Page 70 of The Engagement at Longbourn

His mouth moved faintly. “I can promise to listen when you tell me I am wrong. To speak when silence would be cowardice. To respect the people who matter to you even when I do not understand them. To make Pemberley your home, not merely mine.”

Elizabeth’s throat tightened.

“Miss Elizabeth Bennet, will you marry me?”

She pretended to consider.

Darcy stared.

She let him suffer three seconds. “Yes.”

His eyes closed.

Elizabeth laughed through sudden tears. “Yes, Fitzwilliam. I will marry you.”

He opened his eyes. “May I kiss you?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“Whether you intend to faint afterward.”

He laughed.

Then he kissed her. This kiss was nothing like the first. It was careful at the beginning, almost reverent. Elizabeth touched his coat, then his shoulders. Darcy’s hand came to her cheek. When she leaned closer, restraint warmed into certainty. The world narrowed to cold air, the rough wool beneath her fingers, and the astonishing gentleness of a man she had once believed incapable of bending.

When they parted, Darcy rested his forehead against hers. “I remember the first one,” he murmured.

Elizabeth smiled. “So do I.”

“This was better.”

“Much.”

From around the bend Richard shouted, “Have you finished proposing? I am freezing.”

Elizabeth burst out laughing.

Darcy closed his eyes. “I may kill him before the wedding.”

“No. Georgiana would be upset.”

“Then afterward.”

“Perhaps.”

They walked home together, slowly because of his leg and because neither wished to hurry.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

A Real Engagement

The difference between an accidental engagement and a real one was immediately apparent to Elizabeth because her mother became twice as loud.

“Oh! At last! I mean, of course you were engaged before, but now you are properly engaged, and no one can say anything about fever or broken bones or whether a gentleman knows his own mind when half-dead. Mr. Bennet, did you hear? Lizzy has accepted him again!”

“I am in the same room, my dear.”