Darcy sat up straight and squared his shoulders. He would not be Mr. Bennet, hiding behind his newspaper. He loved Miss Elizabeth Bennet. She ought to know.
How could he tell her without frightening her away?
He stood and walked towards the door. First, he must take care of Wickham. He could not bring Georgiana here with that man lurking about. Then, he would arrange for Elizabeth to meet Georgiana, for his sister would make Miss Elizabeth think better of him. His younger sister was a marvellous person; she and Miss Elizabeth would get along splendidly.
Just as he was exiting the room, he was struck in the chest forcibly enough that he took a step back.
“Oof,” he heard a woman say. Instinctively, he shifted forward and reached out to grab her arms.
It was Miss Elizabeth.
Once they were both steady on their feet, he released her.
“I am not certain whether to thank you or blame you, Mr. Darcy,” she said, looking up at him and rubbing her nose.
It was not the most auspicious way to begin a courtship.
“Lizzy!” Kitty cried and pointed, “Look!” She and Miss Lydia devolved into the loudest giggles he believed he had ever heard them issue. The noise was not inconsiderable.
Miss Elizabeth looked up, and her eyes grew round. He followed her gaze.
A small cluster of white berries in a nest of green leaves was attached to the top of the doorway. Mistletoe.
He could not have asked for a better beginning from a more unlikely source. He reached up to pluck one of the berries.
Miss Elizabeth, however, had other ideas. Just as he offered the berry to her and was about to bend down to offer a kiss, she slipped past him and into the room. He straightened quickly and slipped the berry into his coat pocket.
“Do not force Mr. Darcy to do something for which he has no desire,” she said, scolding her younger sisters. “He is not used to your nonsense.”
It had been rather presumptuous of them, and it was certainly nowhere near Christmas. But she was wrong about his desire. He groaned inwardly at the thought.
This, he told himself as he nodded at the room and escaped to the stairs, was precisely why he needed a plan.
Elizabeth was furious. How dare Lydia and Kitty embarrass Mr. Darcy in such a way? Just when they had been making such progress towards becoming friends, he would be driven away by their vulgar behaviour!
“Do you see what you have done?” she exclaimed, gesturing at the empty doorway through which Mr. Darcy had just fled.
“Do not blame us,” Lydia replied. “It was you that refused to kiss him. Mr. Darcy plucked a berry.”
Kitty nodded sagely. “I would never have thought it, Lizzy, but Mr. Darcy was more pleasant about it than you were.”
“I think you did just right, Lizzy,” Mary proclaimed. “Such games are tolerable when they are confined to the few days closest to Christmas, but extending them so far is only foolishness.”
Mary agreed with her. Elizabeth began to feel a creeping sense that she had done the wrong thing.
“Jane?” Elizabeth asked as she took a seat near her eldest sister. “I only thought that Mr. Darcy would feel obligated to kiss me, and I did not wish to make him uncomfortable.”
“I do not think he was,” Jane replied hesitantly. “Until you stepped away.”
Elizabeth dropped her head into her hands. “I cannot get anything right with him. Why is that, Jane?”
Jane smiled at her. She gazed back at Lydia and Kitty, who were no longer paying them any mind, and whispered, “Lizzy, I believe you like Mr. Darcy.”
“Mr. Darcy,” Elizabeth said as the great man arrived for dinner. He was always early, always perfectly turned out. His valet must earn every pence of his wages, for she could not ever recall Mr. Darcy having a hair out of place.
“Yes, Miss Elizabeth?” His manner was very formal, and she prayed that her sisters were wrong and that she had not hurt his feelings earlier.
“I have two things to say to you, and I must be quick about it for we shall not be alone for long.”