Page 89 of Telling Me What My Heart Meant

It wasn’t until much later, in the dark of night, that he came to the door of my bedchamber, holding a candle.

“I have been watching you,” he said. “Staying out of sight, simply observing, trying to make sure that you were all right. I have kept pace with your journey north, so I arrived here today at the same time as you did. There was concern of harm, you see. My aunt said that Anne was never the same, and then she said this awful thing to me that it was her presence with Anne that had caused it and that I must leave you alone for your own good—”

“You have been skulking about in the shadows all this time!” This might explain why I kept feeling as if he was there, all the time, mightn’t it? Why I kept looking up and expecting him tobe there, though he never was. I had been seeing him out of the corner of my eye, no doubt. “Also, your aunt sent me the watch.”

“Did she?” He was astonished.

“It had a letter,” I said. “I think I still have it.” I got up to sort through my belongings to find it. I gave it to him.

He read it, shaking his head. “I am all astonishment. To think my aunt could do something out of the goodness of her heart.”

“Oh, she expects us to pay her a great deal of gratitude. She has been quite clear about how much we owe her.”

“She says that we need never mention it,” he said, pointing at the letter.

“Yes, but that is not what shemeans,” I said. “Goodness, Will, you are hopeless with people, are you not?”

He chuckled. “This is why I need you.”

“Anyway,” I said, “go back and fill me in to what you have been up to. You have been following me, you say, for months.”

“Yes, well, it seemed clear you did not remember,” he said. “Also, you didn’t seem damaged, but I was… I don’t know… waiting.” He lifted a shoulder. “Bingley is going back to Netherfield, he says. He plans to be there in September. I thought I could go along with him, and that seemed enough time to observe you. But then, if all was well, we could renew our—”

“September?” I clenched my hands into fists. “You would have left me until September?”

“Well, it matters not. You are here now, and we shall be married as soon as the banns can be read.” He gave me a shy smile. “Do you approve of Pemberley? Could you like it here?”

“Do I approve of…?” I glared at him.

“Well, if there are things you don’t like, perhaps they can be altered. I should be quite happy to allocate whatever funds you might need—”

“You are impossible, Will Darcy,” I said, but my voice was breathy.

“Am I?”

“And you have still not proposed to me properly,” I said in an imperious voice.

“Ah, indeed,” he said. “Well, every time I ask, you say no.”

“You must keep asking,” I said. “You must do it again. And again. And again.”

“All right,” he said. “I shall propose every Thursday, then? How will that suit you?”

“Every Thursday,” I said with a smile. “Without fail.”

He reached out to brush his fingertips over my jaw. “We shall spend every Thursday together, then.”

“Yes,” I said. “And every Friday and every Saturday and Sunday and Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday as well.”

“It will be quite a novel experience, I think, every day together, but every daydifferent.”

“Oh, yes,” I said.

And then he kissed me.

~