“She has only just turned twenty. Her father's authority stands for another year.”
“I shall apply to him openly. I would not have it otherwise.”
Mr. Gardiner regarded him for a moment. “You know my sister and her husband as well as I. My sister will be transported for reasons that may not entirely please Elizabeth. My brother-in-law is less fond of disturbance than most men. He may not part easily with what he has grown accustomed to.”
Darcy's mouth tightened. “I suspected as much.”
“And if he refuses?” asked Mr. Gardiner.
Darcy was silent for a moment before answering. “I hope to convince him. I believe time and steadiness may do what eagerness cannot.”
“And if time does not suffice?”
Darcy drew a breath. “If we must wait until she is one and twenty, we shall wait.”
Mr. Gardiner regarded him thoughtfully. “And Scotland? It was mentioned, I think.”
“It was mentioned,” said Darcy. “Only mentioned. I hold an estate there, and the laws are less restrictive. But I would not act so without necessity.”
“You would not elope?”
“No.”
“And yet you fear losing her.”
“I do.”
“You wish,” he said, “that if matters grow strained at Longbourn, I might contrive to invite her away again. And that, in doing so, I might omit certain details of geography.”
Darcy's composure faltered enough to show he had indeed entertained the thought. “I would not ask you to act against your conscience, nor against hers. I am torn between honour and dread. I will not deceive Mr. Bennet. Yet I cannot pretend I do not consider every possible safeguard.”
“That does you credit,” said Mr. Gardiner. “Both the honour and the dread.” He crossed to the window for a moment before turning back again. “I shall speak with my wife. We must be united in whatever we undertake. But understand me clearly, Darcy; if difficulty arises, we shall not abandon Elizabeth to it.”
“Thank you.”
Mr. Gardiner opened the door. “Come. We have left the ladies long enough, and I believe my wife possesses a particular talent for discovering when gentlemen think themselves excessively strategic.”
Darcy smiled. “I have observed as much.”
When the gentlemen withdrew, Elizabeth did not at once sit down. The room seemed altered; not emptier, but newly weighted with what had just occurred. Mrs. Gardiner watched her for a moment.
“You are happy.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Elizabeth moved to the window and rested her hand against the frame, looking out toward the faint line of sea beyond the roofs. “For so long, I feared that if he came to Longbourn, if he saw it all too clearly, he might hesitate. My mother's enthusiasm, her comparisons, her certainty that everything must be loudly admired, and my father's detachment.”
“And now?”
“Now I know he has decided with full knowledge already. There is no hesitation in him. He is steadier than I am.”
“But?”
“It is not his uncertainty that troubles me. It is mine.”
“In what way?”
