Unafraid, Jane slid the door open "Diana?" she whispered "couldn't you sleep?"

Diana whirled her head round, Jane's voice clearly cutting through her thoughts abruptly "Jane?" she said, as if surprised at registering her into the scene.

"Your eyes are red…" Jane replied, sitting down beside her and looking gravely concerned. Diana rubbed her face.

"I'm sorry, Jane" she said sadly "you sensed our discomfort with Edward to begin with, couldn't you?"

Jane shuffled in reply and said nothing

"We were just… surprised, you had mentioned his wounds in your letters, but face to face, he was such a stark contrast to-"

Jane's eyes flicked to Diana's "to St. John?" Jane finished

Diana's face fell "when St. John proposed to you, Mary and I confessed to each other that you and he were… rather suited, your devotion to god, your intellect"

Jane sat back, rather surprised

"but you and Edward are so happy together… It is you and he who are truly suited"

here she stopped, wrung her hands and, in her eyelids grew tiny pools of water

"I can't help wishing that I suited someone that way".

"Is there no one at home that you are even interested in..?" Jane asked soothingly.

Diana laughed "there is a man… A navy officer". She smiled warmly

"What's his name?" Jane asked, sitting back happily.

"Arthur Fitzjames" Diana replied "a noble name!" Jane laughed

"He is noble… very gallant, but the female company he is used to far surpassed me".

Jane told Mary of the party at Thornfield, how she felt stamped out of Mr Rochester's romantic consideration with the arrival of Blanche Ingram, how she attempted to face the acceptance that she should surrender her feelings to idiocy, and how impossible she found it.

The conversation was finished with a firm, determined sentence from Jane

"Write to him". A smile and a nod was the answer.

When she returned to the bedchamber, Edward was sprawled in bed under the covers, his clothes clumsily removed. Prepared for bed, she watched his peaceful slumber a while, she kissed his lips softly and tucked herself in beside him, curling her arm around his waist to be greeted by his hand, twitching slightly before covering hers in a gentle warmth. Never had he felt so precious to her