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“An author who has spent the whole volume teaching a gentleman to think better of himself need not require my company while everyone else congratulates him upon the discovery.”
Darcy looked at her. She met his eyes for a moment, then laughed.
“I did not select the book to furnish myself with arguments against you.”
“I had begun to wonder.”
“You recommended it.”
“So I did.”
He remembered finding it for her after she had asked whether all his novels rewarded their least agreeable characters with a fortune. At the time he had been more concerned with keeping her beside the shelves than with defending the ending.
“Read the last chapter,” he said. “Then tell me whether he deserves what he receives.”
“And if I decide he does not?”
“I shall be obliged to find a better recommendation.”
“That is a considerable inducement.”
She put the book down beside the closed account and returned to her chair. Darcy sat opposite her. The fire had burned low, but the room remained warm. Beyond the open door he could hear a servant moving something in the library, then the outer door closing.
They were alone.
He had been alone with her since the afternoon of his rescue, but never without a book, a person expected, or a question whose answer mattered to Jane. He had been grateful for the necessary occupations. They allowed him to enjoy Elizabeth’s company without asking whether she wished him to come nearer.
She looked toward his hand.
“Does writing still hurt?”
“Only when I persist too long.”
“And you stop before then?”
“I am improving in that respect as well.”
“Mrs. Reynolds will be pleased.”
“Shall you?”
Elizabeth’s smile faded a little. “Yes.”
He had not intended the question to sound so serious. Or perhaps he had, and merely disliked finding himself unable to retreat from it.
“Miss Bennet, may I ask you something?”
“Does it require so solemn a beginning?”
“It is less easily answered than a question about a book.”
She laid her hands together upon her lap. “You may ask.”
“Last Wednesday, when you asked me to wait—”
“I remember.”
“Did I mistake what you wished? You need not spare my feelings in telling me.”
