Book excerpt: Proud… Not proud… Proud… Elizabeth Bennet is visiting her friend Charlotte—now Mrs. Collins—at Hunsford when they are invited to Rosings Park, the luxurious estate of Mr. Collins’ matron, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. To her surprise, she meets a former acquaintance there, one she never would have expected to see again—Mr. Darcy! It turns out that Mr. Darcy is the nephew of Lady Catherine, and is now visiting his aunt with his younger sister, Georgiana. Elizabeth becomes quick friends with the spirited young girl, who is not at all as proud as a certain Mr. Wickham once described. There is however a person at Rosings Park who treats her with uttermost arrogance—but it isn’t Mr. Darcy. In fact, it is Mr. Darcy whose company provides an easy respite from the suffocating atmosphere of Rosings Park. Slowly, Elizabeth starts to see a different side to the man whom she had once considered proud and arrogant. But is this the true Mr. Darcy after all? The Garden of Roses is a sweet, clean romance novella suitable for all lovers of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.