Longbourn to London by Beutler Linda

Author:Beutler, Linda [Beutler, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Meryton Press
Published: 2014-08-05T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Darcy’s Dreams

“But masters, remember that I am an ass.”

William Shakespeare

Much Ado about Nothing

When did I first dream of her?

When Fitzwilliam Darcy first dreamt of Miss Elizabeth Bennet, it was a fleeting vision. It happened the night following Elizabeth and Jane’s departure from Netherfield after Jane’s illness. During the visit, Darcy and Elizabeth engaged in several debates touching on numerous issues. Each left Darcy more intrigued. As her visit came hard on the heels of the Meryton assembly where Elizabeth had heard her feminine attributes roundly disparaged by Darcy, she was disposed to take offense and find fault, both with the man and his every utterance. At the time, Darcy did not apprehend her response to him as annoyance.

Darcy was merely enticed when he came upon Elizabeth as she approached Netherfield on foot. She had walked three miles at a vigorous rate. Her hair was nearly falling to her shoulders, her cheeks glowed, and her eyes were flashing. That evening, after Jane was asleep, Elizabeth stumbled upon him in the billiard room, mistaking it for the drawing room. She wore a simple gown slightly lower at the neckline than usual, and he was beguiled. Once in the drawing room, she defended her disinclination to play cards with a quick wit, which easily parried the viperous Caroline Bingley’s verbal assault. Adding to enticed and beguiled, he then became impressed.

The next evening, Caroline acted on the misguided notion that if she strolled about the drawing room with Elizabeth on her arm, Elizabeth’s lack of fashion would show itself to Caroline’s advantage. Unhappily for the tall, stick-figured Caroline, Elizabeth’s posture was refined and her figure just the sort to attract Darcy’s silent praise, as he was now given the occasion to observe it carefully. Elizabeth had a lovely bosom and was slender enough to rarely wear a full corset, giving her gait a natural grace. He suspected she might have fine legs, for what he could see of her ankles appeared trim and shapely. Elizabeth Bennet radiated health, and although Darcy was not conscious of it, this attribute attracted him as much as her laughing, intelligent eyes and pert opinions.

The same night, Elizabeth challenged Darcy to enumerate his faults. As he sat with a book and brandy upon retiring for the night, he confessed she had bested him. He was embarrassed to admit that, in answering her queries, he had responded with pride and vanity—the very faults he told her he tried to regulate. He could just possibly be smitten. The next day he tried to avoid her, though he spent a tense half an hour in her company in the Netherfield library, where he was thoroughly aroused by nothing other than her proximity.

When Jane and Elizabeth departed, Darcy was fit only for brisk physical activity, and he spent the rest of the day riding. Before retiring that night, he had stolen unseen into the room Jane and Elizabeth had shared. Although the Bingley housemaids had tidied it, there was a faint hint of lavender in the air, which he had noticed in the library on the previous day.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.