Chapter Thirteen

I found myself very comfortable when I next awoke. I buried my head deeper into the pillow. That was when I heard a heartbeat. Pillows didn't have heartbeats! I opened my eyes cautiously and found myself in very close proximity to George's face. Sometime in the night we had managed to intertwine. I was curled into his side with his arms wrapped protectively around me and our legs intertwined. My head lay gently on his chest, making his heartbeat echo in my ear and emphasised the fact that our hearts were beating in perfect unison as cheesy as it sounded. Although, this began to change as my heart sped up due to my realisation of our intimate position.

I tried to move away from him slowly without waking him and making him realise what position we were in. He must be a remarkably light sleeper, as the second I began to move away from him, his eyes flickered open and came to rest on me with a gentle smile blossoming on his face.

'Good morning' he said softly. 'It would be a perfect was to start each morning; with you in my arms'. I couldn't stop the grin from emerging on my face with his heartfelt line. It set off a reel of images in my mind of the possibilities of such a scenario.

As I was distracted with the sudden rush of images running through my head; George had meanwhile pulled me closer, unnoticed by me, and his arms tightened around me to gain my attention once more. He was so close now that I could do nothing but stare at him and smile; no words could express the feelings running through me. I so wanted to tell him how I felt but the other half still wanted the happy ending for Pride and Prejudice.

'I wish I could make you smile like that for every moment of every day' he whispered gently to me. He was now so close that his breath seemed to linger on my face. With this simple statement he pulled my body flush against his and gently kissed me on the lips. Our lips moved together in harmony and all thoughts left my head, leaving a blissful peace. My arms went around his neck to become even closer to him if that was even possible. He chuckled into the kiss and placed his hands around my waist.

His hands then suavely moved up my waist and brushed the underside of my breasts. This then knocked me out of my kiss induced daze and I pulled away from him. He tried to pull me back to him but I effectively put some distance between us and had to move myself to the edge of the bed to stop myself from launching myself back into his arms.

'What is wrong?' he asked me clearly concerned by my sudden change of heart. The look on his face was almost heartbreaking and it looked as if he felt that he had done something wrong and was about to launch into an apology.

'It's nothing that's your fault. It's just… I… I've never done this sort of thing before… I didn't want to get carried away. I try to take things slowly when I'm around you but you seem to sweep me away and I get caught up in the tide' I struggled to explain. I wasn't even sure that any of my words made sense. By this point I was rather anxious that he wouldn't understand or would laugh at my innocence and so I had stood up from the bed and was pacing up and down the room.

'Eli' he said softly in a voice that made me want to melt, although I still couldn't look at him. He came up behind me and turned me around and then lifted my chin with his hand to make me look him in the eyes. 'I love the fact that you are so innocent and that I am the first one to make you feel this way. We will take things as slow as you wish. You decide how far to take things and I will take whatever you are willing to give me. I… care for you' he murmured softly.

Before I could say anything else, we were interrupted by a firm knock at the door. I realised that it must be nearing midday and so I snatched up the dress that George had presented me with yesterday and moved behind the screen to change out of my nightclothes. I heard George conversing with a gentleman at the door and then close the door again. As I emerged from behind the screen George handed me a small piece of folded paper and an envelope and said with a smirk, 'I believe that this is for you.' He then proceeded to sit in the armchair with a newspaper that he had also gotten from the gentleman at the door and read this while waiting for me to read the piece of paper he had given me.

On one of the folded sides was the following message:

Dear Wickham,

Although this letter was addressed to you, it is not for you. Sorry to disappoint you. I doubt that anyone at the inn will know my sister and so won't know where to deliver the letter. That is why it is addressed to you.

Please pass this on to Elicia as soon as possible and don't read it yourself, it is not for you! Oh, and you better be looking after my sister properly and keeping your hands to yourself. Don't make me come after you!

From

Amanda Price

I chuckled at this message; that was typical of Manda. George looked up at my laugh and smiled gently, obviously happy to see me happy. I unfolded the rest of the letter that was specifically for me.

Eli,

You would never believe what has gone down here. I stayed with Jane and everything is fine between us again, even though she is miserable there with Collins. Lady Catherine is a complete bitch as well and I had to dine with her and guess who else was there? Darcy! He was his arrogant self as usual until he paid a visit to the Collins late one night to see me. He said that he didn't understand what was going on and to be perfectly honest I didn't understand what the hell he was even talking about. Then, I swear to God he tried to kiss me and then ran off into the middle of the night!

I'm so confused Eli, I wish you were here. You were always the voice of reason. You are always so good with relationship advice, I never understood how when you've not been through it all yourself; although maybe that just gives you a good perspective on it all. I'm just so confused because he needs to be with Elizabeth but she's not here. What do I do? Jane thinks he's in love with me but it makes no sense!

Anyway, I saw him last night again. He apologised for the whole Jane and Bingers situation. Can you imagine, Darcy, stick-up-his-ass Darcy, apologised to me! He's invited me to stay at Pemberley. Of course, Mrs Bennet heard this invitation and so he has extended this invitation to Mrs Bennet, Lydia, you and me. Please come, I need you here to help me sort out all of this mess. In the envelope I've sent enough money for you to get to Pemberley, providing it hasn't been stolen along the way. Please get there as soon as possible; I should be arriving there sometime this afternoon.

Hoping to see you soon,

Manda x

'What tidings does your sister send?' George asked from across the room.

'She has reconciled with Jane and has been asked to stay at Pemberley by Mr Darcy' I shared with a smile, thinking of how confused my sister would be at this moment. She seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that she was clearly falling in love with Mr Darcy. 'She has asked me to join her at Pemberley'

'Well, we should get a cab as soon as possible, should we not?' commented George.

'NO!' I yelled. It suddenly dawned on me that I would have to leave George behind. He could not come to Pemberley, Darcy would be furious. Then the reason that he would be furious sprung into my mind, creating an onslaught of terrible thoughts about what Wickham had done in the past. I couldn't refer to the book character as George, they were two separate people in my mind and I had been treating them as such. It was difficult for me to comprehend that they were both the same person.

'Why ever not?' he asked calmly, taking in the look of turmoil on my face.

'Georgiana…' the word slipped out of my mouth as a whisper without me intentionally willing it to.

That was the moment that his eyes lost the warmth and glow that they had in them for the last couple of days. His eyes turned cold and hard and I had to avert my gaze to avoid the anger in them. I hated the fact that this anger was directed at me.

'You always want to believe the worst in me aren't you?' he asked disbelievingly.

'What's that supposed to mean?' I asked, utterly confused by that statement. He'd tried to seduce Georgiana so that he could get money out of Darcy, how could he defend that?

'It doesn't matter. Go to your sister and enjoy your time with Darcy and Georgiana' he seemed to spit the names at me. He was suddenly very hostile and his harsh words sent jolts of sadness straight to my heart. The tears began to fall slowly from my eyes as I collected my other dress and began to leave the room as fast as possible.

Just before I left he grabbed my wrist and stopped me, swinging me round to face him. I was unable to hide the tears steadily streaming down my face at the anger that was directed at me but I couldn't understand why. His eyes softened once more as he saw my tears and he wiped them away gently with the rough pad of his thumb. I turned away again still confused and hurt by his outburst and turned and walked out of the inn, leaving George behind me.