Chapter 1
Elizabeth ran from her father's study and into the garden, where her betrothed awaited her. 'Betrothed,' she thought to herself, it sounded so very strange; yet wonderful. She rounded the corner of the house and it was there that she saw him. In any other circumstances a laugh would have escaped her mouth at the expression on Darcy's face; but instead Elizabeth was instead stunned into silence. She no longer saw in him the same proud, hateful, insufferable man who had first walked into the Meryton assembly. Instead, she saw in his fine eyes, as she now felt them to be, an overwhelming mixture of love, passion, but in the same instance, the fear of the terrible pain which Mr Bennet's withheld permission might bring.
With this observation came, for Elizabeth, a realisation of the depth of Mr Darcy's feelings for her. Of course, the couple had previously declared their feelings for each other, but the expression in the eyes of her beloved, at the very moment, was something that would remain with Elizabeth for eternity.
Mistaking her silence for the worst possible news, Darcy exclaimed, "No! I. .I shall speak with your father again immediately. I have waited too long for you to be my wife, I refuse to-"
"Please, sir, I apologise if my expression, or my silence, misled you, I have simply realised something. Oh Mr Darcy, I. . ."
"Miss Bennet please, I am indeed eager to hear whatever it is that you wish to share with me but, I do not understand," Darcy paused and prepared himself, "what was your father's answer?"
"Oh well, he gave us his blessing of course, but you must allow me to. . ." Elizabeth was unable to complete her request, as Darcy swept her into his arms, and after clutching her to his chest for a brief moment, claimed her lips with his own.
The couple parted only when necessary to allow air into the lungs; such was the intensity of feeling between the two.
"Elizabeth, you can have no idea of how much joy you have bestowed upon me," said Darcy, eventually, "you are to be forever mine and a greater honour I could not wish for." At this last statement, the breath caught in Elizabeth's throat, due more to the intensity of Fitzwilliam's gaze than the declaration itself.
"Please, Fitzwilliam," Darcy became slightly worried when Elizabeth, for the first time, used his given name, "you must allow me to apologise."
"Apologise? Whatever for? Tears threatened Elizabeth's eyes and her fiancée paled, Elizabeth, please, is something the matter? Are you ill?"
"No, no," began Elizabeth, "it is not my health or my feelings that have suffered. Oh Mr Darcy, to see you standing here, waiting for me, with such love in your eyes, truly overwhelmed me. But with the joy that I felt, knowing that you love me so dearly, as I do you, forced me to realise how cruel I have been, how my words and actions must have wounded you. I realise that I have already apologised for my reaction to your proposal last April, but I now understand how inconsiderate I was toward you during our earlier acquaintance."
Here Elizabeth paused and, not daring to look into those eyes once again, instead turned away from them and continued. "Even after you had declared your feelings for me, I continued to wound you with my support for Wickham and my determined endeavour to dislike you. Oh, how could I ever favour that scoundrel over you?"
"But you did not know him to be a scoundrel at the time."
"Perhaps not, but still, having so abominably abused you in the past, I feel unworthy of your affections now and utterly appalled at the thought of my selfish utterances having inflicted any measure of pain upon the man whom I now love so very dearly."
By this time, tears were freely cascading down Elizabeth's flushed cheeks. Taking her face in his hands, Darcy brushed away her tears. "My darling, you appear to have forgotten the dreadful manner of my own actions and words, which I myself am so very ashamed of now. Please, whatever pain you believe yourself to have caused me, was, I can assure you, wholly deserved and a fitting punishment for my attitude towards you and, indeed, most of society, for at least the past decade, perhaps longer."
"But the knowledge that my carelessness has caused you any amount of pain, great or small, is one I cannot bear. Will you ever be able to forgive me?" sobbed Elizabeth.
"My darling, there is simply nothing to forgive. My own behaviour was inexcusable and the pain your rejection brought was, I would hope, a result of my hostility and arrogance. You did not wound me Elizabeth, any pain I felt was as result of the anger I felt towards myself, after having recommended myself to you so very poorly. My greatest wish was that you would some day be able to view me in a more favourable light. I could only dream of you being able to love me in the way that I love you."
"And I do love you, truly I do," whispered Elizabeth, knowing that her heart did indeed belong to the man now caressing her hand with his own. She then found this hand leading her to a nearby bench, where the two sat in silence for a few moments, hands, as hearts, still connected, until Elizabeth's tears had subsided.
"You are sure then, that you wish to marry such an irrational, deranged woman?" laughed Elizabeth, slightly embarrassed at her sudden display of emotion.
