Chapter 17: Country Life 11: Shameless Scumbag

After the trip to Meryton, Longbourn became increasingly involved with this group of new militia officers.

It is undeniable that the young ladies of the Bennett family played an important role in this.

The militia was expected to be stationed in Meryton for a year, unless called up for support at the front, so the officers were happy to integrate into the local social circle to relieve the loneliness of being away from their relatives and friends.

Although the officers' salaries were not high and their spending was mostly unrestrained, most of them came from the gentry class or were the second sons of aristocrats, and generally inherited some property from their ancestors.

In addition, at least they can maintain their figure and their image is generally acceptable, so they are quite popular among the ladies in nearby villages and towns.

Most of the ladies and girls from gentry families would hardly leave the local area more than a few times in their lifetime, while officers often had to rotate with the regiment, which allowed them to tell a few interesting stories even if they were not very smart, which greatly improved the atmosphere of the banquet.

After getting to know Mrs. Jones, Kitty and Lydia would often grab one or two girls from the same village and go to Meryton to make friends with the new officers.

Whenever they met someone new they would invite them to Longbourn, either for dinner at their own home or at a dinner party at another village home.

Mr. Bennett initially expressed dissatisfaction with the frequent appearance of the red uniforms in front of him and wanted to ban the frequent visits of the red uniforms, but he was soon defeated by the joint protest of his wife and daughters.

At noon today, several officers joined the Bennett family at the table, including Mr. Wickham, this month's regular visitor, and Major Brown, who had spoken to Hazel before.

After lunch, Mr. Bingley also came to visit.

The presence of a group of gentlemen in the drawing-room, whose speech and manners were more agreeable, made Mr. Collins's eloquent speeches so uninterested that he turned to a discussion of the Bible with Mary.

Poor Mary no longer wanted to discuss empty religious studies with others since she started studying the canal issue. What's more, Mr. Collins mostly just recited the original text and could not provide any useful ideas, which made her very annoyed.

When Heather came down from upstairs with the newly received letter and was about to return to the living room, she saw Mary standing by the back door, holding a book and waving at her.

"Please, auntie. Let us go to the woods. We have enough company here for two of us."

Mary said gloomily, "I have no interest in officers, and Mr. Collins is irritating. He has been preaching Ecclesiastes for a whole quarter of an hour. Even Mr. Bingley talks nonsense. It is true that people who fall in love become stupid."

Heather readily agreed, and they bent over and sneaked under the window sill, then ran into the woods behind the mountain as if they were familiar with the route.

When they arrived at the woods, they began to wander around aimlessly.

Until Mary found a relatively flat stone, she sat down and began to read the unfinished book. Her interest in practical economics had reached its peak, and she was even more diligent than the students preparing for business school.

Heather sat leisurely beside them, and the afternoon sun shone through the gaps between the leaves onto the ground, as if the ground was covered with golden treasures.

Heather idly observed the plants around her. In these days, she had seen most of the plant species near Longbourn.

But today, perhaps because they walked a little further than usual, she seemed to have discovered something new.

It was a fragmented silver-gray leaf, the withered remains of some plant. Heather thought carefully about the Longbourn atlas, but couldn't remember what kind of plant it was.

"Mary, I'm going to go look for other leaves like this nearby and come back to you right away. Please stay here."

Without even looking up, Mary said, "Okay, if you can't find the way, just call me."

Heather walked towards the top of the hill, away from the fields. She was afraid of wild animals or snakes, so she didn't go far.

After walking a few dozen meters, Heather found several more of the same silver-gray dead leaves. Under one of the leaves was a piece of crumpled paper. She felt around and found that it was actually oil paper.

How could there be oil paper? Could it have been left by a patrolling forest ranger?

Suddenly, Heather was awakened from her thoughts. She heard the sound of a branch breaking at a close distance behind her, followed by a series of footsteps.

Someone was following her secretly.

Heather screamed "Ah" in fright and turned her head suddenly.

The man walking towards him was also startled. He slipped and almost fell, and hurriedly grabbed the tree trunk next to him in a panic.

It was a man in a red uniform, a man in a red uniform who had just had lunch with the Bennett family. It was not known whether he was Lydia's friend or a friend brought by an officer.

Heather breathed a sigh of relief and said in a panic, "You are... Mr. What? I just met him. How did you suddenly appear here? I was really scared to death!"

