Read One Word From You: A Pride and Prejudice Adaptation for Free Online Page A

really should have been pulled up on lying to a teacher, but Jenny’s mother liked me enough that she talked them out of sending me to detention.
     
    She even got me some time off my afternoon classes so I could visit her during her stay in the hospital.
     
    “ I feel like some terminally ill patient,” Jenny complained a few days later.
     
    I closed the book I had been reading aloud, a copy of A Room With A View, and reached out to flick her cheek gently. She pouted, and I said, “You’re fine. Before you know it, you’ll be back at school, and seeing Charlie again.”
     
    “ I know,” she said, and spared a blush, “But I meant because you keep coming to read for me. It’s like you think I’m never getting out of here. Don’t you have anything better to do?”
     
    “ Nope. Like I said, you’re stuck with me.”
     
    Jenny reached out to take my hand, “I’m sorry that you were almost in trouble because of me.”
     
    “ You should be sorry for getting so bloody sick in the first place.”
     
    “ Well, I am,” she said, “Hospital food is disgusting.”
     
    “ I doubt that...”
     
    She was in a private room, with highly paid doctors and nurses checking on her almost hourly. There was nothing disgusting or cheap about anything that happened in the hospital. Had she been in the care of a government institution, she might have been forced to suffer some very questionable meals indeed.
     
    “ Could you do me a favour?” she asked.
     
    “ Depends on what it is.”
     
    “ Can you smuggle me some chocolate from the vending machine, please?”
     
    “ I think I can manage that,” I laughed, “But if I get caught, it was your idea.”
     
    I didn’t like leaving her, but what was I meant to do? She was the one sick in bed, and I was at her command until I headed back to school. I set the book down in my chair once I had vacated it, and left the room. I thought she might get bored on her own, but it wasn’t worth bringing in hundreds of things for her to do, not when she wouldn’t be there for more than a week. Besides, she was supposed to be resting.
     
    I glanced at the clock on the way to the nearest waiting room. Classes would have concluded, and usually Jenny and I would be chatting on my bed, or I would be teasing her about her feelings for Charlie. Well, so long as she wasn’t off with Chantelle anywhere. I didn’t like that she’d let Jenny go off on her own in the rain. In fact, I really rather blamed her for the whole incident. She’d invited the girls out in the first place, even though the weather was going to be foul.
     
    She was so bloody stupid.
     
    “ Beth!” Charlie greeted as he crossed the waiting room.
     
    I turned away from the vending machine, where I was pondering over which lump of sugar Jenny would prefer. I looked him up and down, and asked, “What are you doing here?”
     
    “ I - I thought that I would check up on Jenny. How is she?”
     
    “ She’s a little better,” I said, “But I think it’ll be a few more days before she’s back. Are you here on your own?”
     
    “ No, I brought Chantelle and William with me.”
     
    Crap.
     
    I forced a smile, “Well, she’ll be happy to see them. I think I’m boring her.”
     
    “ I can’t imagine that’s true.”
     
    “ I don’t know. I’ve been reading to her, and it’s a classic book. She’ll probably enjoy something a little different.”
     
    “ Well,” Chantelle said as she sauntered over, “I can’t say I’m surprised. You’re so boring, Blake. You only like sticking your nose in books, and nothing else at all.”
     
    I raised a brow, “I like a lot of things. I’m not one track minded, unlike some other people I could mention.”
     
    Charlie cleared his throat quietly. To ease the mounting tension, he asked, “Where’s her room?”
     
    “ It’s down the hall, number forty-two. Make sure you knock before you go in, okay?”
     
    “ You’re not coming with us?” he