Free Darcy and Elizabeth What If? Collection 3 by Jennifer Lang Page B

her friend’s arm. ‘He went down on one knee and asked me to marry him.’
    Charlotte again said nothing for a minute and then her face broke into a smile and she said, ‘I am happy for you Elizabeth. Your mother will be in raptures! What pin money you will have. Only, I ask that you will not forget me. Mr Darcy has many valuable livings in his gift and Mr Collins would like advancement.’
    ‘You go too fast,’ said Elizabeth. ‘I only said that Mr Darcy asked me to marry him. I did not say that I accepted him.’
    ‘Surely even you could not be so lost to all sense of your own advantage that you would refuse him?’ asked Charlotte.
    Elizabeth felt a gulf open up between her and Charlotte once again. They would always think differently on the subjects of love and marriage. But Elizabeth was a guest in Charlotte’s house and so she did not reply angrily, as she was tempted to do. Instead she took a moment to calm herself and then said, ‘We think differently on the subject of advantages, Charlotte. You think of carriages and pin money. I think of love.’
    ‘I can think of only one reason for Mr Darcy proposing to you, and that is because he loves you,’ said Charlotte. ‘He can have no other inducement. And so the bar to your union must be that you do not love him.’
    ‘How can I? I hardly know him,’ said Elizabeth.
    ‘Ah!’ said Charlotte, with a knowing smile, ‘So you do not despair of falling in love with him.’
    Elizabeth was taken aback.
    ‘I did not mean that,’ she said.
    ‘I think you did, you just did not know it,’ said Charlotte.
    ‘That is too deep for me,’ said Elizabeth in some embarrassment.
    ‘I think not,’ said Charlotte. ‘Admit it, Lizzy, you like him.’
    ‘I do not know what makes you say that,’ said Elizabeth evasively.
    ‘I say it because I have seen you with him. You enjoy teasing him. You like his fine mind and his strong character. You find him attractive —’
    ‘Charlotte!’
    ‘I am not blind, Lizzy. I have seen the way your eyes widen when you look at him. And who can blame you? He is a very handsome man.’
    Elizabeth blushed.
    ‘And yet you refused him,’ said Charlotte, shaking her head in disbelief.
    ‘How could I accept him, when he had ruined the happiness of my beloved sister?’ said Elizabeth in a rush, speaking in her own defence. ‘I could never love a man who had harmed Jane in such a way.’ Her face softened. ‘And yet —’
    ‘And yet?’ queried Charlotte.
    ‘And yet, when I threw it in his face he apologised and said he had not known that Jane cared for his friend. And now he has withdrawn his objections to the match,’ she said with a smile. ‘So I expect to see Jane and Mr Bingley engaged very shortly.’
    Charlotte took up her sewing again.
    ‘Then you have changed your mind about Mr Darcy and you do not hate him?’ asked Charlotte.
    ‘No, I do not hate him,’ said Elizabeth softly.
    She thought of his kindness to her sister and his willingness to humble himself before her – he, Mr Darcy, who was one of the proudest men in England!
    ‘Then love might follow,’ said Charlotte. ‘And if it does, and he proposes again . . . ’
    Elizabeth felt a cold stab at her heart.
    ‘He will not propose again,’ she said.
    As she realised the truth of those words, she realised what she had lost. She had lost a man of great integrity and worth, a man who was admired and esteemed by those who knew him well, a man who was desirable in so many ways. And she had refused him.
    She had been blind.
    It was true, she had been misinformed about Mr Wickham and she had based much of her dislike on that mistake. But even before that she had been too willing to set herself against Mr Darcy, because he had insulted her at the Meryton assembly.
    Yes, that was where the mischief had begun. When she had overheard that unfortunate remark she had been determined not to like him, partly out of self-defence and partly because she liked having someone