Mr. Darcy sometimes tried to remember the first time he had met Elizabeth and always came up blank. Her face didn't stand out in the mass of strangers present in that country assembly, from which he barely remembered Miss Bennet and Sir William Lucas.

He was sure it was because her charm lay more in her intelligence and goodness rather than her looks, and once they became apparent to him he had known he was defenceless as a child. His resistance had been futile, and he had experienced a mixture of dazzling elation and fear that had been completely out of his character; still, oddly, he had never felt more like himself.

As time passed he would wonder, were they to meet again, whether he would appreciate her beauty at once or he would need to hear her laughter and witty despise for superciliousness to be charmed again.


Elizabeth had blushed violently the moment her mistress had called out for Mr. Darcy, so much that she busied herself with baby Emma attempting to go unnoticed by everyone. Being a servant, she knew, her chances were high.

-"Miss Bennet, stand so Mr. Darcy can seat," commanded Mrs. Wainwright.

-"Do not trouble yourself on my account," he said quickly and her whole skin erupted in goosebumps at the sound of his voice.

-"It's no trouble, Sir," she said softly while standing, and only then did she dare to glance up to meet his eyes. It was only a second, perhaps even less, but she wished she hadn't. There was too much to regret.


It was true that Miss Elizabeth Bennet, formerly of Longbourn, Hertfordshire, was not a breathtaking beauty, and her plain servant clothes were definitely not to her advantage next to the other ladies. However, the moment his eyes met those fine brown eyes that tilted up mischievously at the corners and sparkled with life and laughter, even if the rest of herself was composed and rather low key, he knew, he was exactly were he had been the last time they had met.

He complied with Mrs. Wainwright's request and sat down in the spare seating, mostly to be in the company of Elizabeth for as long as he could. She stood a little apart, but he could see her all the time. The ladies were concerned about a dance Mrs. Wainwright was giving in a fortnight and wanted to know if he would come. Of course he would, and he thought how he could include a reference, a wink, a little something for Elizabeth, but his wit was absent and nothing sounded well in his mind to be allowed into his lips.

He had to tell her something, and strove to take the subject into the children and the park, if anything, to know when or where he could find her again, but it was no use. The ladies acted as if she were invisible and the children were simple accessories. He wondered how she was taking it. To his dismay, the chasm between the two seemed unsurmountable.