Her smile grew despite herself. "I already know you can be exceedingly provoking."
"That," he said gravely, "is an unfortunate family trait."
His expression softened once more.
"When I ask you to marry me, Elizabeth—and I assure you I fully intend to—you shall accept because you are entirely certain that I know my own mind and because you know yours. Not because another man's wickedness has left you believing yourself in need of rescue."
"You are the most extraordinary man."
"No," he said. "Merely a man who has had the singular good fortune to fall in love with an extraordinary woman."
This time it was Elizabeth who closed the distance between them. The kiss she gave him bore little resemblance to the shy, wondering tenderness they had shared at The Golden Goose.There was relief in it, and all the longing of a week spent believing they had lost one another forever.
Darcy answered it at once. His restraint lasted precisely long enough to reassure himself that she had come willingly. Then one hand slipped to the small of her back and drew her closer until not the breadth of a hand remained between them. She rose instinctively to meet him, her fingers finding his shoulders and holding tight.
When his tongue traced the seam of her lips she opened to him willingly, and the last remnants of the fear that had haunted him since they parted began to loosen their hold. Each kiss seemed to ask the same silent question—Are you truly here with me?—and every answering movement told him she was.
When at last they parted, neither had gone very far.
"My heart," he breathed.
"My heart," she answered in return.
Darcy rested his forehead lightly against hers, his eyes closing for the briefest moment as though he scarcely trusted his own happiness. "There you are," he whispered.
She reached up and smoothed a lock of dark hair that had fallen across his forehead, a gesture that felt like the most natural thing in the world.
"And now?"
He caught her hand and pressed a lingering kiss into her palm. "Now," he said, "I have no intention of letting you out of my sight again."
A knock sounded discreetly at the drawing-room door. They sprang apart, then looked at one another and laughed.
From the hallway came Colonel Fitzwilliam's unmistakable baritone. "I should hate to interrupt anything of importance," he called, "I have begun to suspect these small pirates have mutinied against me, and I require reinforcements."
Darcy closed his eyes for a moment. "Richard," he muttered.
Elizabeth's laughter escaped altogether then, bright enough to banish the last shadow from the room. Taking her hand openly in his, Darcy led her towards the door. Whatever lay before them now, they would meet it together.
Chapter Nineteen
The days that followed were some of the happiest of Elizabeth’s life and her face began to ache from smiling so constantly.
Mr Darcy called almost every afternoon. Before doing so he had sought Mr Gardiner's permission to pay his addresses to Elizabeth whilst she remained beneath his roof, a formality which had pleased her uncle exceedingly.
"My dear sir," Mr Gardiner had replied with a smile that suggested he understood rather more than Darcy would have wished, "I believe you have been paying my niece very particular attention ever since Providence chose to strand you together upon the same road. You merely have my permission to continue doing so respectably."
Darcy, who had faced members of parliament and Lady Catherine de Bourgh with unruffled composure, coloured so deeply that even Mrs Gardiner had found it difficult to suppress a laugh. Elizabeth, watching from across the drawing room,had discovered that there were few sights in the world more gratifying than Fitzwilliam Darcy thoroughly embarrassed.
Thereafter he became almost as familiar a figure in Gracechurch Street as Mr Gardiner himself. Simmons was no longer required to announce him before admitting him, the children took to watching from the drawing-room window for the first glimpse of his curricle turning into the street and Mrs Gardiner began instructing Cook to prepare more cakes than the family alone could reasonably consume.
Not that Darcy ever came alone for very long. Colonel Fitzwilliam appeared with such regularity that Mr Gardiner declared himself tempted to have a key cut for him. The colonel accepted the suggestion with enthusiasm and maintained that, as he was already half-adopted by the household, it was merely a sensible economy.
"If you continue at this rate," laughed Mrs Gardiner, "we shall soon be obliged to put you to work."
"I should be delighted," Fitzwilliam replied. "Provided the duties consist chiefly of eating your excellent dinners and rescuing princesses from pirates."
Lucy, who happened to overhear the final remark, ran immediately to fetch the wooden sword that had become the indispensable instrument of every afternoon's adventures."You cannot rescue me today," she informed him with grave authority. "Today I am the pirate."
