Page 88 of A Prudent Engagement

“Oh my! He was? But why?”

“For some reason, he thought that you did not think well of me, and that it would help for you to be given a reason to think better of me.”

“But—” Elizabeth giggled. “No, no. How would that have aided in improving my opinion of you? You make me suspect that he hoped to separate us forever.”

That made Darcy frown. “No…he would not…”

Elizabeth laughed again. “He does seem firmly attached to you. I doubt he meant to harm you in such a way.”

“No, not even as a joke.” Darcy shook his head. “I rather wonder though—he ought to have suspected that if you knew Bingley, you must have known the woman that he had meant to marry. In any case, I think if I had offered for you the day after you received such news, you would have refused me in a manner that would have left me no hope of convincing you to ever reverse your decision.”

Elizabeth winced. “Yes. I do see. Yes—when I did end our engagement, it was in the most encouraging manner that one might do such a thing.”

“You said that you ended it because you would only marry me if I was happy in the situation. My only regret is that it took me until the following evening to realise that I was likely still able to win your affections—or more precisely that I already had them.”

“I had to release you when I realised that you were the man I loved.” Elizabeth looked at him softly and with an open vulnerability in her expression.

He put his hand on her cheek, and she nestled against it.

They kissed gently, there on the open road, and she then pressed her head against his chest.

Darcy held her tight. “Not so much time has passed that I can laugh at the memory, even though you have rightly said that there was much of the ridiculous in it.”

Instead of returning immediately to Longbourn, they walked in a big circle around the estate.

After a little time, Elizabeth said, “It is silly, but I wish to find some hope in this imagined case where Papa did not die. You are not, by chance, one of those gentlemen who think that out of a fancy of increasing their ardour, women frequently refuse the man they mean to marry on the first application?”

“Jove! What?” Darcy exclaimed in surprise. Then seeing Elizabeth’s sparkling eyes and mischievous smile, he asked, “Collins?”

“Quite.”

Darcy shook his head. “I often wonder how Mrs. Collins determined to accept the offer of such a man.”

“I judged her for a long time for her choice.” Elizabeth shrugged. “She is my dearest friend, and I understand her now better than I did before. That is not to say that I would have ever accepted such a man but that it was not reprehensible for her to do so.”

“Unfortunately,” Darcy said, smiling despite the awfulness of the possibility they discussed, “I would have done you the honour of treating your words seriously if you had refused me in no uncertain terms. I would have left Rosings the next day, full of heartbreak but with no plan of ever seeking your company again.”

“Oh well,” Elizabeth said, clearly as cheerful as he was. “I do not believe that I ever really disliked you. Or, I did, but it was a dislike which had a great deal of admiration mixed with it, while my dislike for Mr. Collins has none at all.”

“A great deal of admiration mixed with it,” Darcy replied with a smile. “I like that description. And it precisely explains how I have come to understand it—perhaps we would have met by chance again. I believe that I would have listened to your criticisms of my character and sought to improve myself.”

“You assume I would have offered advice on proper conduct whilst refusing your hand?”

“There is no question.”

Elizabeth laughed.

Darcy smiled happily at her. “My dear, I promise that I would have used such words as I offered for you that would have led you to be justly uncivil in return.”

And she laughed again. “So then when we met by chance and I saw your improved manners, my opinion of you would have been softened. I agree upon the likelihood. But when would we have met?”

“Perhaps in London.”

“But we move in such different circles,” Elizabeth replied. “I know! I meant to go with Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner to the Lakes this summer, but Mrs. Gardiner only now wrote to me that the length of the trip has needed to be curtailed, and they hope to spend the time in Derbyshire, specifically in Lambton where she grew up.”

“And we would have met during their time there, even though I do not frequent the town. It would have been impossible for such a happy chance to have failed.” Darcy smiled. “Write to them and beg them to stay at Pemberley while in the neighbourhood. It is only five miles to Lambton, and they would have free use of the carriage.”

“You mean that?”