Page 119 of Colour My World
She looked up to see her father smirk. Hisaireremained unchanged. “Indeed. And what, pray, has captured my Lizzy’s full and undivided attention?”
She knew what he was doing. “Nothing.”
“A fascinating subject.”
Elizabeth gritted her teeth.
Her father made his move, methodical as always. “Tell me, my dear, do you hold Mr Darcy in high regard?”
The question struck like a blade. She hesitated. “I think he is—”What does she think?
Her father watched her closely. “Well?”
“I think that I may have misjudged him.”
“Indeed?”
Elizabeth moved a pawn.What am I doing?
Her father’s knight swept in and claimed the piece. Then Mr Bennet chuckled. “How poetic.”
Elizabeth glared. “You are impossible.”
“Oh, I quite agree. But we were speaking of Mr Darcy.”
She stared at the board. Her pieces lay scattered. Unguarded. Just like her thoughts. She inhaled sharply. “I do not understand him.”
“The greatest frustration of all.”
She pressed her lips together. “He is not the man I believed him to be.”
“No?”
Elizabeth hesitated. “I thought him proud.”
“He is.”
“I thought him arrogant.”
“He is that, too.”
She exhaled. “But he is also…something else.”
Mr Bennet leant forward. “And what is that, my dear?”
Her father’sairewas bordered by chocolate, waiting.What is he not saying?And for the first time, she had no answer for him.
The storm outside raged on, the wind howling against the windows. Elizabeth moved her queen.
Mr Bennet countered immediately. “You are distracted.”
“I am not.”
“Lizzy.” Her father leant back in his chair. Elizabeth adjustedher posture. “Have you asked yourself why it unsettles you to see Jane in Mr Darcy’s company?”
“It does not.”
“Believe that if it gives you solace.”
