Bellevere House (Vintage Jane Austen)

by Sarah Scheele

  “You know, Helene liked you very much,” he added, reflectively. “She liked all of us. I wish in particular she’d been able to talk with Dan Halwell more. I’m sure she could have changed her views about faith. Maybe she still will someday.”

  “I’m sure she will too,” Faye smiled at him. “And I liked that you spent time with her. It kept me from having to try to impress you. I’m so stupid, I could never do that. She did the talking and I picked up after her. Helene and I were a good team.” She batted her eyelashes nervously at him. “I don’t know how to talk to you on my own. I’m so clumsy.”

  Ed gently pulled her to face him. She could feel his breath on her neck, revel in the scent of his aftershave and his hovering real presence. Of their own volition her eyes closed.

  “Well, maybe you won’t have to talk much at all,” he teased.

  Then their lips fell into each other, lush, warm, yet somehow so very familiar. Faye felt as if she’d really been kissing Ed for years without knowing it. And he was right. She didn’t have to talk to him at all. This was much better.

  God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.

  Author’s Note

  When I began this project almost three years ago, I had a number of preconceptions about Mansfield Park. Like many other people, I viewed it as a problem among Jane Austen’s works—a novel that had some rich elements but didn’t quite pull together into a whole. It would be fun, I thought, to tease my brain into addressing the challenges of this famous novel. Once I started writing, I realized I was completely wrong. Mansfield Park is one of Austen’s wittiest, most cutting, most insightful novels. The situations people find unsatisfying are insignificant compared to the bedrock of story that surrounds them. The Bertrams and their set—their relatives, visitors, and social contacts—are very real. And when I moved them into a twentieth century setting, I realized they aren’t limited to the Regency world. They are absolutely modern as well.

  Religious issues are central to Mansfield Park, and more than in Jane Austen’s other novels the book addresses faith explicitly. While she was the daughter of a clergyman, and the church scene hums quietly in the background of most of her works, in Mansfield Park she consciously discussed the role of faith in her society. I was lucky to take on a novel that is more attuned to the interests of Christian market readers than any other one of her works. I hope some of Fanny Price’s sincere Christian belief has found its way into her twentieth century counterpart, Faye Powell.

  The Vintage Jane Austen

  Emmeline by Sarah Holman

  Suit and Suitability by Kelsey Bryant

  Bellevere House by Sarah Scheele

  Perception by Emily Ann Benedict

  Presumption and Partiality by Rebekah Jones

  Second Impressions: A Collection of Short Fiction Inspired by Jane Austen by Various Authors

  www.vintagejaneausten.com

  About the Author

  Sarah Scheele scribbled incessantly as soon as she could read and write. A heavy background—some might say an overdose—of literature during her childhood set writing into a loop she has yet to escape. That education in classics gave birth to several of her stories, including a rewrite of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park for this collection. Today she does many things with her time, but then she writes, which is the most important thing to mention in an author’s biography. Sarah lives on a farm in Texas with a ladylike cat and a tomboyish Pomeranian.

  www.sarahscheele.com