It's just a one shot as I'm working on my other story – it's regency, rather than modern and I hope you all like it.
You know where the review button is…
What if Darcy had overheard Mr. Collin's proposal, but not Elizabeth's refusal?
Later, looking back, Fitzwilliam Darcy, a peer of the realm would state that it was an unknown force that drove him to Longbourne that day, a recollection of intelligent brown eyes, and a razor-sharp wit burned in his mind and before he knew what he was doing, he was standing outside Longbourne.
In that moment of embarrassing realization, he toyed with the options. Should he go in, and make small talk with Mr. Bennet, all the while hoping against hopes that 'she' would be there, somewhere, to make his visit worthwhile, and to renew his picture of her in his mind?
Or should he take the opportunity while no-one had seen him to leave as quickly as possible and try and put 'her' out of his head?
There were not many times in the life of Mr. Darcy that he faced such a point of indecision, but this was one. It was Mrs. Bennet that solved his problem
"Oh yes!!" he heard her scream "I'm sure Lizzy will be very happy. Out, everyone, out!!! Mr. Collins has something to say to Lizzy"
Darcy knew, in his heart of hearts, that he should go, he should leave the front drive, and leave Elizabeth to Mr. Collins, and her own life.
But Darcy couldn't move. His feet remained glued to the floor, and his heart remained in his throat as that odious Mr. Collins, whom Darcy would have happily strangled, proposed to Lizzy. His Lizzy.
Her reply was so soft, that he heard not a word. He was straining his ears to hear more when he heard
"Mr. Collins!" in her sweet voice, said as passionately as he had ever heard. He did not stop to consider that it could have been passionate anger, not passionate love that had caused her to utter this statement. He turned, his heart dropping to his feet, and his head suddenly filled with a black despondency.
She would marry for nothing less than love, and if Mr. Collins fitted that requirement, he would not stand in the way; he would not declare up his love. He would leave. He would never return.
Charles greeted him at the door full of his usual good humour and energy, but Darcy could spare him nothing but a small nod, as he wandered to his room, dragging his feet like concrete behind him.
He slept little that night, Elizabeth Bennet's soft voice taunting him; her passionate exclamation of "Mr. Collins!" ringing again and again in his ears; his fury at the little Mr. Collins rising.
"He does not deserve her." Darcy seethed to himself as the clock struck 12.
As is always the case with Mr. Darcy, one should learn to expect the unexpected. Wasn't it the case that he'd judged Jane Bennet as shallow, money-grabbing and entirely devoid of emotion?
Exactly three hours after he made this revelation, he happened to overhear a conversation between the two sisters.
"Jane, calm down, I'm sure he's as much in love with you, as you are with him"
It was the voice of 'his' Lizzy that had first attracted him to the conversation, and he'd been unable to tear himself away from listening. After all, he reckoned, if it was anything to do with Charles Bingley, it concerned him.
"Lizzy! What if he doesn't? If Charles goes away, which most rich men do, and forgets me, thinking of me as just a summer romance, what's going to happen to me? Mama will be sure I marry some Reverend Bishop, somebody or other with good connections" here a tearful laugh emerged from one of the sisters, Darcy wasn't sure who "And I'll spend the rest of my life looking after little horrors in a vicarage"
"Jane" Lizzy laughed, obviously crying at the same time "You are so melodramatic"
Darcy had left, mulling over his changed opinion of Jane Bennet, and now alone in his bed, the clock ticking quietly, he wondered if he'd ever get to sleep.
He tried turning to the left.
He tried turning to the right.
He tried lying on his front.
Then the unexpected happened, like our readers all knew it would.
He sat up straight when he heard the knock on the front door, the subsequent opening, and the voices downstairs. He didn't need to think twice, he was out of bed in flash, years of boarding school training, and he could pull his breeches and shirt on seconds.
Slowly he made his way toward the hall, and leaned against the banister.
"Really, miss" he heard Grandstone, the butler say in an assumed accent, and Darcy smiled to himself - the 'miss' must be pretty "I must say that it is not for me to say whether you can stay for a while or not, that is the duty of the young masters."
Darcy decided to take matters into his own hands, and silently padded downstairs
"Grandstone?" he called.
If he'd been paying more attention he'd have noticed the young lady freeze and try to make herself more invisible in the background.
"William, old boy" the butler looked relieved, but retained his ridiculous accent, "The young lady has run away from home, something about a forced marriage, I don't know." he sighed in that way the older generation does, even back in that day.
"Does she want to stay for tonight?" Darcy prompted
"Yes sir, and I assured her it was not my place to say whether she could stay or not, and I..."
"Grandstone, you are just annoyed she got you out of bed; any other time and you'd have welcomed her in with open arms, assuring me that's what you'd want someone to do if you'd ever had a daughter."
