Chapter 3
THREE
After breakfast, Elizabeth encountered Miss Darcy while walking in the gardens nearest the house.
Thick clouds covered the sky, and she did not want to wander far, lest she be caught in the rain.
While she would have preferred to be alone—to continue reflecting on Mr Darcy, which she could not seem to cease—Miss Darcy’s timid nature left her wishing to encourage and befriend the young lady, even though they were unlikely to see each other again after this week.
“Mrs Annesley is not with you?” Elizabeth asked.
Miss Darcy shook her head. “Weather such as this often gives her a headache. She is resting.”
Elizabeth expressed her regret, and they strolled quietly together, until she enquired if Miss Darcy was enjoying her stay at Haelthorpe, and where she and her brother were going next.
“Oh, yes. It is very pleasant, and Lord Halsley is so kind to me. Once we leave here, we go to Pemberley.”
“You must be anticipating being home.”
“I am, but…” She continued after Elizabeth glanced at her and smiled encouragingly. “I am glad we have met. I know some of my brother’s friends, of course, like Mr and Miss Bingley, but you are different, because?—”
Elizabeth was glad she had not finished.
Did Miss Darcy know that his feelings for her were—or had been—deeper?
The image of how he often looked at her—as he had last night at dinner, and later in the drawing room, and on other occasions in Kent, and even Hertfordshire—flashed through her mind.
Charlotte had remarked on it the previous autumn and that spring, hinted that Mr Darcy held her in special regard, but Elizabeth had dismissed it as fanciful.
Mr Darcy himself had told her just yesterday that he looked at her because he admired her.
His sister, who must be familiar with his usual manner, might have also noticed.
Her head spun, and she took several slow breaths in the hope that she could hide how affected she was by the realisation of how much she had missed.
And how much she regretted it. How would their lives have evolved had she not been blind when he was at Netherfield?
Might she have challenged him about his insult at the assembly the night they met, encouraged him to amend his behaviour before she and everyone else grew to hate him?
But I do not hate him, not anymore. It was impossible that she could, after the letter and the walled garden. Did that mean that she liked him? Would he care if she did? Might he, perhaps, still wish that she more than liked him?