"Take a seat, Mr Darcy. I have listened patiently to your surprising declarations, and now I ask that you hear me out in similar manner."

As if to emphasise her point, she began to pace, much as the gentleman had done. Darcy nervously perched on the branch and watched her perambulation. For months he had longed to tell her how he felt, but he had never been brave enough to bare his heart so totally to the lady. Perhaps he was still influenced by being in this place, where he was used to addressing her openly, at least in his imagination, but once he had begun speaking, he had not been able to stop until his heart was completely exposed for her judgement.

She began: "You puzzle me exceedingly, Mr Darcy. From our first meeting, I have struggled to make out your character. You did much in those first few days to cement my first impressions – that you are haughty, prideful and disdainful of the feelings of others." She saw him flinch, and softened her tone a little, but was determined to be honest. "Your conduct toward myself, my family and neighbours, was at best cold and at worst positively rude.

"When I had the opportunity at Netherfield to observe you at ease among familiar company, I noticed some hints of why such a genial man as Mr Bingley would choose you for a friend. You showed yourself to be a responsible master, a caring brother and an attentive guest. Even Miss Bingley's clearly unwelcome attentions did not drive you to outright rudeness. I enjoyed our verbal sparring, although I thought you more irritated than entertained by me. I appreciated your real concern for my sister's health – such a clear contrast to the confected concern shown by Miss Bingley and Mrs Hurst. I began to suspect that perhaps you were not so very bad after all," and she laughed softly to take the edge off this still rather damning assessment.

"Then I heard the tales of Mr Wickham. He said things of you that caused me great distress. If you were as bad as he painted you, then I feared for my sister's future felicity if she were to attach herself to a man so strongly under your influence as Mr Bingley seemed to be. Yet his tales were so extravagant – they painted you so cruel that I could not reconcile his version of you with the one I had begun to know. At first, I was simply shocked, but then I wondered what defence you might offer to his attacks on your character. I resolved to ask you at the ball.

"I see now that challenging you about Mr Wickham on the dance floor was not a good plan. If one cannot talk of books in a ballroom, how much less can one speak of old grudges and the grant of livings? If, as you say, your mind was bent on making a declaration that night, I can only imagine how much it must have shocked you to be confronted instead with my questions about your old adversary. When you rebuffed me, answered with vague generalities, and then departed the neighbourhood the next morning, I foolishly assumed you had no satisfactory answer to give. It did not occur to me that your reaction masked an injured heart, since I had no notion your heart was in any way engaged.

"After you left, tales which Mr Wickham had told me in the strictest confidence, saying he would never defame you out of fondness for the memory of your father, were quickly known all over the neighbourhood. I wondered at this inconsistency in his stance, and that it should only be after you were no longer present to defend yourself that the worst rumours were spread about. Yet your own conduct had led me to think that, whatever the truth of Mr Wickham's claims, you were an unpleasant sort of man, and small loss to the neighbourhood. It was Mr Bingley whose return we eagerly awaited, and whose desertion my dear Jane still suffers from most acutely.

"Now you tell me that all along, you harboured a growing affection for me. It is hard to credit, but I have the evidence of my own ears before you realised I was here, and there is an air of truth in all you have told me since. I do not pretend to return your affection. Indeed, until finding you here at Rosings this last fortnight, I have scarce thought of you at all since you left Netherfield."

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