Page 19 of Elizabeth Bennet Says Yes to Mr. Darcy

“Perhaps I did despise him.”

“Yesterday?”

“I thought I did.”

“And today?”

I gazed at the letter.

“Today, I don't know anymore.”

Charlotte folded her hands in her lap.

“Then don't decide tonight.”

“I told him I wanted to break it off.”

“In the shock of a revelation about Jane. You have every right to confirm your decision after you've had time to think.”

“It would be cruel to let him hope.”

“Crueler than marrying him out of necessity?”

I had no answer.

After dinner, I composed a note.

Sir,

I have read your letter. I thank you for confiding such painful facts with such frankness. My opinion of Mr. Wickham was founded as much on my vanity as on his charm, and I deeply regret having spoken of him with such unjust certainty.

I cannot, however, forget Jane. You have promised to repair what can be repaired, and I believe you.

I am not ready to confirm the end of our engagement. Nor am I ready to continue it as if nothing had happened. Grant me until I return to Longbourn. I will speak to my father and then give you an answer free of necessity, if such freedom is truly left to me.

Elizabeth Bennet

I hesitated before signing. I was no longer his fiancée, perhaps, but neither had I become again the young woman who found amusement in his reserve. Something had changed between us. We had wounded each other deeply enough that the other's opinion now mattered.

The next morning, his reply arrived.

I grant you all the time you request. I will claim no promise from you. I will be in London in three days to speak to Bingley, then will travel to Hertfordshire when your father permits.

F. Darcy

A second sheet accompanied the note. It was addressed to my father and sealed separately.

I did not open it.

For the first time since Jane's letter, I breathed without feeling the future closing in around me.

The freedom Mr. Darcy had returned to me was not light. It weighed almost as much as an obligation.

But it was mine.

Chapter 7

Elizabeth