“I cannot possibly stop. Not when you look so enticing. So wanton.” She licked her lips again. “So... delicious.”
“You’re a perfect beast, Miss Bingley.”
She leaned in, intending to press a quick kiss to the side of Georgiana’s mouth. “If I am a monster, Miss Darcy, it is because you made me one.” She’d meant it as a jest, but Georgiana pulled back, her face strained.
“I did not make you anything.” The silence lengthened. Georgiana was looking everywhere but at Caroline. “Did I?”
“Hold on a moment.” She reached for Georgiana’s hand, but it slipped out of her grasp. “I did not mean it like that.”
“Then however did you mean it?”
“I only wanted to tease you, Georgie.” She reached for the hand again, grimacing when Georgiana again pulled out of reach. “Do not take it to heart, please. I—”
Miss Darcy smoothed down her dress, taking her time. “Are you saying that you would never have done something like this, were it not for me?”
Caroline hesitated. “I do not know.” She sighed, taking a seat on the couch next to Georgiana. “I think I must have come to the conclusion eventually. Certain things that I once dismissed outright as silly have become much more apparent of late.”
“Such as?” Georgiana was still watching her, her expression wary.
“That I found the female form much more alluring than I ought, and not everyone felt that way about other women. That I, perhaps”—she rolled her shoulders, feeling the uncomfortable prickle of honesty making its way down her spine—“put other ladies down not simply to raise myself up or to degrade them, but to distance myself from feeling certain... strange feelings.”
“Good heavens,” Georgiana breathed. “Are you confessing you had a crush on Miss Elizabeth Bennet?”
“Well, I— No! I certainly wouldn’t say anything of the sort!” Caroline spluttered. Her discomfort at the idea being voiced aloud was only partly relieved by Georgiana’s giggle of genuine amusement.
“I hadn’t thought her your type, Miss Bingley, but I see why she may have caught your eye. She is a very pretty woman, after all.”
“I didn’t know I had a type, Miss Darcy.” Caroline inched closer. “Until now. Not too tall, fair hair, long eyelashes. A handsome set to the mouth. A certain wicked gleam in the eye. Those are the features I like best.”
No reply came. Caroline’s stomach sank with all the haste of a rock dropped into a pond. “A lady might think your silence an insult, Miss Darcy. Have you no response?”
“Well, you...” Georgiana swallowed, looked slightly panicked. “You already know you are beautiful.”
That was worse than an insult, in a way. It stated what Caroline knew of herself, not whether Georgiana thought it or agreed with it. “I do know that,” she agreed, trying to ignore the flutter of hurt in her chest. “But one likes to feel... desired.”
“I have often told you that you looked handsome,” Georgiana pointed out.
“Not often since we began...” Caroline waved her hand.Whatever this is.“Since we became intimately involved.”
“It’s not as if your looks have changed over the past few weeks,” Miss Darcy muttered. The tips of her ears were bright pink.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, why are you refusing to compliment me? Any idiot swain knows how to flatter, and yet you—”
“What do you want me to say?”
Caroline’s teeth ground against each other. “Would you like me to write out some suggestions? I am only asking for— You know what? Never mind. It was silly to suggest it. I do not even care what you think of me.”
She rose, intending to storm off, but warm fingers caught her wrist and spun her back around. “I think you are beautiful,” Georgiana said, struggling up from the couch, as if her kneeswere still weak. She looked terrified, though for the life of her, Caroline couldn’t work out why.
“You needn’t bother saying anything. Words under duress have no value.”
“Excuse me, Miss Bingley. I am still reeling from the pleasure you just gave me, and it is difficult to think. Pray give me a moment to rephrase my words.” Georgiana tugged on Caroline’s wrist again, forcing the space between them to close. “Beauty is more to me than simply looks. It is how one talks, how one walks, how one acts. It is the perfume you bring with you when you enter a room. It is the way you immerse yourself in a painting or a thought, with a furrowed brow that crinkles in the most adorable way. It is...” She swallowed again. “The way you look when I kiss you. When you... lose yourself to me.”
A blush burned Caroline’s cheeks. Whatever she’d thought Georgiana might say, it hadn’t been that.
Miss Darcy’s eyes were bright and wide; the fear in them had not dissipated, but she continued regardless. “I appreciate your beauty in more than mere words, Caroline,” she continued, her voice barely above a whisper. “I may not always say exactly what pleases you, but rest assured, I am more than aware of your full magnificence.”
Caroline really was blushing now, the heat rising to the roots of her hair. She must look as red as a tomato, though Georgiana did not seem to notice or care. “Magnificenceis quite an unusual word,” she said, her voice sounding slightly strangled.
