Sketching Character by Pamela Lynne

Author:Pamela Lynne [Lynne, Pamela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RETAIL, Pride & Prejudice, JAFF: sexy
ISBN: 9781515238607
Publisher: CreateSpace Publishing
Published: 2015-09-29T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Elizabeth read each line again carefully, not wanting to misunderstand a single word. The suspicion that formed the night before was now confirmed. Wickham had attempted to harm Miss Darcy.

You must appreciate my need to protect her feelings and her reputation. A fifteen-year-old girl, who knows very little of the world outside her family, should not suffer the rest of her life over the actions of an unfeeling cad. Exposing Wickham would risk exposing her to ridicule and conjecture, and I will not do that.

Three lines were all it took to dispel her resentment. Three lines that she easily could have written herself. She could not be angry with him for doing precisely what she had done.

Nor could she be angry for separating Bingley from Jane. It was not the act that upset her, but the reasoning behind it, at least how Colonel Fitzwilliam had explained it. If the Bennets were not suitable for a man like Bingley, they certainly would not be acceptable to a man like Darcy. That had cast a very dark shadow of doubt over their time alone together. But the Colonel, apparently, was mistaken.

All of this would mean nothing if she truly cared for him. A man can do anything if he is considered worthy in the eyes of the woman he loves. I am grieved beyond measure that you have found me lacking.

She winced as the realization of how she had hurt him came to full view. Why had she not let him speak? He tried to tell her then but she would not listen. She cried for his grief and when she exhausted her tears, she rose from the chair and moved to the bed. It was beyond hope that his warmth would have remained several hours after he quit the room, but she could detect a trace of his scent. She found comfort in that small part of him that was still with her as she contemplated more of his letter.

Please be assured, my dearest Elizabeth, that since the first day we ran together in the woods, my only intention has been to love you. If we had not been interrupted yesterday, you would have heard my words of love as I asked you to marry me.

Oh, to have heard him speak! But, what answer could she have given him if he had managed those words? The lasting happiness of so many was tied to Lydia making it through her confinement without detection. Darcy had so carefully protected his sister’s reputation, would he risk it now by marrying Elizabeth while Lydia’s ruin lingered over them? Could she risk their reputations by accepting him?

I will ask my cousin Anne to deliver this letter to you. I trust her to be discrete. If you should so desire, I believe she would get one to me in return.

No, she could not, she concluded with much sadness. Wickham had finally left the Darcys in peace; she would not bring him back into their lives. She would not pollute the shades of Pemberley with the stain of a fallen sister.

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