A small chuckle emitted its way from the mouth of the 'Miss' in question, and Darcy's thoughts shot back to her.
"Let her stay for as long as she needs, and you can count on our discretion, Miss..."
"Elizabeth Bennet" Grandstone announced proudly "Why, sir, do you know the lady in question?"
There was no doubt on that score, and Grandstone was just beginning to wonder if some invisible hand had punched his master in the solar plexus, so great was the emotion on his face, when Darcy pulled himself together.
"We are acquainted, I believe" he agreed, giving Grandstone a stare that dared him to say another word on the subject. The old man sighed
"I'm getting too old for all this; I suppose I'd better retire"
Now Elizabeth definitely laughed.
"Get back to bed, man" Darcy ordered his butler "I'll see to the lady"
An eyebrow went up, and straight back down when it observed the look on Darcy's face, and the old man trundled off to his bed as fast as his little fat legs would carry him, leaving silence in the hall.
"You'd better come out" Darcy sounded amused "I know you are there"
Elizabeth emerged, cheeks redder than Darcy had ever seen them. He just couldn't resist one last shot at her.
"If you get any redder, Grandstone will put you in the pantry, and Cook will put you into the beetroot stew"
Elizabeth shot him a death-like glare.
"Oh, er, your room. Yes, come along"
****
Elizabeth had had it up to her ears. First Mr. Collins proposed, then her parents insisted that she marry him, and then she left, and without thinking, somehow ended up at Netherfield.
She wanted to be anywhere but with 'him' - but assumed that since it was so late, she could stay the night and leave in the morning undetected.
Now the odious man was having fun at her expense, and she'd just had enough!
She looked up at him as he repeated his request
"Come along, we haven't got all day"
And immediately was thankful that she had. The aura of pride and conceit had vanished with his cravat, and there was something infinitely more human about him that she'd never noticed before. She spotted her revenge.
"Tell me" she croaked out. Coughed, and started again
"Tell me, do you often go around the house, barefoot, or is it just your 'after midnight' attire"
In shock Darcy glanced down at his bare feet. He turned redder than Elizabeth had just moments before and firmly began to move in the direction of the spare bedrooms.
Happening to catch a small glimpse of Elizabeth as he moved, he noted she was grinning with all the ability of a Cheshire cat.
Looking up, he caught her eye and began to grin too.
It was Elizabeth's turn to feel like she had been sucker punched, her breath left her body and she stood and stared. Perhaps he had no idea about the voltage of his smile, or the things it did to her.
"I had it coming didn't I?" he asked ruefully and grinned again when she nodded silently.
"Now, let's get you to bed, er, I mean to your room, before either of our reputations are compromised any more than they already are"
Elizabeth couldn't but help the occasional sideward glance at him as she glided upstairs beside him, trying to keep her thoughts to herself.
"I suppose you're not going to marry Mr. Collins after all"
She could have sworn that she'd never mentioned Mr. Collins, and stopped abruptly.
"You know?"
"Er, I came to see your father today, and happened to overhear it" he was every inch the proud aristocrat again as he justified his actions and with a blank face showed her which room she could stay in.
"Stay as long as you like, Miss Bennet. Goodnight"
Just like that he changed. Back from the personable person that she'd caught a glimpse, to the proud conceited man who wouldn't dance with her at Netherfield.
He turned to walk down the hall and Elizabeth's eyes followed him. Inside her, there was a small sense of desolation that had not been there before, and she felt sure that something in her that had just lit up, died.
Thousands of miles above, an angel reclining on a cushy cloud looked at her brother.
"Well, it goes on from here, heartache, pain, he'll propose, she'll turn him down, he'll help her, she'll realize she loves him and will think it's too late, and will spend hours trying to forget him."
"Really?"
"Oh please, you're barely old enough to have your thumb out of your mouth, don't pretend you know anything about love. They'll get together in the end" she mused "But only in the very end."
"Isn't there an easier way?"
"There is, but it's seldom used. It's best to let the humans get on without our help - it creates the independence they need"
But he'd gone, only the cloud slowly returning to it's normal shape was witness to his disappearance, and his sister was too busy drying her tears to notice.
***
She didn't know why she was going this way, but some sense inside her was telling her to.
He didn't know why he was headed for his portrait gallery, but some sense inside him told him to.
They collided just beside his picture
"Mr. Darcy" the tone was cool and pleasant
"Miss Bennet" the tone could have been cool, but something else was there too.
Behind the mask, Darcy saw it all. She would never love him, he would let her go away, and bother her no more, he had heard that if you love something, let it go. While it was a noble statement in and of itself, Darcy thought it very unduly sentimental and a load of drivel.
