Chapter 1

Fitzwilliam Darcy found himself staring once again at the petite brunette that had caught his eye from the moment his party had entered the Meryton assembly room. There was something familiar about her and he found himself drawn towards her. He was vexed to find himself so inexplicably drawn to a simple country miss from an inferior society. His mood had been dark upon arrival, the whispers of his 10,000 a year did not improve his humor whatsoever. His fascination with the slip of a girl he watched covertly only served to darken it.

"Darcy!" his friend Bingley called cheerfully as he came bounding over. "Why are you not dancing?"

"You know how I detest doing so. Your sisters are presently engaged and there is not another in the room it would not be a punishment for me to stand up with," Darcy said stiffly his eyes once again darting towards the petite brunette.

"I wouldn't be as fastidious as you for a kingdom. There are plenty of agreeable girls here, many of them uncommonly pretty. "

"You are dancing with the handsomest girl in the room, I daresay," Darcy said in an attempt to distract his friend from harangueing him to dance.

"She is an angel! The most beautiful creature I have ever beheld," Bingley exclaimed enthusiastically. In a knowing voice he added,"There is one of her sisters over there. Rather pretty herself it would seem and I daresay agreeable. Shall I have my partner preform an introduction so you may have a dance?"

Embarrassed his friend had apparently caught him out staring at a woman of inferior station, Darcy said in a cold voice, "She is tolerable I suppose, but not handsome enough to tempt me. I am in no mood to give consequence to young ladies slighted by other gentlemen. Return to your partner with her too many smiles and leave me be."

Bingley's eyed bugged out of his head. He had seen the way his friend's eyes constantly sought the young lady out and how Darcy had quite a few times drifted in her direction as he stalked along the ballroom. He had become quite convinced Darcy was attempting to seek her out and lingered in his current spot in hopes of being introduced to the young lady. He had been happy to oblige his friend.

"I shall leave you to yourself," Bingley said retreating quickly, recognizing that his friend was in a foul mood and that his attempt to help had some how made it worse.

Darcy, with a scowl on his face, watched Bingley head back towards the dance floor. He snuck one more look at the brunette. He had been appalled that his first instinct had been to agree, despite the fact that he knew better than to raise the expectations of young ladies below his sphere. Perhaps by dancing with her, he could have ended his fascination and determined why she seemed so familiar, but it was likely better he had not, he concluded.

Elizabeth Bennet's heart beat rapidly in her chest. She could not believe that the so called gentleman would dare say such a thing within her hearing. She knew she was not as pretty as Jane, but for a perfect stanger to proclaim such a thing outloud was mortifying and stung. She brushed aside the initial sting of his words and instead chose to seek out her friend, Charlotte Lucas, and give a humorous spirited rendition of the incident, afterall she would much rather laugh than cry.

Over the next few days as the Netherfield party settled in, Darcy endeavored to convince his party, and more so himself, that he was not interested in the second eldest Bennet daughter. He claimed she had nary a good feature and denied the evidence of his own eyes. When she was around he could not look away from her light and pleasing figure, and he found her eyes to be the finest he had ever encountered. The feeling of familiarity did not go away though, it only strengthened, as did the fascination he felt for her. His eyes not only sought her out, his ears did as well, listening to her conversations with others to such a degree that he began to devise ways he could speak to her as well.