“Very well,” she said and held out both hands for him to hold, just as she had done with Miss Darcy. “I trust you know who is to step to which side and you will not lead me into the fireplace.”
“It is unlike a country dance. It is a continuous whirl of amusement.” He still remained several paces away. Were they truly about to dance a waltz in Miss Darcy’s sitting room?
“Then you had best show me.”
His gaze at no time wavered as he held his left hand open and asked for hers. She had never been so close to him, and her left hand was trembling in his as she stood beside him, both of them facing the wall.
“Were we in a ballroom, would we not exchange partners?” Elizabeth hoped her voice did not betray her nervousness.
“No, you and I would dance face-to-face as a couple for the duration of the set.”
“How will you hold my right hand?”
“I— To begin, your right hand goes behind your back to hold mine.” Elizabeth thought this side-by-side position was not so shocking; he then turned her to stand in front of him. Mr Darcy raised his left arm above his head, pulling her left arm in a matching arch over her own. Now there was scarcely three inches between them. His right hand had let go of hers and was now on the small of her back.
“Does my right hand now hang at my side?”
“No,” Mr Darcy replied hoarsely, “your right hand rests…around me, high on my back.”
Elizabeth gave him a look of expressive wonder.
“I am not joking.”
Elizabeth moved her hand around him to rest her fingertips on his shoulder and felt the muscle contract. She slowly slid her hand down the gentleman’s shoulder onto his back. She watched him close his eyes and heard him swallow thickly.
Elizabeth’s senses were in confusion; Mr Darcy was everywhere, and she knew not where to look. Directly in front of her was the white fabric of his neckcloth. Beneath the fingertips of her right hand, she could feel the strength of his muscles through his shirt and waistcoat. Elizabeth could not think long on where his right hand rested; otherwise, she might stop breathing. Her eyes flitted left and right, avoiding his piercing gaze, and she fought to suppress a giggle that threatened to announce her giddy bout of nerves.
She was in Mr Darcy’s arms.
He had never been soaware of another human being in all his life. He could hear her short, shallow intakes of breath through narrowly parted lips and feel her nervousness through his hands. She smelled faintly of lavender, and he wondered whether this was her gown or her perfume. It would be easy work to lean forward and kiss her forehead. Good God! How was he ever to let her go now that he had held her close?
“Your hair is not curled,” he whispered.
“No, it is not.”
“I have never seen you this way.”
“I did not see the need to wrap my hair since we were to spend the day travelling.” She added archly, “And I doubt the fashionable circles have seen you without your coat.”
He was sure the others could hear the pounding of his heart. Why had she come?Was it only a civil call on a new acquaintance, or did she want him to come to Hertfordshire? The thought of never seeing Elizabeth again made his blood run cold, but if she was not at least willing to consider loving him, then he would rather never see her again than bear another rejection.
“Do you remember the steps?” Georgiana asked.
He started, having forgotten she was in the room. He asked Elizabeth whether she was ready to begin, saying she would start with her right foot, and he would pivot her in a quarter turn.
She nodded, and they began to waltz.
Elizabeth watchedher feet and observed that the gentleman’s foot would disappear from time to time under her gown in the midst of the dance. What seemed trivial with his sister was now overwhelmingly intimate with Mr Darcy as they circled the room in a near embrace.
“It is not such a challenging dance, is it?”
Elizabeth replied it was not and was again silent, keeping her head turned to the side as Mr Darcy rotated her around the room. After they whirled about the room once, he addressed her a second time.
“This is a well-appointed sitting room and just the right size for one couple to dance.”
Elizabeth knew what he was about and looked at him. “You talk by rule, then, while you are teaching scandalous dances to young ladies?”
“I have little practice with dances at all, whether or not they are scandalous. However, I cannot stand withyouand be silent. I shall not have you accuse me again of being unsocial and taciturn.”
