Sir Edward began to wax poetical about the suspicions he had harbored but Elizabeth did not hear a word. She stared atMr. Darcy, who began to look a bit abashed at his admission. He offered her a rueful smile. “Yes.”
Across the room, Emma was shamelessly attempting to listen to them, and Mr. Darcy frowned at her. “Sir Edward, I believe Miss Bennet is entitled to a modicum of privacy at such a moment, do you not agree? We have another hour of daylight, and I wish to walk with her on the battlements, if she will permit it.”
“This, you ask me,” she muttered with disbelief. She did not wait for Sir Edward’s consent before retrieving her bonnet and pelisse, and hastening from the room with Mr. Darcy behind her.
As soon as they were in the corridor, Elizabeth rounded on Mr. Darcy. “You love me?”
“Most ardently,” he said, his voice husky with emotion. He took her hands in his and gazed at her with anxiety.
Elizabeth stammered, a thousand questions on her tongue. “How… how is that possible?”
Mr. Darcy stroked her hands with his fingers. “I was very moved by the care you showed your sister at Netherfield.”
“Netherfield!” Elizabeth gasped. “That was a year ago.”
“Yes. I often observed your bright wit and charm in company, as well as your intelligence and lively turn of mind, and admired deeply you for all these qualities, and countless others. I have already told you how well I enjoyed our lively debates, and what it meant to me to dance with you at the ball.”
Elizabeth stared up at him in a state of wonderment, as if waking up from a dream. Everything shifted into place at once, in an instant of overpowering comprehension. Since the moment he had seen her in the parlor four days ago, Mr. Darcy had never been more than a dozen paces away from her, itseemed. He was determined to attach himself to her at every opportunity. He had confided in her with tremendous feeling, and had given her sage and tender counsel when she sought it – when she sought it from the man she had come to esteem.
Yet when he flirted with her, she dismissed it as a gallant attempt to ease her distress. She had refused to think more of it, and yet she had savored every moment.
There could be no denying what passed between them in the billiard room. She had known, at last, that he felt something for her, and she had reciprocated every sentiment with astonishing elation. “But… why did you never tell me?”
His face twisted with agony. “Will you walk with me? There is much to say, if you will hear me.”
She linked her arm through his. “I will.”
For a few minutes he was silent, and she could perceive that he was considering where to begin, choosing his words carefully, as he was ever inclined to do. She smiled to herself as she considered how well she had come to understand the man she once despised; she now thought his manners and mannerisms just what they ought to be.
They climbed the stairs in the turret and when they went out onto the battlements, the vibrant sky was a shock after so many days of stormy gray. A sense of peace washed over Elizabeth as Mr. Darcy laid his hand atop hers, which held fast to his arm.
“I left Netherfield abruptly; you already know why,” Mr. Darcy said as they slowly strolled along the battlements.
“Your poor sister,” Elizabeth sighed. “You have been entirely devoted to her since her ordeal.”
“I hope I have. But there has not been a day at Pemberley when I did not think of some occasion when your eyes shonewith clever mischief, or repeat to Georgiana some jest you once made. I had thought my two months at Netherfield brief enough that I would forget about what I had felt there. When the countless recollections never relented, I grieved for what I thought lost to me. I could not leave Georgiana to return to you, and I certainly could not ask you to bind yourself to a family imperiled by the threat of scandal.”
Elizabeth was overcome by the thought of Mr. Darcy pining for love of her over the last year, while she had been unaware all the while. She was utterly speechless, and desperate to hear more, to make sense of it all.
“When I turned around and saw you here, I thought my chest would explode, Elizabeth. And then in an instant I recalled what brought me here, and wondered why you could be here. I felt a sense of danger so overpowering I nearly took you in my arms before I had saidgood evening. From wretched misery at being amongst such an awkward party, to perfect joy at discovering the person I should most want to see again in all the world, here to preserve me from the agony of my own awkwardness.”
Mr. Darcy shook his head with a rueful chuckle. “And then from delight to confusion and concern that you should be connected at all to the general and his schemes. I hardly know what I said to you the first night we were here, I could only think of remaining close to you, to protect you as much as to bask in your miraculous presence."
Tears spilled freely down Elizabeth’s cheeks, and she made no effort to brush them away. She could not take her eyes off of Mr. Darcy, could scarcely believe what he was telling her… and how pleased she was to hear it.
“I thought of you at once when Bingley wrote to me, and the greatest inducement in accepting his invitation, as I plannedto do, would have been to see you. It was a loss to me, that I was obliged to postpone the visit after being summoned here, and then… there you were.”
“I have been entirely unaware of your feelings, sir,” Elizabeth said. “I thought you disliked me and looked at me only to find fault.”
“I gave you cause,” he admitted with a heavy sigh. “I never meant what I said, nor imagined you would hear me. When I actually looked at you properly, I was chagrined to discover you the handsomest woman of my acquaintance.”
Elizabeth gave him a wicked smile. “That must have seemed a terrible inconvenience.”
He chuckled softly. “I believe it was always in my nature to be so dismayed at discovering myself to be in love, when the day finally came that my heart was captured. I had no notion that I would ever be so thoroughly beguiled, and then so suddenly prevented from attaining my desire.”
She drew in a deep breath. “Attaining your desire?”
“You are too generous to trifle with me, Elizabeth. It may surprise you to learn the duration of my regard, but surely you have understood my feelings since last we walked the battlements together. Please, tell me I have not imagined that you feel what I do.”
