“It had caught my attention, yes.”
“If you are wearing a bonnet, I cannot see your face when I look down at you.”
“Which is all the time, owing to your very great stature.”
Darcy rolled his eyes.“I have seen you often enough without one to know you are not enamored of them either.”
“Do not let my mother hear that you have seen me without a bonnet.She will scold me heartily and insist on inspecting my apparel before I leave the house.”
“Are you saying I have leverage over you?”he asked, a teasing glint in his eye.
“If you have any care for me at all, you will not dream of saying a word.”They had come to a fountain near the end of the garden and she stepped up onto the low stone ledge that ran around its perimeter.“There!Now you do not need to look down at all.”
Darcy watched her with a warm smile, then stepped forward so he was only a few inches from her.She was taller standing on the ledge, but he still had to look down to see her properly.
“Well, when you are this close, you are even taller, but the step helps, does it not?”
She tilted her head back and smiled coyly.Really, she was smiling at him entirely too much, but he did seem to enjoy it and she could not help but be proud of herself for pleasing him so thoroughly.
“Much better.”He reached for the ribbon hanging from her bonnet and ran it between his fingers, his eyes on hers as he did so.
Oddly, she felt as if he were touching her and not her bonnet ribbons.Her breath came a little quicker, and she watched him move closer bit by bit until she could feel his breath on her cheek.
“Elizabeth,” he whispered.
She closed her eyes, overcome with feelings she could not identify.“Yes, Mr.Darcy?”
He took a deep breath, then stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers.“I wish you would call me by my given name.”
“Very well.What is it?”
“It is Fitzwilliam.”
“Where?”she asked looking about her with a slightly alarmed expression.
Darcy almost laughed.“Not my cousin, my name.”
“Oh.You wish me to call you Fitzwilliam?”
“Yes.”
“Not Fitz, or William, or Wills?”
“No.”
She pouted.
He tapped her nose playfully.
“It is terribly long.”
“No longer than Elizabeth.”
She sighed.“Very well.I suppose I cannot argue with that.Though my family calls me Lizzy.”
“I have heard Mrs.Collins call you Eliza.”
“She does.You may do so if you wish.”