"You are anything but irrational, my dear!" Darcy was also laughing now, "headstrong; perhaps, stubborn; hmm . . . maybe, proud; well. . ."
"I am proud? Ha!" cried Elizabeth.
". .beautiful; yes," Darcy continued, gradually closing the gap between Elizabeth's face and his own, "charming, intelligent, witty, bewitching and utterly lovely . . . most definitely." Darcy almost whispered this last phrase and Elizabeth turned a rather dark shade of crimson at his provocative tone of voice as the lips of the two met; in a kiss that felt as though it could have lasted forever.
"Oh Lizzie," whispered Fitzwilliam as he pulled Elizabeth into his arms. "My dear, beautiful Lizzie," he murmured against her hair.
"That is the first you have used that name for me," said Elizabeth with a slight chuckle.
"And does my lady approve? Or would Miss Bennet be more agreeable?"
"Hmmm. . .well, as we are to be married, and 'Lizzie' sounds so wonderful when it comes from your lips,-" the lady coloured as her eyes unconsciously wandered to the body parts in question, "-then I believe that the name will suffice."
Darcy laughed, 'very well then, you shall always be Lizzie when you are in my arms. I do prefer it, I must confess; I shall be loathe to revert back to Miss Bennet in company – although Mrs Darcy will sound infinitely more pleasing to me."
Elizabeth sighed as she felt her cheeks again growing warm at the tone of the gentleman's voice. "Well, Mr Darcy, as you seem so determined to turn my skin a permanent shade of scarlet; which name would you prefer to come from my lips?"
It was now Mr Darcy's turn to change shade slightly, as he stuttered his reply, "well, ahem. . . I suppose," he laughed, "I believe 'Great Master,' or, 'My Lord,' may be sufficient, dearest."
"Ah, so, even though you listed headstrong and stubborn amongst my attributes, you would still prefer a wife who is weak and submissive? Tell me; am I still then only tolerable in your eyes?"
"Excuse me?"
"I do believe that your exact words were, 'she is tolerable, I suppose, but not handsome enough to tempt me,' were they not, sir?" This statement was indeed effective in banishing the self-satisfied smile from Darcy's face.
"Ah, so you did hear that? Oh Lizzie, I was merely-" He was interrupted by an infectious peal of laughter from Elizabeth; and he joined her as he realised that she had indeed triumphed in this battle of wits.
"I think," started Elizabeth," that we have both apologised enough in one afternoon; if we continue, we become very much like Mr Collins!" The couple shared another laugh at this, "so come, sir, evade the question no longer; how should I address you?"
"Well in company, I believe that Mr Darcy would be acceptable," Darcy started, rising from the bench and beginning to pace up and down in front of it. "In the presence of close friends and family however, Georgiana prefers to call me Fitzwilliam; so I would suggest that you adopt this term also." Here, Darcy paused and, with his back to the bench, gave a slight smile, very pleased with this little charade. "In other intimate moments however, you may wish to call me-"
"Will," smiled Elizabeth as she reached Darcy and turned him around to face her. In an act of boldness which surprised even her, Lizzie reached up to the face of the man before her, tangled her delicate fingers in the dark curls at the bottom of his neck and lowered his head to hers.
And it was at that moment that time stopped for the two lovers. With a thought of 'damn propriety!' Darcy allowed one arm to snake around Elizabeth's waist, whilst using the other to press her head, and her lips, firmly to him. With a rather similar thought, the young woman pressed herself to him whilst permitting one hand to wander to the alarmingly warm face so delightfully close to her own, whilst the other gripped the strong, firm muscles of his arm.
Completely lost in the kiss, both lovers felt an overwhelming desire to give themselves, body and soul, to each other. Instead, it was left to the gentleman, as he still remained, to break the embrace. Struggling to catch his breath, his thoughts in a manic whirl, the only two words which a once haughty Mr Darcy could summon were, "thank you."
For Fitzwilliam Darcy, of ten thousand a year, the preceding kiss was possibly the most valuable moment of his life. Before then, he had known of Elizabeth's love for him; but he now understood that her feelings were just as true, intense and passionate as his own. What had seemed to the second eldest Miss Bennet to be a simple, although certainly exciting, gesture; was to Mr Darcy a first drop of water to a parched man.
As the sun began to set, the couple found their way back to the garden oak bench and, with Mr Bennet observing from his library window, this, dear reader, is where we shall leave the two lovers talking, laughing and wishing that the day on which the would be married could be the very next.