Duty Demands by Elaine Owen

Author:Elaine Owen [Owen, Elaine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kindle Press
Published: 2017-07-10T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

If Elizabeth had counted the days before, she agonized miserably over the hours now, wondering if or when she might expect an answer from Darcy to the letter she had sent him, and wondering what that answer might be. Her brief note, written so innocently, now seemed cruel in light of the tender feelings he had held for her. If she had known more, if she had understood him better, she would have done differently. She would have written more fluently and shared more of her own heart. But the die was cast; she could only wait to see how Darcy responded to what she had written.

How could she express her heart, when she hardly knew it herself? Darcy loved her, but what did she feel in return? It was nearly impossible to realize that he had loved her so ardently and for so long and not to want to return some portion of those feelings. She was concerned for his welfare. She fervently regretted every harsh word she had directed toward him. She would not willingly wound him again, and she desired to be on friendlier terms than they were now. Was that love? Was that the type of affection on which to base a marriage?

She was walking with Georgiana in the woods alongside the stream one morning several days later, sorting through her conflicting thoughts, when a shape moving through trees a little distance away caught their attention. A man with the same coloring and nearly the same height as Darcy was walking toward them on the path that led from the house; he would intercept them in a few seconds. For a few hopeful moments, Elizabeth thought that Darcy himself might have returned, but that hope was dashed as the gentleman came through a little thicket and they could see him clearly.

“Richard!” Georgiana exclaimed, rushing to embrace him as soon as he was fully in view.

It was Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam, Darcy’s cousin, whom Elizabeth had met at Rosings before her father’s death called her away. Later he had stood up with Darcy at their hasty wedding, but she had not seen him since that time.

“Georgiana!” the colonel answered, accepting her embrace for a moment before stepping back to look at her more fully. Elizabeth could not help feeling touched by the obvious affection between the two cousins. While they spoke together for a moment, exchanging warm greetings, Elizabeth stood back a little to enjoy the domestic tableau.

Colonel Fitzwilliam had not changed at all in the months since he had witnessed their wedding. While he could not be called a truly handsome man, his figure was as tall and dignified as ever, and his open and charming air had not diminished. At one time Elizabeth had thought the colonel more appealing than Darcy because of his superior manners; he had been as courtly as her husband seemed to be aloof. In those days, she might even have welcomed him as a possible marriage partner. But now his

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