He was still smiling. “Darcy, you are the most principled man I have ever met. How are you not furious with me?”
“Because I am too happy to learn that you think you could love me,” he said with another laugh. He looked absolutely delighted. “I do not even care that you first admired me through our anonymous correspondence.”
She felt lost in amazement. Darcy was truly already in love with her? “But you have only noticed me this week. Until then, I was only tolerable.”
He shook his head and squeezed her hand. “I thought you were pretty, but your character gave charm to your beauty, and I was captivated before I left Hertfordshire. I was foolishly afraid of my feelings for you and tried to forget you, but I was entirely bewitched. Bewitched by your liveliness, your cleverness, your generosity.”
Darcy had trailed off and leant forward with an intent look in his eyes.
“But what about Mrs Sullivan?” she cried when he was nearly at her lips.
He drew back with a look of complete astonishment. “What about her?”
“You have hardly been apart. I have never seen you give so much notice to any woman, including me—and you claim to admire me.”
“Love you,” he corrected.
She felt her cheeks heat, and a smile threatened to burst her lips wide open. “I value my friendship with Mrs Sullivan, so ifyou have any feelings for her, you must tell me now, and then you must choose. I know I was not honest with you about the letters, and I should have been, but I deserve the truth now, just as you deserved the truth then.”
He was quiet for a moment as he studied her face. The suspense was intolerable.
“I must break a confidence to answer that, but I cannot have you believe I am attached to another woman. Mrs Sullivan and Colonel Fitzwilliam found one another through the matchmaking subscription. His parents are against the union, and I have been trying to know her better and be seen as though I approve of her for my cousin’s sake. I do approve of her,” he insisted. “She is a worthy woman, and I ought to be a better friend than I have been in the past. Mrs Sullivan makes Fitzwilliam happy; they can talk about horses all day long, and she is conversant enough to keep up with him, and has enough money for them to live on.”
A few tears of relief fell from her eyes. Mrs Sullivan was attached to Darcy’s cousin, not him. He was trying to be a better friend to his cousin than he had been to Bingley.
“They are secretly engaged,” he added, as though he thought her silence was from confusion and not at the realisation that nothing stood in the way of her being with Darcy.
She gave him a look she hoped he understood. She wanted to show him all the love and esteem she felt for him. “You cannot know how happy I am to hear that.”
“I want to be the man you see when you look at me,” he murmured, stroking her cheek. “I want to be worthy of having you look at me like that. I am exceedingly sorry for the selfish way I acted, for separating Bingley from your sister.”
“It is all in the past,” she whispered, now grinning. “And I am so sorry for abandoning you at The Green Park. I should have admitted sooner that you were writing to me all along.” She gavea relieved sigh. “I never thought you cared for me at all before the lecture.”
“There is only one woman I want, and it is not L or Mrs Sullivan. Will you comfort me and counsel me, lighten my cares, strengthen my principles?” He moved his hand to hold her cheek. “Love me always?”
“Yes.” There was surely nothing that felt so gladdening as the certainty of reciprocal affections. “Nothing would make me happier than to return your love.”
Darcy bent his head for a kiss, and her pulse quickened. His warm lips sent a shiver through her. She gave way beneath him, breathing him in while Darcy took his time, gently kissing her. One hand crept up his chest until it reached his shoulder, and her other hand tucked around his waist.
Darcy brought a hand to cup the base of her neck. His mouth moved over hers, delicately at first, and then she allowed his tongue to slip between her lips. Her breath hitched, and when he lifted his head, his eyes were closed. He must have been waiting for the unsteadiness of his own breathing to pass.
Opening his eyes, he gently cupped her face in both of his hands. “I should have told you at the lecture that I love you and want to marry you.” He gave another smile, an expression of heartfelt delight diffusing over his face. “I did not even realise you cared for me until the lecture.”
“That is because I stupidly did not tell you I was L and that I had begun to love you through our letters,” she said, smiling.
“I cannot believe you even liked me after the selfish way I acted.”
Elizabeth laughed and pressed a quick kiss against his lips. “And I cannot believe you liked me all along!”
Footsteps crossed the nave below them, and they reluctantly drew apart. By unspoken agreement, they made their way to the steps. About halfway down, Elizabeth felt Darcy’s silence.
“Are you pensive?” she asked. “Are you worried about how we will explain ourselves to the others? Jane knows all of my trials and heartache, which I fully admit are of my own making.”
“No, that shall all be explained after I speak to your aunt and uncle,” Darcy said, grazing the side of his knuckle up and down her arm as he spoke, sending a thrill straight to her heart. “I am wondering what I shall tell Fitzwilliam.”
“Will he not approve of me?”
Darcy shook his head. “He knows I love you, but I believed I had no hope. Last month, I told him I would never find someone to love me through the matchmaking service. Although we met in person, you got to know me through the letters, and now I will never hear the end of his saying ‘I told you so.’”
