Elizabeth immediately ascertained that she had overestimated the gentleman's perspicuity, or at least his ability to detect subterfuge on her part.
She set about calming him down. "I am fine, Mr Darcy, but thank you for asking. I had a slight headache after my walk with the colonel, but mostly just could not stand the thought of listening to Lady Catherine for an evening… no offense."
"None taken," he said with a nervous shudder.
She was about to bring up the colonel's gossip but detected that he seemed overly nervous and decided there was plenty of time for that later.
The gentleman seemed uncharacteristically restive. During the entirety of their acquaintance, she had not known him to be skittish, but there seemed to be something on his mind. She wondered if the colonel may have told him about their conversation and he perhaps worried that she was still angry.
Elizabeth decided to set his mind at ease, but before she could begin, he came towards her in an agitated manner, and thus began: "In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."
Elizabeth's astonishment was beyond expression. She stared, coloured, doubted, and was silent. This he considered sufficient encouragement; and the avowal of all that he felt, and had long felt for her, immediately followed.
When the poor man paused slightly for breath, she jumped in with a laugh, hoping to keep him from collapsing in nervousness. "Of course, you do!"
He startled and shook his head in surprise but seemed incapable of speech.
She continued, "Of course you must love me. It is the natural culmination of my first thesis!"
He stared a moment, and then finally stopped looking like he might swoon in a very unmanly fashion and chuckled. "Do you have an answer for everything?"
She laughed openly. "Last word, remember."
He chuckled, and finally said, "I believe we should call that Lizzy's Law," then paused. "I must admit that I was nervous. I did not expect such an answer, and wondered if I was pushing my luck speaking so soon after our reconciliation."
"A week ago, that would have been true, but it is best not to get into that. I cannot say the outcome would have been favourable."
"And now?"
"Now, I am wondering what else you have to say."
"I confess I was planning to wait until we were in London, but —"
"But you just could not help yourself, so you started blurting out something you dreamed up on the walk here."
He looked uncomfortable but nodded anyway.
She wondered at his nervousness. "I presume you are rethinking the middle part —"
"More like discarding!"
She frowned slightly. "Would I disapprove?"
"Of course! I disapprove myself."
"Well… it was unsaid, and best forgotten. A week ago, I would have taken whatever you had to say in the worst possible light—and today, the best. I know that even on the off chance that you were attracted to me in Hertfordshire, you would have had to consider very carefully any connection to a penniless country nobody with an indecorous family."
He grunted. "You make me sound better than I am."
"I know… but keep in mind that I tarred and feathered your reputation for six weeks because you had a bad night at an assembly."
"Hardly an isolated incident."
"That is all to be forgot. Perhaps I did not always love you so well as I do now. But in such cases as these, a good memory is unpardonable. This is the last time I shall ever remember it myself."
He startled at the assertion, and she replied nervously. "I hope I am not presuming how your declaration would end?"
He laughed with his own nervousness, then took her hands. "Let us remove all doubt. Miss Elizabeth Bennet, you are the love of my life, and I beg you to end my suffering by consenting to be my wife."
"Of course, I will, Fitzwilliam. It seems far more expedient than having to rewrite Lizzy's Law!"
With a laugh, he grabbed her about the waist and pulled her towards him.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, and before she knew what was happening their lips crashed together in the most awkward kiss in history. It took a moment to get their lips into the right position, but when it finally happened, she felt as if the parlour had burst into flames. They stood there experiencing the ecstasy of their first kiss for quite some time, but finally she dropped back on her flat feet and placed her head against his chest.
"That was unexpected," she said in a whisper.
"But not unwelcome, I hope."
"No, never unwelcome. Never again."
They stood there for some time in contemplation.
At long last, she bestirred herself to speak. "To paraphrase, you must tell me how ardently I support Lizzy's law—which must mean I ardently admire and love you. It is settled between us already, that we are to be the happiest couple in the world."
"That we are, my love. That we are."
"Who would have thought that our entire lives, and those of our children and my sister could be so altered by just two sentences."
He chuckled. "You overlook your own reply. There were actually four."
She chuckled, looked him right in the eye, then reached up and kissed him again.
Once their passion settled, she leaned her head against his chest.
"Remember this! I always get the last two sentences."
~~ Finis ~~