September Storm Relay Story Part 11- Second part

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Read part 10 here. Now, on with the show!

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Apparently all the guests had returned to their bedrooms, for Elizabeth did not pass anyone as she approached the library. Her father sat alone at his desk, still wearing his black banyan, a broad smile upon his face.

“You sent for me?” she said dully. Why, oh, why had she let herself be provoked by Darcy’s grudging proposal? Why could she not have remembered his almost-kiss in the attic rather than his haughty words? If only she had not let her temper get the better of her! But after this exhausting, chaotic day, her anger had simply flared.

“Lizzy, what means this gloomy countenance?” cried her father. “This has been the most amusing night of my life! And are you not delighted to have had the opportunity to tell that arrogant Darcy what you think of him? Your refusal, so strongly phrased, and in front of his friends and family, is not something he will quickly forget. Just think, you will always be the one who pricked that infernal pride of his! It was even better than what I hoped for when I provoked him into making that ill-fated offer for you.” Mr. Bennet leaned back and chuckled.

Elizabeth stared at him, his words taking a moment to sink in. “You provoked him into it?”

“Of course! I have no desire to see you marry such a man, one we all know you detest. I only said it to give you the opportunity to make the refusal he deserved. I will never forget his face, not if I live to be a hundred! You should thank me for giving you the opportunity.”

“Thank you?” That banked flame of rage started to burn back to life. How had she missed it? Of course Darcy had made her yet another disastrous proposal, when her father had humiliated him and forced into doing so publicly against his will. And she had made it worse with her harsh words to him, simply because she could not bear being treated like an unwanted, damaged chattel by the two men she loved most in the world. “If I had wished to be a puppet in your play, I should thank you, but your amusement may have cost me far more than you can imagine!” She turned and ran from the room.

~ * ~

Darcy stared moodily at the cruel rain bucket which had ruined all his hopes. How could everything have gone so wrong so quickly? The memory floated before him – his hands entwined with Elizabeth’s, her face tipped up towards his, her eyes closing in the expectation of a kiss. And then the screams had come. And a few minutes later, all his dreams had been dashed by Elizabeth’s refusal of his offer to marry her.

Had it all been a dream, that near-kiss, the warmth of her teasing? Had he been so desperate for Elizabeth’s love that he had imagined the closeness between them? But he had not imagined her bubbling laughter, nor her flirtatious comments about the vile purple banyan he was still wearing. He closed his eyes and groaned.

“I hope you are not injured, Mr. Darcy.” It was Elizabeth’s voice, light and sparkling.

His eyes flew open. “Not at all, Miss Elizabeth.” His voice sounded strangled, no doubt because he felt that way. What did one say to the woman who had just rejected him for the second time? “Pray excuse me. I am sure you be wishing for my absence.” He tried to step past her.

She moved to block his escape. “It is odd you should think so, since I have just gone to some trouble to hunt you down,” she said with an impish smile. “We have some unfinished business, you and I.”

“We do?” He had no idea what she was talking about, but if she wanted him to stay, he was desperate enough to be in her presence that he would remain, even if only for another rejection. But she seemed in a playful mood now rather than angry.

Her smile broadened. “Yes, we do. I have taken a decided dislike to the notion of having my future arranged by others, especially based on a purely theoretical view that I have somehow been compromised, when in fact the most disturbing thing that occurred was my spice cake being knocked over along with a bucket of water.” She paused to glare at the offending crumbs of cake still sitting on the attic floor.

“I am sorry you were placed in such a difficult situation, especially when, as you say, nothing compromising happened,” he said cautiously. It was probably wiser not to add that it was only by the grace of God that nothing had happened; had the screams interrupted them a minute later, he would have been kissing her, and she would most definitely have been compromised. “Some might say, though, that merely being alone together in our present, um, attire is compromising in itself, with only crumbs of spice cake as our chaperone.”

“It was a very good spice cake, and I am certain that it would have done its best to chaperone us,” she said judiciously. “But I have come up with a better solution for our difficulty.”

Now he was utterly baffled. What was this difficulty she was speaking of? This had been the strangest night of his life, and it seemed destined to become even stranger. “You do?”

“Yes.” She stepped forward and placed her palms on his shoulders, the warmth of her touch easily penetrating the thin fabric of his ridiculous purple banyan. “I want to have a choice in the matter of marriage, not be forced into it because you somehow compromised me. So instead I am going to compromise you, leaving you no choice but to marry me.” With a deeply self-satisfied look, she slid her hands around his neck.

Now he was quite certain this was a dream, but it was one he did not wish to awaken from. His hands found their way around her waist and tugged her closer. “Miss Elizabeth, I would by no means suspend any pleasure of yours,” he breathed.

Not The End! See the next post here!
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