Page 22 of He Insulted My Entire Family Before Proposing

"I would not advise him to test you."

"You advise him now?"

"Only to think for himself."

"A radical program."

Darcy stood beside her, leaving a careful distance. "Miss Elizabeth, I cannot ask you to forget what I said at Hunsford."

"Good."

"Nor what I did before it."

"Better."

"But I hope, in time, you might believe that I understand why it was wrong."

Elizabeth watched Jane smile in the garden. "Understanding is a beginning."

"And not an end."

"You are improving at answers."

"I have had a severe instructor."

"You chose the course."

He looked at her with warmth so restrained it nearly undid her. "I am glad I was not permitted to withdraw."

Elizabeth should have replied lightly. She could have. Several excellent replies presented themselves for employment.

Instead she said nothing.

Outside, Jane and Bingley turned at the end of the path and began walking back toward the house, side by side, not yet restored but no longer separated by other people's certainty.

Elizabeth thought of her list. Public insult. Continued contempt. Interference. Proposal as condescension. Explanation without apology. The list remained true.

But a new line had begun beneath it, written in no ink she could admit to owning, and she did not yet know what to call it.

CHAPTER 8

Lady Catherine de Bourgh arrived at Longbourn two days later, late in the afternoon, having received Mr. Collins's alarmed account of a neighborhood rumor that had reached Lucas Lodge with improvements. Rank, Elizabeth discovered, could make even bad information travel with impressive speed.

She came in a carriage large enough to suggest invasion and descended from it with the expression of a woman who had never been contradicted by weather, distance, or another person's rights. Mrs. Bennet, seeing grandeur at her door, entered a state of hospitality so violent that Hill had to be sent in three directions at once.

Hill announced the visitor in a voice made thin by awe. "Lady Catherine de Bourgh, ma'am."

Before Mrs. Bennet could decide whether to curtsy, cry out, or demand why no one had warned her, Lady Catherine said, "Mrs. Bennet, I presume."

"Yes, your ladyship. What an honor. What a very unexpected honor. Lizzy, why did you not tell us? Mr. Bennet, come directly. Kitty, stand straight. Mary, do not sing."

"I have not come for ceremony," Lady Catherine said.

"No, certainly not. Though we have ham."

"I require Miss Elizabeth Bennet."

Elizabeth, who had been standing near the hall table with her gloves in hand, set them down. "Then you are fortunate, ma'am. I am rarely required by anyone with so little warning."