Katie Oliver - Who Needs Mr Willoughby?

Who should rule – your head or your heart?

When sisters Marianne and Elinor Dashwood are forced to leave their family home to live in a rural Northumberland cottage, Marianne is convinced her social life is over. Somehow, she can’t see kitten heels coping well in the countryside – and being stuck in the middle of nowhere, miles from London, sounds about as exciting as watching paint dry. Not to mention her arrogant new boss, Dr Brandon, who doesn’t seem to think much of her city ways.

When she meets the gallant, charming and handsome Mr Willoughby, Marianne begins to think that country life might not be so bad after all…especially when he suggests that marriage might be on the cards. But the countryside still has a few tricks up its sleeve for Marianne…after all, love rarely blooms in convenient places!

Also by Katie Oliver:

The ‘Dating Mr Darcy’ trilogy:

Prada and Prejudice

Love and Liability

Mansfield Lark

The ‘Marrying Mr Darcy’ series:

And the Bride Wore Prada

Love, Lies and Louboutins

Manolos in Manhattan

The ‘Jane Austen Factor’ series:

What Would Lizzy Bennet Do?

The Trouble With Emma

Who Needs Mr Willoughby?

The Jane Austen Factor

Katie Oliver

Copyright

HQ

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2016

Copyright © Katie Oliver 2016

Katie Oliver asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

E-book Edition © June 2016 ISBN: 9781474049450

Version date: 2018-07-23

KATIE OLIVER

loves romantic comedies, characters who ‘meet cute’, Richard Curtis films, and Prosecco (not necessarily in that order). She currently resides in South Florida with her husband, two parakeets, and a dog.

Katie has been writing since she was eight, and has a box crammed with (mostly unfinished) novels to prove it. With her sons grown and gone, she decided to get serious and write more (and hopefully better) stories. She even finishes most of them.

So if you like a bit of comedy with your romance, please visit Katie’s website, www.katieoliver.com, and have a look.

Here’s to love and all its complications…

Special thanks to the Jane Austen community for your generous support – specifically, The Jane Austen Society of North America (New York); The Austen in Boston book club; Jane Austen Variations; Leslie L. Diamond; Maria Grace; and Maria Grazia of The Jane Austen Book Club.

Thanks also to the many wonderful bloggers and reviewers who hosted me, particularly Elle Uecker at The Review From Saturday; Holly at Bookaholic Confessions; Petra at Sparkly Word; Writers and Artists UK; Teresa at TCakes; Jody at A Spoonful of Happy Endings; Kerry-Ann McDade at A Bookish Redhead; Vicky Oliver at Lit Buzz; the fabulous Blossom Twins at Sweet is Always in Style; Kameron Brook at Kam’s Place; Jade Craddock at We Heart Writing; and Aimee at Hello Chick Lit.

And of course, many thanks to my agent, Nikki Terpilowski, my editor, Clio Cornish, and everyone at HQ Digital UK/Harper Collins.

My sincere gratitude.

To you, the readers…I hope you enjoy my little Northumberland tale as much as I enjoyed writing it.

And to Miss Jane Austen, who remains a source of inspiration to us all.

Contents

Cover

Book List

Title Page

Copyright

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Endpages

About the Publisher

“I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.”

—Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

Chapter 1

“The kitchen’s not very large.”

So saying, Harriet Ferrars-Holland glanced with disdain at the worn linoleum and the plain oak cupboards, at the wallpaper that had seen better days, and frowned. “It’s actually very poky. And disappointing.”

“But there’s a garden view,” her brother Edward pointed out. “And the bay window in the breakfast nook lets in plenty of light. You can sit and watch the sunrise while you drink your morning coffee.”

“I don’t drink coffee, I prefer tea,” Harriet replied, “and I have very little use for sunrises. You know I seldom get up before nine.”

Her statement made Marianne Holland, seated nearby with her mother and her sister Elinor at the dining room table, bristle.

“What bollocks! She sleeps until noon because she stays up every night binge-watching The Real Housewives of Cheshire and knocking back a half bottle of wine. Thomas told me so.”

“You shouldn’t say such things about our sister-in-law, even if they’re true,” Elinor whispered back. “Harriet might hear you.”

“I wish she would. Then she’d know exactly how much I despise her.”

Mrs Holland cast her daughter a glance of warning, and Marianne crossed her arms against her chest and subsided into silence.

With their eldest – and only – half-brother Thomas’s recent death, Norland, the house in Litchfield he’d let out to them at a reasonable rent for the past eighteen years (and their home for all of Marianne’s life) was now to be taken away and given over to his widow, Harriet.

As he passed by the dining room to follow his sister upstairs, Edward Ferrars paused in the doorway and raked his hand through the thick brown hair that fell across his forehead. “I apologise for the intrusion, ladies. We won’t inconvenience you much longer, I promise.”

To his credit, Marianne noted, he seemed as uncomfortable with the present situation as they were.

“It’s no inconvenience,” Elinor assured him. Her words were polite but cool. “After all, Norland belongs to your sister now.” She took a deep breath. “She has every right to inspect her new home.”

Edward regarded her in surprise. “Oh, Harriet won’t be living here, believe me.” He smiled and lowered his voice. “It’s not centrally located in London, for one thing, and it’s not nearly impressive enough to suit my sister’s lofty standards.”