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That was enough to impress the seriousness of the matter upon them, and the two youngest Bennets nodded vigorously, while Mary, who had only really been addressed due to her proximity rather than because Elizabeth thought she would behave in a frivolous way, murmured her agreement.

It had not been too difficult to get them to promise to behave. Although whether that good behaviour could really be assured, she would have to see that night.

She turned to her elder sister, the one she really wished to speak to.

"I’ve been stuck in a carriage all day, Jane. Might we take a walk around the gardens?"

Jane nodded, and the two sisters left arm in arm, with Elizabeth desperately hoping that Jane might have some sage wisdom for her.

"I confess, if you had asked me what news you had to impart, I don’t think I should ever have guessed that you were to marry Mr Darcy," Jane said as they sat together on a stone bench at the end of the garden, away from any listening ears.

Elizabeth chuckled. "I confess that had you asked me before I went to Hunsford, I should also have never guessed this."

"But you love him?" Jane asked.

Elizabeth sighed and slumped a little on the bench. "That is the problem," she said.

"But I did not think you would marry if it were not for love," Jane said. "You turned down Mr Collins…"

Elizabeth took a deep breath. "I turned down Mr Collins because I did not love him, true, but also because I thought I could never respect him. He is not a man I could see myself spending so many years of my life with."

"But Mr Darcy is," Jane said.

Elizabeth pondered that for a moment. She supposed he was if she’d said yes to him when she had said no to Mr Collins. But then their situation in life was also vastly different now than it had been when Mr Collins had asked for her hand.

"I do not love him," she said, feeling guilty for admitting it out loud. "But I suppose I think I could respect him."

"Well, that’s good," Jane said. "Although I am still surprised at you marrying when your affections are not engaged."

"Look at our situation, Jane," she said. ‘Marrying Mr Collins would have secured Longbourn, yes, but we still would have had very little money, and no prospects, especially for the younger three. I was already considering becoming a governess. A good marriage, as so many people have told me, is the best way to succeed in this life. And he offered me a good marriage and I accepted. Is that terrible of me, Jane?"

Jane took her hand and shook her head. "It is not terrible, Lizzy. But I would not want you to give up on love, which you have always believed in, for the rest of us."

"I was happy to do it," Elizabeth said. "Except— Oh, Jane," she continued, putting her head in her hands.

It was hard to even say this part out loud.

"I have realised… I have realised that Mr Darcy believes he is in love with me."

She peeked at Jane through her fingertips and saw her sister was smiling.

"Well, that’s not so very hard to believe," Jane said.

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth said indignantly.

"Well, that it is very believable that someone would fall in love with you, Lizzy," Jane said. "For your beauty and your wit and your kindness. Although you do not always show that to the rest of the world, I grant you."

"When he asked me to marry him, I did not think he was in love with me," she said.

"You would not have accepted if you knew?" Jane asked. "That seems rather backwards, does it not?"

"I thought…" Elizabeth said. "I thought he was doing a good deed, rescuing me from the life of poverty that clearly lay ahead of me because he needed a wife and I would do. And so it did not seem so terrible that I did not love him, but thought he could offer some security for my family. But now…"

"But it’s different if he loves you and you do not love him," Jane said softly.

Elizabeth groaned. "Yes, it is," she said. "Isn’t it?"

"The way he looked at you during the ball at Netherfield… There was something then, something in his eyes. I wasn’t sure what. But if he loves you, well, perhaps that was the first spark."