Page 55 of Elizabeth Bennet Says Yes to Mr. Darcy

Darcy became perfectly still.

“You wish to end it.”

“No.”

The word hung between us, simple and complete.

He took a step, then stopped, holding to that discipline he had imposed upon his desire.

“Elizabeth, do not answer me because Georgiana moved you or because Wickham challenged you to defend me.”

“You are making this remarkably difficult to declare.”

“I want to be certain.”

“You never will be if you refuse to believe me.”

He fell silent.

I came to stand before him.

“At Hunsford, I accepted because I was afraid for my family. I had misjudged you, and you had misjudged Jane. We were both too proud to acknowledge the extent of our errors. Since then, you have repaired what could be repaired. You helped my father without demanding me as payment. You endured my mother, listened to Mary, comforted Kitty, and restored to Bingley the freedom you had taken from him. You asked before kissing me when I wished you would stop talking.”

Color rose to his face.

“Does that last truly deserve a place among my virtues?”

“It mattered a great deal.”

I took his hand.

“I am not choosing you because you are wealthy. I am not choosing you because I owe you something. I am not even choosing you because you love me, though I am vain enough to take pleasure in it. I am choosing you because I respect you, because I desire you, and because the thought of watching you leave has become more painful than all the difficulties our marriage might cause.”

His fingers closed around mine.

“Is that a yes?”

“You have not asked me a question.”

He looked at me with almost comical incredulity.

“You require a second proposal?”

“The first was very bad.”

A laugh escaped him, brief and deep. Then he knelt before me.

My heart began to beat so hard I had to hold my breath.

“Elizabeth Bennet,” he said, “I will not ask you to forget the faults I have committed nor to believe me incapable of committing others. I ask only that you allow me to continue learning from you, without expecting you to always be patient and without demanding that you cease contradicting me. I love you for your intelligence, your courage, your loyalty, your laughter, and even for the severe opinion you held of me, since it obliged me to become a man more worthy of yours. Will you share my life, Pemberley, my duties, my faults, and all that I possess, without ever believing that your freedom belongs to me?”

My eyes filled with tears.

“Yes.”

He brought my hand to his lips.

“Free of all necessity?”