Page 19 of The Engagement at Longbourn

“I am struggling to find a way in which it does not.”

She folded her arms. “Would you rather I had let him move until the bone came through again?”

“No.”

“Then there you are.”

“There I am.”

His gaze sharpened. Elizabeth knew that look. Her father had noticed something.

“What?”

“You are blushing.”

“I am not.”

“You are. There is more.”

“No.”

“Lizzy.”

She looked away.

Mr. Bennet’s humour vanished. “What did he do?”

“He kissed me.”

Silence. “He did what?”

“He was delirious.”

“That condition is becoming very convenient for Mr. Darcy.”

“He had just proposed. I had just agreed. He believed me his intended.”

Mr. Bennet paced once to the window and back. “Did he force you?”

“No.” Elizabeth answered at once. “No, Papa. He caught me by surprise, but it was only a kiss. Then he lost consciousness.”

Her father’s mouth thinned. “He should not have done it.”

“No.”

“Yet a dazed man, believing his proposal accepted…”

“Yes.”

Mr. Bennet rubbed his forehead. “This is precisely why I prefer books. They rarely propose marriage after falling from horses.”

Elizabeth laughed despite herself. He looked at her for a long time. “Do you want to marry him?”

“No.”

The answer came quickly.

Too quickly, perhaps.