Page 39 of Elizabeth Bennet Says Yes to Mr. Darcy

When he returned to me, I did not try to joke.

“She loves you very much.”

“And I her more.”

“I see it.”

His hand clenched slightly at his side.

“Her history has not turned you away from me?”

“It has turned me away from my good opinion of myself.”

“That was not my intention.”

“I know. That is why the lesson was so effective.”

He lowered his voice.

“Elizabeth, I would give much to erase the pain my letter caused you.”

“It caused me shame. Truth is rarely responsible for that; only the error that precedes it deserves the blame.”

He looked at me with a tenderness so evident that my breath faltered.

“You are more generous toward me than toward yourself.”

“Do not grow accustomed to either.”

This time, he smiled openly.

I realized I loved that smile precisely because it was rare.

Chapter 13

Elizabeth

Mr. Darcy’s first kiss was neither planned nor entirely imprudent.

It took place three days after the Netherfield dinner, at the end of a walk that should have lasted an hour and lasted nearly three.

Jane and Mr. Bingley were to accompany us. At the last moment, my mother detained Jane to choose ribbons for the bridesmaids’ dresses. Bingley, learning of this delay, said he would wait for his fiancée. Mr. Darcy could have stayed with him.

Yet he arrived at Longbourn at the appointed hour.

“I fear our walk may be cancelled,” I told him.

“Why?”

“We have no chaperone.”

He looked at Kitty and Mary, settled in the drawing room. Mary was reading. Kitty was applying herself diligently to boredom.

“Miss Catherine could accompany us.”

Kitty raised her head, then noticed the threatening rain beyond the windows.

“I prefer to stay. It’s going to rain.”