“Yes, Papa?” Elizabeth was nervous. What would he tell her? Would her fears be confirmed?

“I need to tell you something, but I must ask you not to react until I am finished, and you must not run off, but stay here and speak with me when I am through, for I have not the energy to chase you down.” He smiled at the last and she returned it.

“Very well, Papa. I am listening and I will not run away.”

“I spoke with Mr. Darcy this evening. He is an intelligent man, well regarded, respectable.”

“He is. And rude, proud, and thoughtless,” she added lightly. She looked to her father to join in her joke, but he was serious. “What is it, Papa?”

“Do you really find him thoughtless?” He also found Mr. Darcy proud, but perhaps not overly so, and while he could be rude, Mr. Bennet wondered if he could actually be very thoughtful. After all, he had remembered Elizabeth’s desire to see The Lake District.

Elizabeth thought on her father’s question for a moment, and remembered Mr. Darcy listening to her confession a few days ago, and how he had handed her his handkerchief and been kind while she was in distress.

“No, I suppose he is not,” she said slowly.

“And is he always rude? Has he never been polite or civil to you?”

Again she thought for a moment before answering her father. “No, he is not always rude, but when he is, it is quite memorable.”

They shared a smile and Mr. Bennet took her hand in his and looked at her seriously. “My dear Elizabeth, Mr. Darcy is in love with you.”

She looked at him for a moment and then laughed. “Papa! I don’t think Mr. Darcy would appreciate you making such distasteful jokes. Although it is very funny.” She laughed and looked at her father who was not laughing with her. “Papa?”

“My little Lizzy, this is not a joke.”

She stared at him. “Mr. Darcy? In love with me?”

He nodded.

“With me?”

He nodded again and squeezed her hand.

“But I am not tolerable enough to tempt him to dance!”

“He danced with you at Netherfield,” said Mr. Bennet.

She looked at him, her face confused and reflecting a dawning horror.

“He is intelligent and well read. He is respectable and not ridiculous. Capable of holding a decent conversation and I imagine he argues and debates intelligently. He is thoughtful, Lizzy, at least where you are concerned.”

She began to shake her head and lean away from her father, too afraid to speak the thoughts that were swirling through her mind faster than she could sort them.