Page 37 of Requirements for Love (Love in London with Mr Darcy #3)
One year later
You have a foil in your hand,” his wife said, with a look of focused intensity, “but you are reluctant to use it.”
Darcy watched Elizabeth lunge from the on guard position and held back a smile as he effortlessly parried her with a quick flick of his wrist without making a return.
They were in their sitting room in the London house tonight rather than attend a card party or the opera.
While he had to endure many a late social evening for the sake of his lively wife, Elizabeth was often perfectly happy to hide away with him and take the knocker off the door.
“It requires particular attention and intense application to defend yourself, foil in hand, with credit and satisfaction,” he said, trying not to laugh. Elizabeth always lunged too far and could never recover into a guard position fast enough. “I would disarm you if I actually used my weapon.”
“I remember you telling me that you thought I had the capacity to be a great practical fencer.”
“You do, but I am still reluctant to stand across from my wife and use my blade. ”
She laughed. “The points are all turned back. Are you afraid you will injure me?”
He attacked gently, and she turned the blade down and to the outside in a rather poor seconde parry.
If he had thrust with any speed, he would have touched her.
Aside from being quite slow, Elizabeth’s problem was that she projected every move she intended to make.
“Yes, I am, and winning is not worth that.”
Elizabeth attacked again, likely aiming for the right side of his chest, but it would have hit his arm if he had not mildly performed an easy parry tierce. She huffed in frustration, and then gave a half-smile and sat. “You ought to demonstrate the positions again.”
Darcy gave her a confused look. She was already familiar with the simple positions and most of the terms. Someday she would even move beyond novice to passable. “If you insist.”
“And you must roll up your sleeves. It will help you better show me the positions.”
He doubted that, but humoured her, carefully rolling the sleeves to his elbows. Darcy went through the positions, narrating as he went, but he soon noticed Elizabeth’s gaze locked not on his face or on the blade in his hand, but somewhere along his arms.
He stopped and looked at both of his wrists, thinking that perhaps he had some mark upon him. “Elizabeth, what are you looking at?”
She smiled from some private thought and gave him a bold look. “I think I started to fall in love with you when I first saw you roll up your shirtsleeves.”
“That cannot be true, because you loved me before I married you.” The only time he was in a state of dishabille was at home with his wife with the door closed.
“No, I watched you carry a table up the stairs when I sprained my ankle. You removed your coat and turned up your sleeves to do it.”
He picked up both foils and moved them to a table.
He went to roll down his sleeves, but changed his mind when he remembered Elizabeth’s heated gaze.
He could recall moving the breakfast table but not whether he had rolled his sleeves.
But given the ardent look he was now getting, he must have done so, and it must have made an impression.
“You did not add ‘excellent bare forearms’ to your list of requirements to fall in love.”
Elizabeth laughed. “At that moment, I suddenly considered attractive forearms to be incredibly important to marital happiness. But it was one of those things that must naturally go without saying.”
“It was not my moving the table for your benefit that caught your notice?”
“The act of helping the servants to move the heavy table yourself was attractive, but something about seeing your bare forearms made you seem very capable.” She ran her fingertips over one of them. “Very appealing.”
Darcy pulled her close and claimed her lips in a long kiss.
Her hands slid up to his jaw and then into his hair.
Even after a year of being married, he was still awed at the feeling of something so intimate and so passionate.
He let out a soft moan of appreciation as he caressed her tongue with his, and she let out a sigh of bliss as she relaxed into him.
Rather than take the encounter further, Elizabeth pulled away and went to her writing box. “I am glad you mentioned my former list because I have new things to add to it,” she said playfully.
Curious, Darcy followed her to the table, where she handed him a small sheet of paper. “Consider it an addendum.”
The short list read down the page: patient, read stories, encouraging, listen well, play games, protective, carry a burden of at least six pounds, affectionate.
It was such an odd assortment of requirements. He was certain he could meet all of them, but there was no rhyme or reason that he could discern.
“Do you think you are capable of all of them?” Elizabeth now grinned at him. “I am certain you are. I would not have married you if I did not. I think your meeting the requirements of my first list naturally makes you able to meet this one, but I thought it best to lay it plain. ”
He narrowed his eyes and read the list again. Stories, not books? Play what games? What was at least six pounds? “Elizabeth, you have not laid this plain at all.”
Her eyes sparkled and her cheeks must hurt from how widely she smiled. “Well, you have about seven more months to reason it out, but I hope it does not take you that long.”
While he could nowise understand her at first, a few more seconds of thought made her hints perfectly clear. Darcy cried out in delight and then asked, “Truly?”
Elizabeth nodded, and Darcy took her in his arms. “I did not think it would long pass the powers of your imagination,” she cried, laughing as he spun her around.
He kissed her deeply, with her hands curling in his hair. “I am so glad you sprained your ankle,” he murmured against her lips.
“You cannot know how much I dreaded my sprain proving too serious for me to move. I hated to be obliged to you for assistance.”
“Nor was I pleased to have you fixed in Charles Street for a fortnight. You were too tempting, and I did not know how to resist you.”
She took his face in her hands and kissed him again. “Thankfully, I had fallen into very good hands.”
The End