Page 32 of The Crown’s Gift

Jane resisted for one breath. Then her forehead lowered to her mother's shoulder.

"I believed him," she whispered.

"So did I," Lady Bennet said. "If he has been false, the shame is his. If he has been foolish, he may yet discover it. But you will not be ashamed for loving honestly."

Elizabeth looked away, tears burning unexpectedly.

Sir Thomas read the letter that evening. Anger moved through him without noise.

"Miss Bingley writes what she hopes, not what she knows."

"It makes no difference if her brother permits it," Elizabeth said.

"It makes some. Not enough."

"Will you write to him?"

Jane lifted her head. "No, Papa. Please."

Sir Thomas turned toward her. "I would not ask him to marry you."

"I know. But I do not want him summoned like a tenant who has broken a gate."

He accepted the rebuke. "What do you want?"

Jane considered for a long moment. "To go to London with you in January. To see Aunt and Uncle Gardiner. To discover whether Miss Bingley will receive me as a friend when I am before her rather than safely in Hertfordshire."

"And Bingley?"

Pain crossed her face. "If he wishes to see me, he knows where I shall be."

Sir Thomas nodded.

Elizabeth's anger fixed upon Darcy. Bingley could be weak, but someone had strengthened his doubt. Darcy had left Hertfordshire after the ball without one farewell call. The memory of their final dance, once warm, became evidence of another kind of arrogance: he had allowed intimacy while deciding his friend's happiness from above.

Two days later, a packet arrived from Darcy containing copies of Wickham's settlement documents and a short note to Sir Thomas. Nothing was addressed to Elizabeth.

She told herself she was relieved.

In London, Bingley's unfinished note to Jane remained folded inside the writing desk in his room at the Hursts' house. He had begun it on his first night there.

Dear Miss Bennet,

I fear I left Hertfordshire without saying what I most wished—

Caroline had entered before he completed it. She did not see the words, but her report that Jane appeared perfectly serene after his departure made the confession seem foolish. Bingley folded the page away.

At Netherfield, Jane folded Caroline's letter into the same small square three times, then placed it in the fire.

She watched until every word was ash.

* * *

Sir Thomas found Elizabeth in the old nursery after midnight.

The room had become a schoolroom years ago, though traces of its first purpose remained: faint scratches on the window seat, a wooden horse missing one wheel, the marks where five small heights had been dated in pencil upon the doorframe. Elizabeth stood before those marks with a candle in her hand.

"You were shorter yesterday," Sir Thomas said from the doorway.