Page 187 of A Question of Character

Choose him alone instead of her family. Choose between present experience and past testimony.

How impossible he had made her position.

He was courting her. They were not married. Not bound by vows. He had offered affection with one hand while placing an impossible condition in the other.

The realization filled him with shame. “I have been a fool.”

The words disappeared into empty countryside.

His good opinion, once lost, was indeed lost forever.

He had quoted the sentiment often enough in his own thoughts over the years.

It had seemed wisdom.

Now he questioned whether it had become an excuse.

Could no man improve?

Had not Elizabeth herself taught him to examine his own pride?

Was he the only person capable of change?

The questions came unwelcome.

No immediate answers followed.

One conviction remained immovable.

He loved Elizabeth beyond any power of denial.

If there existed even the smallest possibility that she was right—if one honest conversation could preserve the future they both desired—then refusing to attempt it ceased to be pride.

It became cowardice.

Darcy straightened in the saddle.

Tomorrow.

He would speak to George Wickham.

Not to surrender judgment.

Not to abandon caution.

Simply to hear him.

The prospect filled him with profound reluctance.

Still, Elizabeth had asked no more than fairness.

He had promised.

Tomorrow he would keep that promise, whatever the consequence.

twenty-two

A Letter from Georgiana