Page 5 of He Insulted My Entire Family Before Proposing

"That is not an unjust description."

"You are loyal."

"I am fond of him."

"Those are not always the same thing."

The colonel laughed despite himself. "No. They are not."

They reached a stile, and Elizabeth set one hand upon it, not crossing. The lane beyond bent toward a field where early grass shone with that tender green that always looked too innocent for human company. She felt the temptation to ask everything. What exactly had Darcy said of Jane? Had he named the Bennets? Had he mocked her mother? Had he laughed?

She disliked herself for caring whether he had laughed.

The colonel seemed to guess something of the battle. "Darcy is not a man who laughs at people's pain."

"That is almost worse."

"Worse?"

"If he had laughed, I could despise him and be done. But if he injured Jane solemnly, with principles, then he will expect admiration for the wound."

The colonel had no ready answer.

Elizabeth crossed the stile. He followed.

"Do you know," she said, "whether Mr. Bingley was told the lady did not care for him?"

"That was my impression."

"And the proof?"

"Darcy thought her manner serene."

"Jane's manner is serene when she is delighted, distressed, tired, feverish, or surrounded by idiots. It is one of her virtues and, I begin to see, a public danger."

This time the colonel's laugh was helpless. "You defend your sister fiercely."

"Somebody must. She defends everyone else."

They walked a little farther. Elizabeth had the strange sensation that she was both collecting proof and losing ground. Each new fact strengthened her anger and weakened the comfort of uncertainty. Yesterday she could suspect. Today she could know.

"There may have been other considerations," he said.

"My family."

He did not deny it.

Elizabeth nodded. "My mother is foolish in public. My younger sisters are foolish whenever opportunity permits. My father hides from foolishness by laughing at it. We are not a solemn family. I concede the charge."

"Miss Elizabeth -"

"But we are people, Colonel. Not stains. Not blots upon a family tree. Not something from which your cousin must rescue his friend."

"I know it."

"Does he?"

The question hung between them.