“I asked her again because I still loved her, and I had reason to believe she would say yes.” He dearly hoped to avoid direct questions about what happened in Dartford.
Mr Bennet must have had an equally trying day, but he showed no sign of ending his questioning. “My concern, Mr Darcy, is that Lizzy is quick and lively, and not passive like some men might expect a wife to be. She could lose herself if she marries unequally,” he said heavily, looking him in the eye.
“I think Elizabeth will be just as much herself when she is Mrs Darcy as she is now, just as opinionated, just as charming, just as confident,” Darcy said, leaning forward in his chair. “We are equals.”
“I suppose you must see it that way if you allowed her to proceed with this reckless scheme,” he coolly replied.
“I would have gone in her place if I could have,” he said, struggling to keep his patience amid his frustration and exhaustion. “Besides, would you want her to marry a man who would subdue her, control her, disagree with her simply becauseshe is a woman? Would you want her to marry a man she felt compelled to defer to?”
“In general? No. But in the case of offering herself up to be harmed to lure out a murderer, then yes.”
Darcy dropped his head. As much as she had made her own choice, as much as she needed to be a part of the solution, it still hurt him that she had been in danger. “We thought he would trade her for his nephew and the excise men would arrest him,” he said quietly. “We never considered that he would kill a child.”
“He might have killed Lizzy; what would you have done then?”
“I would have gone after Markle and brought hell with me,” he said darkly, raising his head to stare at Mr Bennet. “And blamed myself for her death for the rest of my life.”
Darcy was prepared to spend the rest of the night conquering Mr Bennet’s incredulity until he reconciled himself to the match, but the older man nodded and said, “I give my consent. My blessing I reserve for after I see how you are with one another at Longbourn. I am taking Lizzy home as soon as the surgeon says she can travel. You are welcome to follow us, and you might as well bring your friend Bingley if all the hints the Gardiners have mentioned have any value.”
It took him a moment to realise the matter was at a close, that he could marry Elizabeth. “I will do what I must for you to approve of me,” he said earnestly.
“Well, you have secured Lizzy’s approval, which will go a long way to securing mine.” Mr Bennet held out his hand, and Darcy was grateful to take it.
“May I say good night to Elizabeth?” he asked as they walked toward the door.
“And tell her the good news, I suppose?”
If he was already saying their engagement was good news, Darcy supposed Mr Bennet’s reservations might not be as strong as he had feared. “With your permission.”
“Very well.” They left the drawing room, and he gestured vaguely toward the stairs. “There was no good to be expected when I left Longbourn today, but now I return to it with a rich husband for Lizzy and possibly another for Jane. Mrs Bennet will be pleased.”
Darcy thought Mr Bennet a strange mixture of caprice and sarcastic humour, but he would have to take the pains to get to know him and all of Elizabeth’s family. When he knocked and entered her room, she was lying on her side away from him, but she lifted her head when he spoke.
“Your father said I could?—”
Elizabeth laid back down and reached her hand behind her. When he hesitated, she beckoned him with her fingers.
“This is a terrible idea,” he said, smiling as he pulled off his boots. “I would like the Gardiners and your father to not hate me more than they already do.”
He laid on the bed behind her, above the sheets, and when he took her hand, she wrapped his arm tightly around her. The tension in his shoulders relaxed, and he felt her give a long sigh of relief.
“It feels right to lie in bed together.”
“It does,” he agreed, meaning it more deeply than those two words could express. “How are you feeling?”
“Now I only have a throbbing headache,” she said in a voice that was still hoarse. “And I am mortified that I announced everything in that dreadful way.”
“It was not your fault,” he said into her hair. “Besides, it was only natural for you to be glad to be alive.”
“I had fifty alternations between hope and terror during the time I realised Markle intended to kill me and the time I fainted from the smoke.”
He felt tears in his eyes, and he squeezed them shut. “Tell me what happened.”
“Markle suspected you were coming. I had just learnt he was going to kill me no matter what, that he would punish you by killing me. When I heard someone outside, I called your name, and in an instant, he decided what to do. The smoke filled in slowly, but I felt dizzy and confused and boiling. I remember staying low on the floor because it was easier to breathe, and slamming my hands against the door.”
“You must have been terrified.”
“I am certain you were too,” she said softly, giving his knuckles a quick kiss. “The whole time I was with him, you must have been terrified.”