Behind her mask, Elizabeth was standing shocked.
Her knees had turned to jelly with one touch of his hand on her back to steady her; her heart was thumping fifteen to a dozen, and her back was tingling where his fingers had been just moments before.
Her mind, dazed and surprised took on a new outlook. She wasn't looking forward to moving away, she didn't want to leave the man that she'd thought about every spare moment since meeting him, and the main reason that she'd known she could never Mr. Collins was because her heart already belonged to another.
No matter how proud, how conceited, how arrogant he may seem, she knew it was a mask, and last night she had met the man behind the mask, the true Fitzwilliam Darcy.
As she stood there staring at him, she knew with a final certainty in her heart that they could never be together.
She would disgrace him with her lack of connections, lack of true breeding, lack of discretion in her running away.
Elizabeth and her Darcy would never meet again.
She touched his hand for the last time, meeting his hazel eyes for one more time, savoring what might have been, and could not, and began to move away.
Darcy stood there, the torture acute, the truth of what had happened to painful to bear. No matter what, Darcy would never have his Elizabeth.
As her carriage pulled away, an angel watched over Darcy and Elizabeth in their separate walks of life, and orchestrated the next move in his plan.
Jane married Bingley.
So much for the melodramatics, and the heartfelt certainty that Elizabeth would never meet Darcy again.
Her father had written and assured her that if she just returned home, she would not have to marry Collins, after all, and she'd occupied herself with the romantic sentimental thought that she would live to be an old maid, pining away with the love for Darcy, when he'd turned up on her doorstep with Charles Bingley.
Throughout the wedding preparations they'd endured each-other's company and no-one, with the exception of Aunt Gardiner had noticed the sparks that flew when they debated, or the small gasps if they happened to touch by accident or the main tension when they were in each-other's company.
Thousands of miles above
"How is your little project going?" Angel Girl wanted to know
"Terribly" her brother sighed "They both are suffering from this thing called inferiority complex. Neither thinks the other will ever love them"
Angel Girl giggled.
"That's human's for you." she buffed her nails against her sleeve "Not like us angels. We're perfect"
"Superiority complex" her brother muttered to himself
"What?"
"Nothing"
---
It took the wedding rehearsal to finally put the icing on the cake and let the little angel relax.
"Now, you turn and walk up the isle, and the minute they're past the fourth pew" Aunt Gardiner instructed "You - Darcy, Elizabeth are you listening? You two stand up, hold hands and walk up the isle together behind them, staying four pews behind at all times. When you reach the end of the isle, you go outside, that's right, Jane and Charles, you kiss -, and now move aside, as it's traditional for the best man and Bridesmaid to kiss you two do it now."
Darcy and Elizabeth gazed at one another in horror.
"On the cheek of course" Aunt Gardiner called out "Let's not have any more scandals, please"
Darcy suddenly couldn't resist it. Maybe it was the word kiss associated with Elizabeth. Maybe it was the look on her Aunt's face. Maybe it was the mental shove the little angel had been trying to give him for the last two weeks.
"Like this"
He pulled Elizabeth to him, and finally put his lips to hers. He'd dreamed of doing it for so long, but dreams didn't even begin to measure up to reality. The minute she got over her shock, Elizabeth began to profusely kiss him back, and together they ignored the coughing and exclamations from Collins and concentrated on catching up on months of lost kissing.
Finally Bingley took it into his hands
"...If you are quite finished"
They pulled apart gazing at each other in awe.
"Wow"
Darcy then pulled Elizabeth closer to him, and looked at Bingley over her head.
"That, my dear friend" he said smiling "Is how it's supposed to be done"
There was a round of laughter as the embarrassment of the room subsided and Elizabeth finally felt she could show her face again.
"I should hope you are going to marry her after this" Mr. Bennet looked up at Mr. Darcy glaring
"I should hope so too" Darcy agreed "Elizabeth? Your thoughts on the matter?"
Apparently only Mr. Darcy heard what she said because after a second or two of asking the question, his face became effused in delight, and he picked up his affianced and swung her round.
It was said for years afterwards that even married woman present at that rehearsal ceremony never forgot his smile, or the love shining out of his eyes.
Back at the present, Mr. Darcy looked at the audience with another cheeky grin
"I think my fiancée and I should go and have a private discussion about the wedding plans. I need to know her views on what colour the dresses should be and all those intricate little details."
So saying, he and Elizabeth exited through a side door, and it was apparent to all that they continued an activity they had left off doing minutes previously.
Later that night, Angel Boy lay on his cloud with a contented sigh.
"I'll bet you'll never make that sort of commitment again" his sister smiled
"I don't know" he mused "It was hard work sure, but worth it in the end!"
The End