Page 39 of Courting Elizabeth

“She asked whether you intended to dine with us or whether Pemberley had developed a crisis requiring your confinement.”

“I was not confined.”

She turned the door handle.

“Naturally.”

I followed shortly after, irritated at having become so transparent to my sister.

Elizabeth stood near a library window, an open book in her hand. The fading sun lit her profile. She had changed her dress for dinner; the dark blue set off the whiteness of her skin and the warm brown of her hair.

She did not immediately close her book.

“Has your estate survived?” she asked.

“Barely.”

“Shall I congratulate you on your courage?”

“You could begin by looking at me.”

She closed the book.

“You spent the entire day not looking at me.”

“Because I knew what would happen if I did.”

Her expression grew more attentive.

“And what will happen?”

I approached until only the table separated us.

“You asked me to kiss you.”

“I had noticed.”

“Do you still wish me to?”

She set the book on the window ledge.

“Yes.”

The word cut through my restraint.

I walked around the table. She did not move when I stopped before her, but her fingers tightened slightly on her skirt.

“Are you afraid?”

“A little.”

“Of me?”

“Of not understanding what this will change.”

“Then we will stop before it changes too much.”

A nervous smile touched her lips.