Page 27 of He Insulted My Entire Family Before Proposing

There. Warmth, sudden and dangerous.

He continued before she had to answer. "Bingley means to ask your sister to marry him this morning. He told me because he once allowed my certainty to govern him, and he wished me to know he would not do so again."

Elizabeth's hand flew to her mouth.

"He is asking her now, I believe," Darcy said. "If she accepts him, I thought you should hear it first from Jane, not from me."

For a moment the whole world became Jane's possible happiness.

Elizabeth laughed, then nearly cried, then laughed again because crying in front of Darcy still seemed like conceding too much territory.

"If she accepts him?"

"With any justice, she will," he said. "But the choice is hers."

Elizabeth did cry then, though only a little. Darcy produced a handkerchief so promptly that she looked at him through tears with suspicion.

"Were you prepared for female emotion?"

"I live with a sister."

"That is not the same as understanding women."

"No. But it has taught me to carry linen."

She laughed and took it.

For a few steps, they walked in silence. Jane might be engaged even now. Bingley might be restored. One great injury had not been erased, but it had been answered. Elizabeth felt something loosen in her chest that had been tight since Colonel Fitzwilliam's careless revelation.

"I owe you thanks," she said.

"No."

"No?"

"Bingley must make his own choice. Your sister must make hers. I only stopped obstructing him and told the truth."

"That is more than many men manage."

"It is less than I owed."

She looked at him carefully. "You are becoming difficult to quarrel with."

"I would not presume to deprive you of the exercise entirely."

They had reached the little bench beneath the elm. Darcy stopped.

"Miss Elizabeth, I have one more correction to make. It cannot be made fully here, because the damage was not done only here."

Elizabeth's pulse altered. "What do you mean?"

"I spoke of your family to Bingley and others with arrogance. I allowed my opinions to be known in ways that injured you and your sisters. Caroline Bingley repeated them because I had made them repeatable."

"Yes."

The word cost her. His face showed that he knew it.

"There is to be an assembly at Meryton next week," he said.