Title: An Eligible Match
Rating: G/K
Originally posted: 21st January 2020
Originally written for: theunlivedlife
Characters/Pairings: Elizabeth/Darcy
Notes: for Chocolate Box 2020 at Dreamwidth and AO3.

"It is not his eligibility that concerns me, Elizabeth," Darcy insisted, striding into the room with purpose. "I merely wonder why, with so little effort, he is accepted as quite the proper match for Georgiana."

"And I merely wonder," his wife retorted with a smile she could barely hide as she followed behind him, "what gives you so much need for deep thought into the matter, dear Fitzwilliam. If Georgiana is indeed as happy and contented in the match as she seems to be, why concern yourself?"

"It is not..." he began, turning to face her, only for his next argument seeming to die on his lips. "I only asked you, as a woman, if you could explain his innate attraction? It is not at all something I should feel comfortable in asking my sister."

"I am glad to hear it." Elizabeth nodded once, moving to take a seat at the table and busying herself with sorting the threads of her needlework. "Should it be so very strange to you that our Mr Havisham is considered an attractive prospect? He has fortune enough and status besides, as you know, but I believe it is his happy manners and perhaps more his pleasant face and figure that has Georgiana so enraptured. One does not usually find one so handsome and so rich to also be quite so entertaining in conversation besides."

She did not need to glance at her husband in order to know she had not at all improved his mood with her observations, and yet, she had answered his query quite succinctly, or so Elizabeth thought.

"I am sure I should not know if he is handsome," he told her, the sound that followed proving he was attacking the coals in the fire with some vigour.

"I should be surprised if you had noticed." Elizabeth sighed. "In others, where you might have seen it, you still could not be tempted, as I recall."

When she felt his movement behind her and then saw him coming into view, Elizabeth could barely hold in her smile for very much longer.

"You tease me most cruelly," her husband told her, smiling himself, in spite of his words, as he took up the chair opposite.

"Indeed, there is no malice in it," she assured him, her hand covering his upon the table. "You know, I am all the more inclined to appreciate your good opinion of me for knowing that it was based on nothing so frivolous as my appearance."

Darcy shifted forward in his seat, lifted his wife's hand to his lips and kissed it.

"Your appearance is forever charming, Elizabeth, as you well know," he promised her faithfully, "but you have many other attributes as to far outdo mere physical beauty."

"Aye, husband, it is something we have in common," she told him, smiling widely and without pause now, her attention fully taken from her original task. "You might say we are a perfectly eligible match in that regard."

Darcy smiled just the same, his warm brown eyes sparkling at her. "In every regard," he promised, pressing one more kiss to her hand.

Elizabeth was not inclined to argue.