“Well, you seem so comfortable. As if you’ve done this a hundred times before. I just wondered if perhaps you had.” She shrugged and took a sip of her tea.

“If you’d like to know why I seem so at ease, it’s because I have done this a hundred times before.”

Her head shot up and she looked at him with worried eyes.

He really should not enjoy this so much. His features softened into an odd mixture of tenderness and mischief. “I have been imagining this morning, and last night, and yesterday, for months. Your place has always been here, across the table from me, in bed next to me, living with me. You belong here, Elizabeth. How can I be anything but pleased that you have finally come home?”

She stared at him, unable to speak, feeling unexpectedly touched. He found her hand on the table and kissed it tenderly. She squeezed his hand in return.

“I have been meaning to ask you,” he asked softly, “are you well this morning?”

It was impossible to mistake his meaning. “I am a trifle sore, but nothing overwhelming.” He looked relieved. The desire to tease could not be resisted. “And you, sir? Are you well?” He looked at her in surprise. She pressed on, “You were very… active last night. You did not sustain an injury?” She looked at him sincerely, her mouth slightly twitching in the corner the only hint that she was teasing him.

Immensely pleased to see her playful after such a serious day and night, and on such a subject, he smiled and joined her game. “I assure you, Mrs. Darcy, your husband is not in such poor condition that one night of activity will render him lame. I am fit for activity again as soon as my lady may accommodate.”

“Are you now?” she asked in a playful tone. “What a lucky lady I am, to marry a man of such strength and stamina.”

“You have no idea, Mrs. Darcy.”

At this he rose and pulled her from her chair, her surprise mounting as he bent down and picked her up, her feet flying from the ground as she shrieked.

“Fitzwilliam! Put me down this instant! What are you doing? Are you trying to hurt yourself?”

She kicked and even hit his shoulder more than once, but he did not release her until they were in her chamber and he dropped her into the center of the freshly made bed. She yelped as she landed and he quickly plopped down next to her.

“See? I am perfectly fit.” He smiled boyishly and she couldn’t help but laugh at the picture he presented.

~

Finally, when the sun was high in the sky, Elizabeth was dressed in her new pale pink gown and awaiting her husband who had promised her a detailed tour of the house.