmas.

Instead of relaxing in her studies, she worked harder.

Catherine and Mary lowered their voices and had a brief conversation before staring intently at the couple who were about to be married.

The pastor solemnly said the oath, praying for God to bless the couple.

When all the ceremonies were over, Catherine stepped forward. She wanted to hug Elizabeth, but she was worried about messing up her skirt. In the end, she only said softly to Elizabeth: "Lizzie, bless you."

Out of the corner of her eye, she looked past Elizabeth and her pure white gown to Knightley, who stood outside the crowd.As if he knew that she was going to look over, the young man met Catherine's eyes when her eyes shifted slightly.

He gave her a faint smile.

Then they looked away from each other.

Mrs. Bennet, keenly aware of it, rolled her eyes.

Elizabeth didn't notice her slight blankness, the young Mrs. Darcy looked at her sister and her family, and suddenly choked up.Elizabeth looked at Catherine, not knowing what to say for the first time.She turned her head to look at Darcy again. He reservedly maintained the demeanor that a gentleman should have at any time, but the slightly raised corners of his mouth and no longer cold eyebrows and eyes betrayed him.

"Thank you, and you too, Kitty," Elizabeth said to her at last.

The wedding was smooth and peaceful, and Darcy and Elizabeth stayed at Longbourn Manor for a few days after their marriage.Knightley and Bright will go back to their own estate after attending, and spend Christmas with their families.

"If you encounter any confusion, you can write to me."

Knightley whispered to Catherine.

"You don't seem very happy lately, Kitty."

He thought it was the successive marriages of her two older sisters that made her like this.

Catherine herself knew that was not quite the case.She paused, smiled and agreed, "I'll think about it seriously. Maybe I'll have an answer before this Christmas is over."

"Better so." Knightley gave her a deep look. "Kitty, I have been and have been your most loyal friend."

"Of course it is true."

Catherine said.

After Knightley left, Catherine murmured: "But you are not just a friend."

Relieved that Mrs. Bennet was not in the parlour, Catherine went home, and walked cautiously around the kitchen to the stairs, ready to slip back to her room.

Since Lizzie completed the wedding, Mrs. Bennet has not yet finished her happiness, so she persistently urged Catherine to decide on the wedding date as soon as possible.

"You've passed 16 long ago! Many girls are married at your age." Mrs. Bennet said to Catherine dissatisfied. "Now that Jane and Lizzie are married, that girl Mary doesn't know what to do." Why, don't you be as mad at me as she is. God, I'm terrified to think of you vowing never to marry."

She kept nagging in Catherine's ear.

Catherine replied seriously: "Mom, if it weren't for him, I wouldn't think about who to marry and start a family."

Mrs. Bennet: "I don't care who you want to marry, you have to hurry up and fix the wedding date."

said the mother obstinately.

Catherine ran away with a headache.

She really likes Knightley, and when she agreed, she knew that she would one day form a family with someone, but right now, she was really not ready.

Now that she is not too old, she can temporarily avoid this question willfully, but she cannot always avoid it.

Even Mr. Bennet talked to her worriedly.

"Kitty, you did give your consent to the marriage yourself, and I don't understand your attitude. I thought young girls like you couldn't wait to run away with the ones you liked. So was Lizzie."

"No, Dad." Catherine couldn't laugh or cry, "I don't mean to regret it, I just think I should be more cautious about this matter. Marriage is a lifetime thing."

Under current British law where divorce is almost impossible.

"It's not a good thing to be too cautious," said Mr. Bennet meaningfully.

Kathleen, overwhelmed by the pressure from Mrs. Bennet, learns for the first time that her mother has extraordinary perseverance and perseverance, but she would rather never have to experience it for herself.Unable to bear Mrs. Bennet's nagging, she fled to London in the chilly winter's day to catch her breath.

She was temporarily staying at Sophia's house, and by the way, looked at the student list for next spring.Compared with ordinary middle schools, there are not many students who come to sign up, and most of them are daughters of upper-middle-class families, and girls from lower-level families dare not even think about such things as "studying".

