Pride and Prejudice doesn't belong to me.
Thanks Miriam1 for all your help.
At First Sight
Elizabeth's spirits soon rising to playfulness again, she wanted Mr. Darcy to account for his having ever fallen in love with her. "How could you begin?" said she. "I can comprehend your going on charmingly, when you had once made a beginning, but what could set you off in the first place?"
"I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."
They were walking arm-in-arm behind Jane and Bingley.
Darcy thought back to all his encounters with Elizabeth until the present time. That dance when he had insulted her and all their subsequent meetings at Netherfield, Hunsford, and Pemberley, and now back at Longbourn... but he couldn't sincerely pin down the point when he had discovered that she meant the world to him. As he had said, he was in the middle before he knew that he had begun.
Elizabeth smiled at Darcy. She wondered what he would say if she told him that she, on the other hand, knew the exact moment that she had fallen in love with him.
It had all begun at that first ball, of course.
When she had first seen him enter the room, Elizabeth couldn't help but be drawn to him. Like she later pointed out to her friend Charlotte Lucas, she could forgive his pride if he hadn't mortified hers. Everyone was entitled to a bit of pride, after all.
Elizabeth had known that she was in danger of falling in love with a man whom she'd declared to dislike publicly. When she had found herself interested in getting to know Darcy better, she could admit with hindsight that part of her attraction to Wickham had stemmed from the fact that he could fill in certain gaps when it came to Mr. Darcy. That man had intrigued her much more than any other man ever had.
Elizabeth could admit – to herself at least, that some of the more stimulating conversations she ever had been with him; she enjoyed the easy banter they'd always had, even when arguing. She remembered the conversation they'd had at Netherfield when Jane was ill. It had been so much fun. In fact, Elizabeth had a lot to thank Caroline Bingley for; that lady had begun the conversation about Georgiana, and it was at that point that Elizabeth had known that Darcy really cared about anybody. Even from his brief answers and the fact that Mr. Darcy was writing to Georgiana, Elizabeth had seen that he really cared about his sister.
Yes, Elizabeth could fix the hour, the spot, the look and the words when she had fallen in love with Mr. Darcy. If she were honest, she would have to say that there had been a series of words, spots and hours but the look she would never forget.
He had looked at her and smiled and that was when she'd known.
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