Fan fiction - "Margaret Dashwood" by Yet Another Lady

  It was generally believed that Margaret Dashwood would not bid fair to
 equal either of her sisters. 

 As Elinor was good, and Marianne beautiful, even Margaret believed that
 she had been left but a narrow field of endeavour. Perhaps she would turn
 out to be clever, she thought, but as to how this might be accomplished, she
 had no firm idea, nor any particular plan. 
 Surely some kindly neighbour would  offer her a trip to Bath, or
 her uncle and aunt might take her into Derbyshire. An eligible
 bachelor, nay two eligible bachelors, might move into the
 neighbourhood.

 She had woven cocquelicot ribbons in her dark hair, and thought the
 effect very pretty and exotic, but on seeing her, Marianne had cried
 "Good God, you look like a Hottentot!" and Elinor had mildly suggested
 that the effect was a little outre, dear, for Hampshire.

 Her sisters were fair, Marianne blazingly so, but Margaret had dark
 skin and curly dark hair. It was an item of family history that there
 was perhaps a Spanish or Italian, or even maybe a Welch person,  among
 the ancestors of Mr Dashwood, but as the link was probably  a
 natural one, this point was not pressed. If Mrs Dashwood had not
 been a respectable woman, and had not been very much in love with her husband
 some suspicion might have resulted from Margaret's high colouring.
 Mrs Dashwood made it the purpose of her life to discourage Margaret's
 exposure to the sun, so that she would not be darker still, darker
 than was proper. Only fair women would achieve marital success, she believed;
her hopes for Marianne were high indeed, less so for Elinor, and, alas, almost nothing
 for our heroine.

My go at Austen fan-fiction. Discovered in my archives today.