Catherine let out a breath of cold air looking at the students' materials, and the warm firelight illuminated her face: "It would be better to speed up the establishment of elementary schools."

Sophia said: "It's already started! But we have to recruit more teachers. We can post job advertisements in the spring."

Catherine nodded and had no objection to such an arrangement.

Sophia sat down on the chair opposite her. She looked at Catherine with her sideways face, as if watching something interesting.

"My dear Kitty, I'll bet you have something to do with coming to me at this hour--something to do with lovers, let me guess."

Seeing Catherine's expression, she knew that she had guessed correctly, and triumphantly played with a strand of hair on the side of her cheek with her fingers: "I knew it, I've seen too much of this kind of thing. Young noble ladies have no worries about food and clothing. That's the only thing left to bother them."

"It just didn't occur to me, Kitty—"

Sophia bent her head and made an unladylike gesture: "You actually have the same troubles as us. I thought that a special person like you wouldn't have such vulgar troubles."

"Honey, as you can see, I'm just an ordinary girl." Catherine shrugged.

"Ordinary girl? No, you're not." Sophia put away her smile and coughed lightly, "Would you like to tell me? I might be able to help. I'm better at this than managing schools."

She restrained her excitement and curiosity about Catherine's gossip.

God, this is a rare opportunity.

Catherine was silent for a while, and said: "My mother hopes that I can marry my fiancé as soon as possible."

"Don't you want to get married yet? That's right, you're still young, who wouldn't want to be free for a few more years?" Sophia asked back.

Catherine nodded: "For some reasons, I'm not ready to get married yet." She briefly mentioned the reasons vaguely, and Sophia, who knew her character somewhat, guessed something vaguely, and she continued to ask with her chin in her hand: "Then what do you tell me?" Is your marriage partner already? The person who can make you willing to enter into a marriage is a pretty good person."

Catherine froze for a moment, "No."

The reason why she has always resisted marriage is because of the current social customs.After the couple get married, the wife herself and her property become the husband's subsidiary, and because of religious issues in England, once the marriage becomes a fact, there is no right to regret it.The latter item is not so important, after all, if Catherine suspects that she will regret it later, she will not agree in the first place. ①

What really caught her attention was the previous question.Although she has no doubts about Knightley's character and fully trusts him, she still has no choice but to put her own destiny and her own future in the hands of another person, and they will be in charge of them from then on.

Catherine couldn't stand this.

Feelings cannot change principles.

She's a whole Katherine Bennet first, and a girl trying clumsily to like someone second.

This is also the source of her ideological contradictions.

She sometimes suspects that her rational character is not suitable for a love, but the feelings do exist.

Sophia stared at Catherine in disbelief, shook her head slowly, and she said incomprehensibly: "Kitty, this involves between the two of you, why don't you ask your fiancé, Mr. One person has to solve the problems of two people. You have to know what happened to each other even in an emotionless marriage like my parents. "

Although the only thing they can tell each other is, recently they have an illegitimate child.

Sophia didn't say the last sentence.

……

"I see."

Catherine lowered her eyes and said softly.

The firewood burst into sparks in the fireplace, and the warm orange light cast her shadow on the wall.

Outside the window, it was an ordinary winter night.

The author has something to say: [By the way, whisper BB, I found that the two editions I originally prepared and the logic lines related to the copywriting were useless, and then humbly started to think about the third edition temporarily. 】

①: The United Kingdom passed the "Divorce Proceedings Act" in 1857, allowing some special cases of divorce.To give an example of losing the right to liberty, "selling a wife" was a relatively common behavior at that time. The husband used a rope to sign his wife to the open market for auction or a document signed by a notary to complete the transaction, and sometimes he had to approve the document.Generally, the transaction price is not high. Sometimes the wife’s family buys her back, and sometimes the husband gets tired of his wife and even sells her for free.