Very slowly, every so thoughtfully Elizabeth Bennet walked towards the door that held her future happiness.
She smoothed down the blue muslin of her dress and in doing so caught another glimpse of her engagement ring. "Amazing." Lizzy said softly, still dumbfounded at the events of the morning.
She could clearly hear the goings on inside the overcrowded room. Her mother babbling loudly and rapidly, her sisters giggling and bustling about, and her dear father and Colonel Fitzwilliam speaking near the door about the excellent elder wine.
Lizzy stilled near the door, noting that she had not heard her newly intended groom, Mr. Darcy, from inside the raucous room.
She moved her hand towards the door knob, ready to enter the merriment when a strong hand wrapped around her right arm to stop her pursuit.
Lizzy jumped from the unexpected intrusion and fell back into the sudden but not unwelcomed heat of Mr. Darcy.
"Forgive me Elizabeth." Darcy whispered in Lizzy's ear, pulling her back closer towards his chest.
Lizzy clutched at his hand that had now found its way from her arm down to the slight curve of her waist.
Darcy's lips hoovered over Lizzy's neck as he breathed, "I need to speak with you in confidence before we are welcomed into the fold of your beloved family."
Looking directly ahead at the still closed door, eyes huge in her face, Lizzy stammered, "Of course, let us take solitude in the garden."
Darcy's body pressed against her from behind, his hand still firmly on her form she could not help but assume that his earlier wish for marriage was not in error.
He was a man who through his actions was staking his claim, and that claim, Lizzy thought with a slight shiver, was her.
His heat soaked through the thin muslin of her dress and warmed Lizzy to her core, thus forgetting herself and all propriety; she followed his firm lead down the hall and out the door into the unruly Bennet garden.