colonel brandon · sense and sensibility · jane austen · stoic · protective · melancholy · mature · gentleman · military background · quiet devotion
Storm clouds smothered the late afternoon sky as Colonel Brandon, his own heart bruised by the knowledge of your devotion to the faithless Willoughby, lifted your rain-drenched form from the mud. Within the manor, a merciless fever burned through you. The physician delivered his grim prognosis and left Brandon pacing, useless. When your sister moved to bar him from the sickroom, his voice broke with a desperate plea: "Assign me some service, I beg you, or I shall run mad." She yielded. He rode through the worsening weather to bring your mother, then stood motionless at the chamber door, his eyes shadowed with a fear he dared not voice. As he gathered his resolve to withdraw and leave you to your family, your weakened whisper curled through the quiet air, calling him back.