Page 56 of Dear Friend

She looked back across the valley. “Because stopping seemed too much like deciding what her silence meant, and I am not yet prepared to do that.”

Darcy said nothing.

“It is foolish, perhaps,” Elizabeth said.

“No.” His answer came too quickly.

Elizabeth turned towards him.

Darcy recovered himself. “I meant only that there may be any number of explanations for a silence which have nothing to do with any conclusion you may have.”

Her expression changed slightly at that, the same searching look he had noticed more than once since meeting her. “You sound very certain.”

“Not certain.” Darcy looked towards the distant fields. “Only unwilling to condemn a person without knowing the circumstances.”

“That is charitable of you.”

If she knew the circumstances, Darcy thought, charitable would hardly be the word she chose.

Elizabeth was quiet for a moment before saying, “I think that is why I continue writing. Until I know otherwise, I would rather believe there is some explanation I have not yet been given.”

Darcy felt the full discomfort of the words, for the explanation she lacked was standing beside her.

Yet he did not give it.

Instead he asked, “You were very close with this Miss Julia then?”

Elizabeth smiled faintly. “Very.”

“I ought not to have asked that,” Darcy said. “If you have continued writing faithfully for so many months without receiving an answer, I suppose the closeness of the friendship speaks for itself.”

“More than close, in fact.” Elizabeth laughed softly. “At times, you might have mistaken us for sisters.”

Darcy smiled. “So alike?”

“Quite literally. People sometimes mistook us for twins, though there was some difference in our ages. In character, however, we could hardly have been more different. Julia was much quieter than I, and considerably more patient, which she had frequent occasion to remind me was a virtue.”

“I begin to understand why you were friends.”

Elizabeth turned towards him with mock offence. “Do you mean to suggest that I require a patient friend, Mr. Darcy?”

“I would not presume to suggest anything of the kind.”

“No, indeed. You merely allow me to arrive at the conclusion myself. Very clever.”

Darcy smiled, and they resumed their slow progress along the path. “You said she was quieter.”

“She was, though never timid. There is a difference which people are too ready to overlook.” Elizabeth’s expression softened again. “Julia did not care for large gatherings or strangers, but amongst those she loved she could be very lively. She had the most provoking habit of allowing me to argue a point at great length and then answering the whole of it with one sentence.”

“And winning?”

“Certainly not.”

Darcy raised a brow.

“Very well, occasionally.” Elizabeth conceded it with poor grace. “Though I maintain that refusing to continue an argument once one has gained the advantage is an exceedingly unfair method of winning it.”

“And you preferred to continue until your opponent surrendered?”