Page 174 of A Debt Inherited

“Elizabeth—”

“You had put yourself into their hands for a woman you had never met, and yet you expected her to leave you to them.”

“Your escape was the purpose of my being there.”

Elizabeth held his gaze and stepped closer. “There is something I must understand.”

“What?”

“When I spoke of what my absence might do to my name, you said that if any consequence attached to it because you were there, you would answer it.”

His eyes changed. “You remember.”

“Every word.”

He looked away.

“What did you mean?” she asked.

“I think you know.”

“I want you to say it.”

His gaze returned to hers. “Why?”

“Because there is no wall now.”

Darcy drew a slow breath. “If your reputation had suffered because we were held together, I intended to offer marriage.”

Elizabeth stared at him. “Without having seen me.”

“Yes.”

“Without knowing whether I was handsome?”

“Yes.”

“Agreeable?”

He hesitated. “I had evidence against that.”

She laughed. “Mr Darcy.”

His mouth curved.

“I would have refused you.”

“I know.”

Her brows rose. “You know?”

“You had already forbidden me to pity you. An offer made from obligation would hardly have improved matters.”

“No. I should have found it intolerable.”

“I suspected as much.”

Elizabeth looked down at their joined hands. “Kerr believed everything was a debt. Blood owed blood. My father owed suffering because someone before him had suffered.”