Page 231

Behind her, Charles began congratulating Darcy with sufficient warmth to make up for every anxious silence the house had endured. Jane held Elizabeth’s hand and smiled at her until neither of them could say anything useful.

At last Jane whispered, “Now you must write to Mama.”

“I know.”

“She will be so happy.”

“She will wish to know whether I have chosen a gown.”

“Have you?”

“I have scarcely chosen a husband.”

Jane laughed softly, careful of the sleeping child, and pressed her sister’s fingers.

Elizabeth wrote after lunch, with Darcy at the other end of the library table preparing his own letter. Once she looked up and caught him watching her. She dipped her pen again before she could abandon the whole undertaking to go and sit beside him.

Pemberley, November 23, 1813

My dear Papa,

You must prepare to return to Derbyshire. Mr. Darcy has asked me to marry him, and I have said yes with such readiness that he can have no complaint of my behaviour upon this occasion. I am very happy. I wish you were here so that I might tell you so, and discover whether you would attempt to hide your pleasure behind a book.

We hope to marry on January 18, if the arrangements can be made to suit. Mr. Darcy writes by the same post, but I claim the right to tell you first, even if his handwriting secures him the advantage. Will you and Mama bring my sisters for Christmas and remain for the wedding? We shall make the particular arrangements when we have your answer. I would not have you undertake the road in dangerous weather merely to keep a date chosen at a library table.

Jane continues to mend, and Charles requires very little encouragement to describe his son. You will receive their news in greater detail than I can supply. For myself, I must tell you that I love Mr. Darcy, and that I am certain of his love. I shall have much to learn here, but I need not cease being your daughter in order to become his wife.

Keep my place by the fire. I mean to use it when we visit, and I shall be very much displeased if you allow Mary to establish a permanent claim by the superior gravity of her reading.

Give my love to everybody, and tell Mama that I shall write about clothes as soon as I can attend to anything so ordinary.

Your affectionate daughter,

Lizzy

She read it through before folding it. Darcy had finished his own and waited with the sealing wax in his hand.

“It cannot reach them for several days,” she said.

“I know.”

“And then we must wait for their answer.”

“Do you expect an objection?”

“No. I want their happiness to arrive.”

He set down the wax, came round the table, and bent to kiss her.

Elizabeth allowed the letter to wait a little longer.

Chapter Fifty-Nine

COLONEL FITZWILLIAM ARRIVED on December 21 with a cold nose, a complaint about the last inn, and no apparent intention of allowing Darcy to complete his welcome.

“I have been promised a room in which the window shuts. Tell me at once if the promise was made without your authority.”

“The window shuts.”