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"I shall write what I could tell you now, and then be sent away while you read it." He resumed pacing. "Several chapters apart, apparently. I object to the expense in time and postage."

"Can we speed it up?"

"I don't know! Maybe! Let me look."

He consulted the notebook Jane had left. "If current patterns hold... we should reunite at Pemberley. Chapter 22, approximately."

"Chapter twenty-two?!" Elizabeth said. "That's six chapters from now!"

He closed the notebook without reading out the explanation he had written beneath the forecast.

Darcy looked at Elizabeth. "I don't want to be separated for six chapters."

"Neither do I."

"But we're going to be anyway, aren't we?"

"Probably."

Darcy sat beside her, leaving the closed notebook between them.

"I had not expected the freedom to speak to leave me with so little to say," Darcy admitted.

"Take your time," Elizabeth said.

"I love you. You looked at me when I could scarcely bear to hear myself. You made room for me to stop speaking. I do not know how to thank you for that."

"I love you too," she said. The admission had no wit to shelter behind. She looked at him and let it stand.

His hand moved toward hers, then stopped on the bench. He had grabbed for her during the compelled speech. Now he waited. She laid her fingers over his.

"I cannot accept what happened here as a proposal," she said. "Not even to make it easier for us."

"Nor would I ask it."

"Ask me again when you can bear to hear either answer."

He bent his head. "I shall."

She wanted to promise him the answer now, and the tenderness of that temptation frightened her more than the original insult. She remained beside him. When at last he released her hand, she wished he need not go quite yet.

"Stay a little longer," she said.

He settled back beside her. Elizabeth had expected to feel foolish for asking. Instead she could look at him without preparing a farewell. They sat until she was able to let him go.

"I'm going to write the letter now," Darcy said.

"I'll read it dramatically while walking in the grove."

"As required."

"See you in Chapter 22?"

"If the timeline holds."

Darcy took one step toward the path, then stopped. "The next time I ask, I mean to do better."

"You've left yourself considerable room," she said. He smiled, but she waited until he had turned before allowing her own smile to falter.