“Wasyourroomsatisfactorylast night?” Darcy had been watching for the very moment his sister’s head would roll against Lydia Wickham’s shoulder during this day’s carriage ride, and had immediately stolen the opportunity to take Elizabeth’s hand into his. He turned his head slightly to peer under the rim of her bonnet, which she lifted obligingly to smile up at him.
“Perfectly tolerable,” she answered. “I daresay, I have never been accorded such deference when traveling with my aunt and uncle. I do believe each of the beds had been freshly feathered in preparation for our arrival!”
“I wished you to be comfortable,” he returned with a sly curve to his lips. “I am yet in hopes that you will come to view it as an easy journey between Pemberley and your family’s home.”
“Indeed, for what are three or four days of good road, with such a well-sprung carriage and agreeable accommodations? Near and far, it seems, are relative terms.”
“Good heavens, I hope you are not to recall each ridiculous thing I ever said! I would much prefer that some conversations were forgotten.”
“Well, then, what shall we speak of next? I know you have not the talent for speaking to strangers, but I am hardly a stranger to you by now. I believe we must have some conversation, and you must have your share in it. My lips await your orders, sir.”
A dangerous light flickered in his eyes. “It would be better if you did not speak of your lips awaiting my orders until after we are wed. I fear I have given your father more than enough reason to call me out already.”
“Oh, that will never do! I am all curiosity now, for I cannot possibly understand the meaning behind such a cryptic warning.”
“I shall take care to enlighten you as soon as I may.” He gazed adoringly down into her laughing eyes, longing for the day when he could, in fact, share with her every intimate desire. “For now, I do not know how I shall withstand very much more of your admittedly delightful teasing.”
She tilted her head with a fresh pertness and touched her fingers to the corners of his mouth. “Alas, I find that you look more like Mr Darcy now than the William I had come to know. William was everything gentle and unguarded, and I could not but be tender with him. Mr Darcy, on the other hand, is perfectly impossible, and simply begs to be teased.”
“Impossible?” he lifted a brow in interest. “I make no objections, madam, but was I not more circumspect and aloof when I still possessed a beard?”
“Oh, not at all, for do you see, your eyes spoke every thought so eloquently. I was therefore left to rely upon them, and I understood you with the utmost clarity. Now,” she sighed theatrically, “I find that your mouth is quite distracting. Your smile—yes, that one there, the one you are about to deny—it is most unfair.”
“I was not smiling at all. You are quick to make accusations of distracting smiles when it was you who first charmed me against my will by the very same means.”
“It was quite unconsciously done,” she waived an airy hand. “You, however, are knowingly practising your arts and allurements on an innocent lady, and woe upon you, for I fear you may not like the consequences. Ah, there it is again! I wish I had my hand mirror, for there is the most devilish wrinkle just above the corner of your mouth, and it twitches each time you must try to stop yourself from laughing. Now, is it any wonder that my courage rises to tease you?”
“I am curious about these dire ‘consequences’ of which you speak. Do you mean to punish me for smiling at you?”
“Oh! Most assuredly. I can think of no more fitting punishment than forcing you to laugh, but I shall reserve that particular torment for another day. I fear it might wake Georgiana and cause her to think we had a strange man in the carriage, and that would never do.”
“Then we are at an impasse, for we have several hours yet of travel, and not a thing to do but to refrain from smiling at one another. I believe that I for one, shall be successful, but your nature renders you incapable of restraining yourself from clever mots designed to amaze the whole room.”
“Those are hardly the words of a gentleman, sir,” she crossed her arms and looked deliberately away, but her lips were pursed vigilantly against the very same expression he would accuse her of.
“You have informed me before that I do not always speak as a gentleman,” he reminded her, but in a voice light with amusement. “I am simply fulfilling your expectations, but I am wondering what I must do for you to once again call me by my more familiar name. I have heard it but little in these last three days, and I am tempted to resort to extreme measures.”
She turned back, laughter in her eyes. “I hope you do not think of growing that dreadful beard once more. I do not think I can abide kissing it again, after I have experienced this,” she traced light fingers over his jaw, then her expression sobered. Without even glancing to be certain that Georgiana and Lydia still slept—or at least appeared to—she raised up to kiss his bare lips. She lingered, caressing flesh that had previously been guarded from her, soothing each place where her lips touched and inviting him to release the last of his misgivings.
“Elizabeth,” he whispered against her mouth, “I shall never know how you disarm me at will, but I beg you not to stop.”
She cupped a hand to his cheek. “William,” she murmured, “I could not speak it then, for we had other concerns, but I do believe my heart nearly burst in my chest when you came into the room, looking as handsome and dashing as the night of the Netherfield ball. I felt as if my William of these last months had passed again into reality, and the truth of it all came upon me at once. You must allow me to tell you,” she smiled, “how ardently I admire and love you, Mr Darcy.”
There was little he could say in response to such a speech, but he somehow found the means to express himself rather sensibly on the subject. With a lump in his throat and a mist clouding his eyes, he held the woman he loved. All care for what his relations might think, what thetonmight say, were all blissfully in the past, for he had not struggled his long way home to quail at such trivialities. He would take her as his love, would proudly cherish her before all the world, and fearlessly look toward old age with her at his side. He kissed her smiling mouth, that pert nose, the fine brows and then her soft forehead before forcing himself to pull back.
She was still touching his cheek, those expressive fingers marveling at his tender skin. She raised once more to press a meaningful kiss to his smooth cheek. “I imagine it must have been difficult for you, after everything.”
He glanced hesitantly toward the others, then met her eyes again. “The carriage has been more difficult than the shave, but you see now that I have borne it without suffocating. Your regular teasing has helped,” he smiled. “I believe I could even bear that dark room again, if you were there to liven my spirits.”
“I think I must learn something of your philosophy, William, for I often think on my own challenges with little hope of surmounting them.”
“You! I am afraid you must enlighten me, my love, for I have never seen you flinch at the most daunting of trials.”
“You have not seen me attempt to ride!” she shuddered.
“But you told me once that you merely preferred not to ride, not that you were afraid.”
“I was trying to save face before the imposing gentleman from Derbyshire who seemed disturbingly interested in whether I enjoyed the sport. If you had got me on a horse, I fear I would have mortified myself most excruciatingly.”
