“Truly?”
She flushed. “I am sure there is some simple thing thatyoucannot do which everyone else considers wholly ordinary but—”
Darcy gestured down at his legs with one hand and a sardonic expression.
Elizabeth choked out a startled giggle. “Oh, oh my. I apologize. I forgot—”
“You forgot?”
“You look so very capable up there on that horse — quite like a Norman knight preparing to ride over the Saxon lines.”
“So you forgot—” Darcy smiled to himself. “I rather like that.”
“Ha — I told Charlotte.”
“What?” When Elizabeth did not reply, “That is if you wish to say.”
Elizabeth looked to the ground in embarrassment. “I am not used to being caught flatfooted in conversation.”
“Nor I. We unsettle each other.”
“Do we?” Elizabeth glanced up at him. She smiled. “I believe we do.”
“But Miss Lucas —whatdid you tell Miss Lucas that prompted that pleased exclamation — you pounded your hand against your fist. Very expressive, Miss Elizabeth.”
“I have been told that is one of my chief virtues, my spirit.”
“It is,” Darcy replied fervently. “But I must hear the story.”
“Oh, nothing scandalous, simply that I had thought that wereIto have such a difficulty as you have been faced with, I would far prefer to be seen much the same as I always had been, simply with a few added frustrations.”
“As I always had been, with simply a few added frustrations.” Darcy paused and then nodded with a decided air. “Thatisvery much how I try to view myself — and as everyone has a great many frustrations from time to time, I am in no way remarkable.”
Elizabeth laughed. “You are highly remarkable, and you like being that way.”
“Do I?” Darcy replied with a little confusion on his face. “I do not think I enjoy being remarked upon.”
Elizabeth frowned at that, but did not reply immediately. They were now going immediately up the slope of Oakham Mount, and she breathed a little heavily.
Was Mr. Darcy shy?
Such a man, raised in wealth, with breeding, position, consequence — everything. Shy? No.
And yet… Elizabeth was suddenly sure he was shy.
What if she were a person who did not like being remarked upon, but who was yet surrounded by a vast crowd of strangers who shecorrectlysurmised were talking about her, speculating upon her character and fortune, and wondering if they might foist someone upon her as a spouse?
Perhaps his frequent ill temper was, if notjustified, at leastexcusable.
Darcy’s horse easily managed the slope, going up the trail with sure footfalls. While in no way well versed in the judgement of horseflesh, even Elizabeth perceived that his horse was an exceptional specimen, beautifully groomed and with muscles that rippled under the glistening coat.
They reached the top of the hill, where a circle of fine stone benches sat that had been paid for by subscription from the local landowners.
“And here we are!” Elizabeth exclaimed, stretching her arms and twirling around to indicate the view.
It was the best view that Elizabeth knew.
The fields of Longbourn, and further away Netherfield. The houses of Meryton, the spackling of little managed forests, and the endless fields of grain. The areas that were fallow this year and enclosed for the grazing of cattle, all of the human activity divided up by the long lines of dark green hedgerows and the lighter brown of low fences.
