‘It is time that I spoke. Our – this – friendship between us has become something more to me, and it would be unfair to continue it further without my declaration.

‘Miss Knatchbull – my dear, dearest friend – you have become, quite without any design on my own part, most precious to me. Should you not feel the same, pray believe I shall at once go back into Hampshire and bother you no longer.

‘But first I must say that I love you, most deeply – have loved you, I think, since the spring.’

How long had Mary waited! How much could her heart take? And yet, e’en still, her wretched mind could only be rational: was that not indecently soon after Lady Elizabeth Bligh turned him down?

‘Dare I now ask if you might feel the same?’

Mary wanted to laugh. How could he not know! ‘Oh, yes, sir. I do. I love you completely. And if you would like me, too, to declare for exactly how long, well then.’ She looked up at him, beaming. ‘I do believe I can date it back to that day in the summer but last. When I first laid my poor eyes upon the glories of Chawton.’

‘You beast!’ He grabbed at her wrists then. The first time they had touched since his hand had brushed hers. She shivered. ‘You wretch! I don’t know whether to marry you or box your ears.’

‘On balance, sir,’ she replied prettily, ‘I think I might opt for the former.’

‘Then marry me, I pray you! Put us both out of this misery!’

And there, it was done. Mary had defied the rules of all romantic novels! She had found the love of her life, her heart was intact and no obstacles stood in her path! The future lay out before them, bright as a midsummer day. They both laughed in their joy. His hands moved to her waist; sweet lips then found hers. A great heat – a wildfire – shot through to her core. Fireworks exploded through her mind and her soul.

And though now she should be somewhere far, far beyond any form of rational thought, still the words came to her:

So this was it. This was electricity!

CHAPTER XXVII

Fanny sat, content and alone, in the Godmersham library, secure in the knowledge that all of her loved ones were in pursuit of good, wholesome interests elsewhere. Sir Edward and Mr Austen Knight were in Canterbury for a Church meeting, the boys off with their guns and the girls at work on their costumes. What a splendid feeling it was to have all of one’s ducks in a row, for a change! Oh, no doubt they would all reappear soon, as the light started to wane and the temperature dropped, and bring in their noise and their antics. But for now, she intended to relish her peace and indulge in a moment’s reflection on the year they were now leaving behind them.