Ironwood

Ellis Wren

Above Ashford, New York, the Arden family works forty acres of apples that have been losing money for thirty years. The land sits in a trust that will pass to a cousin in White Plains who sells annuities, and not to Gil Arden's five daughters: Sylvie, Hollis, Petra, Tessa and Roxy. When a young man from the city rents the neighbouring estate, Faye Arden sees five sons-in-law. At a town dance Julian Reyes singles out Sylvie, while his friend Roman Ashcroft says, within Hollis's hearing, that she is tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt him. She tells it as a joke for a year and locks a door in her chest. Then she meets Dexter Cray, a guardsman who says Ashcroft robbed him of the promised position; she believes him at once. Julian leaves for the winter and does not return. Preston Pell arrives to claim the trust, proposes to Hollis, is refused, and marries her friend Corinne instead. In Connecticut, under the eye of Constance Wray, who announces at her own table that Roman is meant for her daughter Odette, Roman asks Hollis to marry him and asks badly: he has struggled against her family and his own judgment, and overcome both. She refuses him and accuses him of ruining Cray and of parting Julian from Sylvie. A letter forces her to reread everything. Cray took cash instead of the position and gambled it, and last summer nearly ran away with Roman's nineteen-year-old sister; Julian's withdrawal was Roman's misjudgement. At Ironwood a housekeeper describes a landlord Hollis does not recognise. Then Roxy runs off with Cray, unmarried, and Roman finds them and pays what has to be paid. Constance demands that Hollis promise never to accept him; she refuses. Julian comes back and marries Sylvie. On a wet footbridge Roman asks again, and this time Hollis says yes.

Adapted from Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice (1813). Published by TalesReborn.