Elizabeth reconsidered Jane’s words, of what she stood to lose if pride and past hurts blinded her. Of this man standing open and honest before her, so different from the proud gentleman who insulted her weeks ago.
“I will.”
The smile that transformed his face was worth every moment of uncertainty.
“Thank you for giving me this chance.” He gestured at the evidence of his devotion. “For not running away when you saw all this.”
“I nearly did,” she said with a small laugh. “However, anyone who would spend this much time and effort to show me their true character deserves to be heard.”
A stone weight lifted from her heart, a weight she had not known she carried. She did not love him, not yet. Nevertheless, the beginning of it, the possibility of it…pleased her.
“I should return to Jane,” she finally said, though she did not move.
“Of course.” He did not move either.
“The others will wonder where we are.”
“They will.”
Still, neither of them moved.
Finally, with visible effort, he stepped back and opened the door. “I will escort you back to her room.”
As they left the study, Elizabeth glanced back. His valet looked up from his book with a small, knowing smile before returning to his reading. The papers on the desk lay undisturbed.
Two hands reaching toward the same piece. Two hearts moving toward the same future? She simply could not yet know the answer.
Three more pieces remained. She could hardly wait.
8
Elizabeth woke the next morning with the sixth piece tucked carefully in her reticule. There was a lightness in her chest she had not felt in weeks.
When she checked on Jane, she could not hide her growing happiness.
“You are glowing, Lizzy,” Jane said, her voice still raspy. “Sit, please. Tell me everything, I beg you.”
Elizabeth hesitated, then confessed enough.
Jane’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh, Lizzy. How wonderful.”
“I do not love him yet. Not quite. But I think… I think I might be beginning to.”
Jane squeezed her hand. “I can see it in your face. You look at him differently now.”
Elizabeth recalled him standing in the study, raw and honest. “Perhaps I am seeing him clearly for the first time. He spent weeks working on those drawings, Jane. Hours spent bent over a desk, thinking of me.”
“That is love, Lizzy.”
“Is it?” Elizabeth worried her bottom lip. “Or is it…I do not know. Fascination? Determination to win a challenge?”
Jane’s gentle laugh filled the room. “Lizzy, at Lucas Lodge, he looked at you as Mr. Bingley looks at me. That is not fascination, dearest. That is devotion.”
Elizabeth was pleased with her sister’s comment. She wanted to believe in Mr. Darcy’s devotion.
“I am frightened,” she said. “What if I am wrong about him? What if I allow myself to feel this and he…”
“What if you donotallow yourself to feel it, and you lose something precious?” Jane countered. “You have fought love enough, Lizzy. You have been cautious enough. Now is the time to simply trust.”
