Page 6 of Painted with Love

Your assumption was correct, and it certainly saved my sister’s reputation. I am as grateful to you as I am ashamed of myself for all my prior wrong assumptions that hurt your own sister.

As for the matter itself, it has now been resolved, and I trust Mr Backer was as pleased with the final resolution as I am.

I would like to call on your uncle and aunt, to thank them in person, but I shall only do so if this is agreeable to you. My servant will wait for a simple yes or no from you. I shall understand if my visit would make you uncomfortable. If this is the case, I shall visit Mr Gardiner at his office.

I shall take this opportunity to mention that Bingley will finally return to London at the end of this week. He has spent an entire month at a friend’s estate, and I have had no chance to speak to him since I returned from Kent. There are many things I intend to tell him, and I shall certainly do so at the first opportunity.

Please accept my deepest gratitude for your help in my sister’s situation, as well as my sincere apologies for my interference in your own sister’s affairs and all my past wrongs.

F Darcy.

With unsteady hands, Elizabeth folded the letter and put it into her pocket. The other letter she still kept in her reticule, safe from curious eyes.

She returned to her family and said, “Mr Darcy has requested permission to call on you, Uncle. He says he wishes to thank you and my aunt.”

“Mr Darcy? Call here?” Mrs Gardiner repeated with apparent nervousness.

“Only if you agree, of course,” Elizabeth replied.

“Of course we agree. But Mr Darcy, the master of Pemberley, to call at my house is certainly not something I expected.”

“We would be honoured to receive him, of course. Should I write back to him?” Mr Gardiner enquired.

“No,” Elizabeth said, blushing. “He said a simple yes or no answer, conveyed through his servant, would be enough.”

“Then I shall speak to the servant immediately,” Mr Gardiner said, rising.

Elizabeth was in such a tumult of feelings that she could not define. The short letter contained so much significant information — more than she could have hoped for.

Mr Darcy had accepted his past errors and was ready to make amends for them. And he had clearly stated that he had intended to speak to Mr Bingley since he returned from Kent, undoubtedly about Jane. Could she hope for such a positive turn of events? Should she tell Jane? Or perhaps she should wait and see whether Mr Bingley would act on Mr Darcy’s confession.

She was eager to read the letter again, but it was not the time for it yet as her cousins requested her attention, and even Jane looked curious and thoughtful. And first of all, she had to calm herself, as her heart was pounding so hard that she imagined everybody must be able to hear it.