Page 133 of Near Pemberley

“You truly think this would be the best course?”

He answered without hesitation. “You know it as well as I. Miss Lydia cannot safely return home. Not now. Not after what happened. Would you truly wish her tied to that man for life? For a foolish mistake of youth?” He paused. “I fear none of you has a chance of a proper future if you stay there.”

Elizabeth just stared at him.

“At Ramsgate,” Darcy continued quietly, “you would at least have the opportunity to become known for yourselves, instead of for a scandal that was never wholly your own.”

His voice softened. “You could all start anew. We must convince him.”

Elizabeth lowered her eyes. She said nothing for a long while.

At last, she whispered, “I think… you may be right.”

And what startled her most was not that Mr. Darcy had found yet another solution where she had seen only difficulties, but that she had begun to expect him to.

“Convincing my father may prove rather more difficult than finding Lydia.”

Darcy smiled faintly. “Mr. Gardiner suggested as much.”

She looked at him with a mixture of affection and resignation. “He has lived at Longbourn all his life. The Bennets have held the estate for several generations. His books are there. His habits are there. If you ask him to exchange certainty for prudence, he will almost certainly choose certainty.”

Darcy considered this. “And if I ask him to exchange comfort for his daughters’ future?”

Elizabeth studied him thoughtfully. “He would pretend not to hear you.”

Darcy looked at her with surprise on his face. “You cannot mean it.”

“Unfortunately, I do.”

“That is… difficult to defend.”

Elizabeth sighed. “Nevertheless, if he believes someone is attempting to persuade him, he immediately becomes contrary. It is almost a game with him.”

“That could be amusing, but not in this case.”

They walked a few more paces.

“So,” Darcy said, “I must allow him to persuade himself.”

Elizabeth stopped and looked at him. A smile slowly spread across her face. “You understand him astonishingly quickly.”

“I understand negotiations.”

She laughed. “You are not negotiating over an estate now.”

“No.” He looked ahead, his expression thoughtful. “I believe I am attempting to persuade a gentleman that moving to the sea is entirely his own excellent idea.”

Elizabeth laughed outright. “I should dearly like to witness that conversation.”

“So should I,” Darcy admitted. “At present, I have only the faintest notion how to accomplish it.”

“Maybe you do not have to do it all on your own.”

He looked at her questioningly.

“Let me think.”

Darcy frowned thoughtfully. “I confess I do not know how one persuades a gentleman to abandon the home in which he has lived for more than half a century.”