After a week had passed, and he had calmed enough to think about it clearly, Darcy wondered that she just didn’t break the engagement herself. He thought she either wasn’t brave enough to do it herself and wanted the decision taken away from her, though he doubted that was likely, or she feared her family, namely her father, would not support her if she did. He thought the latter was more probable until he was at a dinner with his Fitzwilliam cousins and, quite by accident, heard a lady sharing her concerns about marriage with a group of women and how little a lady knew a man before being completely in his power. The lady had expressed her fears about accepting a proposal on short acquaintance and before he heard more, he’d walked away, but it did make him think that a large part of Elizabeth’s reasoning might have been based in fear. Of the unknown, and chiefly of him, and what life with him would be like.

She did not know him. She had said in her letter that he did not know her well, and perhaps he didn’t know her in the way she thought he should, but he had spent countless hours observing her in a variety of situations and felt he really did know her. Not as well as he would once they had lived together for a time, but well enough. And that was when he realized she did not feel the same about him.

She had not spent hours observing him. It was not in her nature to observe without engaging and she was much younger than he. She likely did not know what to look for. She had not spent endless evenings in drawing rooms with desperate would-be husbands fawning for her attention. She did not have his experience with society or with the world at large. She would not know how he compared to other men. The only men she knew were in Hertfordshire’s limited society. She could not help but think his feelings similar to her own. She did not know him well or feel secure in her choice, so she assumed he must feel the same.

Well, he did not.

After a few more days had passed, his anger with her had faded and he found compassion for her. She would be thrust into a new role and a new place with a man she felt was nearly a stranger. She could not know the depth of his feelings—he had not told her. She could not know his reputation for kindness and integrity—they were not from the same circles. She could not know he intended to support her in whatever way she needed and to do his utmost to be an exemplary husband. She had seen poor examples and could not know her future was much brighter than her mother’s.

She would see. He would show her.

~