Elizabeth laughed. "You will have to be more specific."
"I fear I cannot. The examples are too numerous. Every conversation we shared appears to have lowered my intelligence by several degrees. To make matters worse, many of the opinions I expressed were not my own."
She stared at him. "What an extraordinary thing to admit."
"It is even more extraordinary to have done it. Yet there I was, objecting to ladies walking alone, reading whatever books happened to be in their possession and apparently developing strong feelings regarding horticulture."
"I knew it," she cried. "No one could truly care that much about gardening."
"I assure you, I have never held a strong opinion on the subject in my life."
The solemnity of this declaration made her laugh again and he grinned back with unguarded pleasure.
His smile faded slightly as another thought occurred to him. "Then there was the matter of sharing a bed with you."
The words settled between them. Elizabeth lowered her glass and looked into the fire. "That was hardly deliberate," she said quietly.
"No, but I imagine it did little to improve your opinion of me."
A faint smile touched her mouth. "It certainly complicated matters."
"Most things seem to become complicated when you are involved."
She shot him a look over the rim of her glass. "You are apologising, Mr Darcy. Try not to spoil it."
"I beg your pardon. There was also the matter of your dinner."
At once she groaned, "Not that again."
"I was concerned."
"You were interfering."
"I was concerned and interfering."
"Excessively interfering."
Darcy inclined his head. "That is probably fair."
Elizabeth studied him for a moment. There was something alarming about hearing him admit fault so readily. The Mr Darcy she had carried in her mind for weeks would have defended himself to the death.
"You really have thought about all this, haven't you?" she said quietly.
"Rather more than is healthy, I suspect."
???
For some time the conversation wandered comfortably from one subject to another. Darcy felt like he was in some particularly pleasant dream. Yes, Elizabeth disagreed with him often and laughed at him easily. But for the first time since he had met her, she seemed to be enjoying herself. Hope jumped inside him and his mind ran ahead into a pleasant image of them sitting together in his chambers at Pemberley. He shook his head to clear the daydream, it was foolish to get ahead of himself.
"You speak of your sisters often," he observed.
"They are rather difficult to ignore," she laughed. "Five girls makes for plenty of drama. Longbourn is rarely peaceful, but is a loving home and we are surrounded by pleasant neighbours, tenants and servants."
Suddenly her eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth. "But oh! Here I am sat by a warm fire while I do not have any idea how the Frosts fare. I keep thinking about Mrs Frost. She was frightened before they left and trying very hard not to show it. If anything has happened to them..." A tear slid down her cheek.
Darcy set down his glass. "It has not," he said with more certainty than he felt.
"You cannot know that."
