An Awkward Arrival, A Rewrite of Anne and Wentworth's First Meeting Alone from Charles' Perspective

For this assignment I have chosen to rewrite Anne and Wentworth’s first meeting alone, found toward the end of Chapter 9, pages 77-79 in my edition, from the perspective of Charles. Obviously this scene is important because it is the first time we get to see how Anne and Wentworth react to each other when they are alone, but I thought it would be amusing to write it from Charles’ perspective. I really loved how awkward this scene was and I also thought it might be important to take a moment to highlight that Anne is not the only one with relationship troubles. I have taken a few of the exact lines of dialogue from the book so as to preserve the facts of the original scene. 

     As Charles Hayter made his way down the drive he could not stop himself from thinking about Henrietta’s sudden change of attitude toward him. He thought back over the last several months, desperately trying to find where he had gone wrong, attempting to ascertain if he could have possibly offended her in some way, but to his dismay he kept coming up blank. If truth be told, Charles had little to feel ashamed about in regard to his own actions, for he really was the most dutiful and genuine suitor that a young girl such as Henrietta could hope to find. These self reflections cemented his conclusion even further that it was indeed the dreadful Captain Wentworth’s arrival that had caused such a change. Perhaps if the two had met under different circumstances, with Henrietta already firmly attached to himself, Charles might actually have liked the Captain, but the facts of the circumstance made him quite resolved to despise him. What further worsened the matter was that the Captain always seemed to be about the sisters. Charles was confident he needed but a moment alone to firmly re-secure Henrietta’s love, but the bothersome Captain was always near. Being such an early hour of the afternoon as it currently was, Charles was quite certain that at last he would find the girls without Wentworth’s company. He really could not bear the thought of greeting the esteemed Captain once more, and he found himself quite set against the prospect. In fact, he thought as he trudged toward the door, if the Captain somehow happened to be inside at this very moment, he was decidedly resolved to act as reserved and austere as possible. 

     A slight wave of guilt washed over him for an instant, after all, was not his soul purpose to defend Henrietta’s happiness? If she had truthfully chosen another man, who was he to stand in the way? Yet, Charles would not give up so easily. Though he may be a member of the clergy, that did not mean that at all times he possessed all virtues and was impervious to faults. At this moment he was rather strongly consumed by jealousy and pride, and had very little aspirations to correct them.

     These musings upon his personal nature evaporated almost at once upon entering the front room.  Upon seeing the Captain’s face, with all of its handsome features that seemed to have only been amplified in their admirability by their time at sea, a great pang of envy such as Charles had never felt before rose up from within him. Just as he was contemplating how best to excuse himself and turn back, Anne’s urgent greeting reached his ear.

     “How do you do? Will you not sit down? The others will be here presently.” 

     Though he noted a strange tone of desperation in her voice he found he must decline; he was in no mood to sit pleasantly within the company of the Captain. However he could not leave with the prospect of seeing his dear Henrietta so near at hand, and therefore he managed a curt reply.
     “No thank you, I’ve been feeling rather restless of late and I am inclined to stand.” 

     He felt his own agitation and hoped that it would signal the others to halt from engaging him in further pleasantries. Most alarmingly to Charles, the Captain seemed to take this statement as an invitation to cross the room and attempt to engage him in conversation. The audacity of such an action almost proved too strong for Charles’ resolve, and it was only through sheer power of will that he managed to keep his passions in check. 

     “Ah look, today’s paper! Perhaps I will sit down and read it while I wait, but over here at the table so that I am nearer the light of the window.” He quickly sat down and thrust his nose into it so as to avoid any further forced politeness. 

     The silence that ensued could have been sliced with a knife. The atmosphere of the little room became thick with it as if it were a dense fog.  Charles did his best to exude fascination with the news, but he could sense that something painful had transpired between the two preceding his arrival upon the scene. Just as he was thinking that perhaps he ought to say something, after all it was not very gentlemanly of him to allow Anne to sit in such palpable discomfort, the tense atmosphere was shattered with the entrance of the youngest Musgrove. What the little rascal lacked for in age, he certainly made up for in noise, Charles thought to himself, as the boy promptly made a spectacle out of his aunt. 

     “Walter,” she said, “get down this moment. You are extremely troublesome. I am very angry with you.”

     Charles now felt it was his duty to exert order upon the situation. “Walter,” cried Charles, “why do you not do as you are bid? Do you not hear your aunt speak? Come to me Walter, come to cousin Charles.” However, his command went unheeded and it was not until the boy’s forceful extraction by the Captain that he settled down. 

     Charles felt his cheeks grow hot at the thought of his inability to think to take such immediate action. Perhaps that is what Henrietta found so appealing in Wentworth. Charles himself, much to his displeasure, found that he could not help but feel a certain admiration for the Captain’s take charge mentality, and this unwelcome realization proceeded to worsen his mood even further.