It could not hurt. A rousing endorsement. All these months and Mr. Darcy still spouted slights without realising it. Fortunately, Elizabeth could now hear the compliment to herself amidst the bluntness of his speech, and she felt all the force of his good opinion.
“I am afraid I have not thought of anything Papa has not, but I appreciate being asked, and being kept informed prevents me from becoming too anxious. I continue to ruminate on the connections between everything, attempting to sort out what is important and what is not.” She smiled a bit bashfully at him. “I, too, have missed our conversations, though I might as well admit that they are sometimes little more that arguments.”
Mr. Darcy laughed quietly. “I enjoy a well-informed debate.”
“As do I,” Elizabeth replied glibly. “But then, you must already know as much.”
“I do. It is partially that which sent me in search of you today.”
“You wish to argue with me?”
“I wish to spend some time with you. Your father has sent me off, and I am of no use to anyone else at present. Take pity on me, Miss Elizabeth.”
She was his last choice. Elizabeth almost laughed at him. “We have been more fortunate, Mr. Darcy, in that we have had a visitor to entertain us. Mr. Bingley has twice ridden over to see Jane, no doubt against the wishes of his sisters.”
“Are they still attempting to talk him out of the engagement?”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Of course. He admitted to Papa that until the engagement is made public at the ball on Tuesday, his sisters believe nothing that occurs here would touch their brother or themselves in London, as if they are two entirely separate worlds.”
“Bingley is not one to be worked on, I think. He has been on his own since his father’s death and has learnt to trust his own decisions. He and your sister are a good match.”
“Thank you, I think you must be right.”
“In some ways, his sisters are correct. The city and the country are very different,” Mr. Darcy continued. “Whilst London is the home of my youth, the summers in Derbyshire are what I recall with the most fondness. Wide, rocky fields, towering trees, streams, fishing . . . there was so much freedom.” He grinned boyishly. “And we did not have to eat dinner with the adults. Fitzwilliam was my best friend even then, and we were allowed to spend all our days together. London could never compare.”
Elizabeth laughed a little at that. She found it charming to think of the giant man before her as a little boy. “Were you tall even then?”
He chuckled. “Oh, a little, I suppose. I grew a great deal between my fifteenth and sixteenth year. After the second set of breeches, the maid hemmed them up with a great deal of cloth and then let them down every few months.”
“Was that enough?”
“Until I began to grow outward as well as upward,” he said.
“Oh dear,” she said, shaking her head. “What a trial you must have been.”
“It was a shock to my father, for though my uncle and cousins are formed on a larger scale, he and my mother were not particularly so. And then for me to be the tallest of them all was very unexpected.”
“I was rather tall as a girl,” Elizabeth said. “It may be one reason why I am so impertinent. No one likes a tall girl, whereas a tall man is always considered excellent company. A sharp wit was my best defence.”
“Is that why . . .” Mr. Darcy paused and his face reddened. “Forgive me.”
Elizabeth smirked. “Ask your question, Mr. Darcy.”
He sighed and met her eye. “I was about to ask whether that was why you do not like to dance when you are clearly so very good at it.”
His query took her aback. “Because I was tall as a girl?”
He shrugged. “Perhaps your potential partners were shorter?”
She laughed. “No, by then most of the boys had surpassed me.”
“True,” he said, still embarrassed. “You are not so very tall now.”
“Yes, because I was considerate enough to stop growing when I was fourteen and allow the others to catch up.” She shrugged nonchalantly. “Unlike you.”
He smiled. “I rather appreciate that you are not diminutive, Miss Elizabeth. It saves my neck from aching in the evenings.”
Elizabeth gazed at him, considering what she might say. “I have mentioned my friend Harry Tanner,” she said at last.