The man stopped, quickly straightened his clothes that had just been messed up, and raised his hand to tidy up his messy hair before saying, "Andre Davis, Madam, I just wanted to come out for some fresh air. I happened to see you alone here, so I wanted to come forward and say hello. I'm really sorry for scaring you."

He performed a very elegant and aristocratic salute smoothly, and the curve of the smile on his lips was particularly perfect.

Only then did Heather notice that, judging from appearance alone, he was even more handsome than Wickham, the most popular player in this session's red uniforms. Perhaps there was a bit of Colombian genes in his bloodline, making him look particularly romantic and wild.

However, his temperament is far less in line with the popular taste of British girls than Wickham. Unlike Wickham's natural handsomeness, his smile is a bit hypocritical and greasy.

Hazel drew back a little and said, "You mean to say you walked a mile from Longbourn for air and happened to run into me?"

Davis raised his hands, shrugged innocently, and said, "As I said, I just wanted to check in with you privately. Otherwise, I won't be able to sleep tonight."

Heather looked at him warily.

He sighed, seemingly helpless. "Madam, to avoid unnecessary trouble, I didn't introduce myself just now. But now, to reassure you, I have no choice but to reintroduce myself."

"My grandfather was a general who was knighted during the reign of George III, and my father was his second son. So, although I don't have a title yet, I'm not a lowly person. I think any girl near Meryton would consider it the honor of her life if she could get my hand in marriage."

"And now, Mrs. Lawrence, I fell in love with you at first sight."

Heather was almost laughing out of anger. Where on earth did this narcissist with greasy hair and powdered face come from?

She rolled her eyes slightly and said perfunctorily while trying to find her way back, "So, General's grandson, are you planning to propose to me?"

Davis said, "Oh, no, ma'am, I think you must understand that my grandfather would never consent to my marrying a man like you. I don't think you would want to be driven out of the house with me to make a living."

Heather couldn't help herself any longer. She said coldly, "Yes, sir, please move aside. I need to go back. It's not proper to sneak behind a lady traveling alone."

Davis laughed and waved his hands, stepping in front and saying, "Please don't be angry. Relax a little. Although we can't get married, we still have a chance to spend a good time in the next few months, right? Believe me, being with me will definitely help you get over the grief of losing your husband."

Heather was shocked by his shamelessness. He was a combination of Collins and Wickham, both self-righteous and terrible.

"Unfortunately, I'm not interested in men with low character, vulgar temperament, and no real skills of their own."

As she spoke, she stepped back and quietly took out a hairpin from her sleeve, intending to try to break through with force if this man had no bottom line.

"Besides, you are a prominent figure. If you do anything disrespectful here, you will be expelled from the militia."

However, Davis didn't care. He was obviously accustomed to taking women's resistance as modesty, and believed that no one could resist his romantic charm.

He slowly approached Heather and said, "If you don't agree, I won't do anything. I just want to give you a kiss."

It was obviously impossible to communicate with this self-righteous fool, so Heather shouted for help, while holding the hairpin tightly and secretly preparing to give him a heavy blow.

It’s less than half a meter, right now!

Just as Heather was about to stab the hairpin into his arm, a person suddenly rushed out from the left.

It was Mary. She was holding a thick branch half a person's height in both hands and rushed over yelling, shouting "Don't touch her" while waving the branch wildly.

Because there was a small uphill slope on the left, she ran very hard and her speed was not fast, but her ferocious appearance still scared Davis and made him take a few steps back.

Unfortunately, before she could rush over, she was tripped by something and fell to the ground.

Heather's heart tightened, and he quickly turned to look at Davis. At almost the same time, the villain also fell to the ground with a thud. The back of his head hit the ground and he was motionless.

Before Heather could think about why the man fell down on his own when Mary's branch was so far away, she quickly ran over to help Mary.

Before they could stand up, a high-pitched female voice pierced the entire forest.

"Ahhhh! I killed someone! Oh my God, is he dead? Am I going to jail? Oh my God, I'm guilty!"

She was a young lady wearing a light blue satin dress. The tail feather on her exquisite hat had broken in the middle and was drooping. She had one hand spread out and a stone in the other.

It turned out that the stone that just knocked down the scumbag was thrown by her.