"Cousin Elizabeth!"

The loud cry, accompanied by an equally loud bang as the library door flung open, pulled him back instantly - unable to deliver his reply. He woke from his heavenly reverie, suddenly sent crashing back down to earth. Elizabeth, in all her tantalizing beauty, still stood before him - and he wondered if he ought to back more fully away.

"Mr. Darcy! Why, this is a most astounding discovery. You, sir, a man engaged to be married! Surely, your solitary company is chaperoned? It does you ill, sir, to be found so thoroughly alone!" Mr. Collins' unwelcome face bore an expression of pure disgust.

Darcy trained his steely eyes upon the portly parson, while his person stood hovering a yard from Elizabeth, unable to draw closer nor farther.

"Why indeed would two people, each engaged to another, dally about in the library?" Mr. Collins was aghast, his face no less scandalized than any London matron would be.

"Pray, take heed of what you say, Mr. Collins." Darcy growled. "You speak of things you do not know of."

"You are engaged, sir, to your cousin!" The brute prattled on. A small crowd began to gather behind him, whispers barely hushed. "The disapproval of the great Lady Catherine de Bourgh - "

"Is something I care little over," Darcy interrupted, then sighed. How he had managed to find himself alone with Elizabeth, her eyes and lips responsive to his every reply, he did not know. He did know, however, how much he liked their shared situation - and was very much ready to fight anyone who dared disturb it. "Your presumptions, Mr. Collins, are entirely untrue. I am not engaged. There has, perhaps, been a misunderstanding."

"Oh, but surely Miss de Bourgh would digress! Lady Catherine herself has informed me, out of her overflowing generosity, that your cousin Miss de Bourgh and your honorable person have been betrothed from your very births! There is little misunderstanding possible with such thoroughly thoughtful arrangements. You see - "

"Mr. Collins," Darcy repeated, voice and face darker with each passing moment. The crowd behind the parson had unfortunately grown into quite a small multitude. Darcy shuddered in his heart for Elizabeth's sake. He cleared his own throat with great volume and deliberation. "I must insist, Mr. Collins, that you not repeat such a gross untruth. I am not engaged and do not dally in my friends' libraries with engaged women."

"But Cousin Elizabeth has informed me that she - "

"Mr. Collins!" It was Elizabeth's turn to shout. She faced her cousin, though remained standing, thankfully, by Darcy's side. "Whatever it may be you choose to imply about my person - let it not taint Mr. Darcy's name. He has been every bit the gentleman."

"Gentleman?" The word sounded foreign in the subservient parson's voice. "But what sort of gentleman, pray you, would choose to indulge in your solitary company when you are so clearly promised to another?"

Her eyes flew quite high before rolling back down. Her charade, however well-meant, had clearly meant its conclusion at last. "Mr. Collins, I am not engaged to another."

"But you had promised, fair cousin, in your most courteous rejection of my marriage proposal that you - " For the very first time, Mr. Collins stopped himself. His eyes widened, mouth gaped. His entire countenance mirrored a dim-witted, trapped animal slowly discovering its true location. "Miss Elizabeth! For shame! You have allowed yourself to become engaged to a man so definitely betrothed to another. Your entire engagement is a lie!"

"I - I would not - " Elizabeth's panic showed quickly on her face - and Darcy could not help but step in.

"Whatever engagement I may have undertaken, Mr. Collins, is most distinctly not to my cousin Anne. I am afraid the misunderstanding exists over that engagement - which is most clearly a lie."

"But, sir, Lady Catherine herself - "

"Does not know the affairs of her nephew."

"I - you - how could you, sir! I must hie myself to Rosings Park this very instant to inform Lady Catherine of such grave denial of her clear demands."

"Please, Mr. Collins," Elizabeth's voice emerged again, "let not it be said that your cousin's family detains you from such a clear duty you possess."

"Yes, yes, of course. I see, Cousin Elizabeth, that there is hope for you yet."

Darcy nearly lunged towards the fool, if it were not for Elizabeth's small hand on his arm.

"I wish you a safe journey, Mr. Collins." Elizabeth's serenity impressed him.

"Yes, yes, of course."

Darcy did not realize he held his breath at all - until the crowd dissipated at last.

It took many moments - perhaps even an entire half hour - before she calmed herself sufficiently to speak.

Confident when faced with adversity, she hung her head when faced with shame.

"I must apologize, Mr. Darcy, for inadvertently involving you in such a ridiculous farce." Her hands remained pressed against her waist, her eyes on the floor. "I must imagine Hertfordshire holding no charm for you, sir."

He groaned from his side of the room, his body pressed against the wall. The crowds, fascinated equally by a blushing Elizabeth and huffing Mr. Collins, had at last decided to pursue the latter rather than that linger at the glaring former attraction.

She was most thankful, indeed.

"I fault you not, Miss Elizabeth," said her companion, voice low. His faraway gaze past the window spurred her to wonder at the object of his musings. Was he regretting their discovery, fearing their consequences? Was he gazing at a particular other lady, wondering how he had ruined his chances by Elizabeth's entrance into the library?

Her last thought nearly sprung tears into her eyes.

She had never admired Mr. Darcy before tonight's strange events. She had thought of him, often, if she had to admit - but those thoughts seldom carried kind nor affectionate sentiments. His speech tonight, before her cousin's unceremonious interruption, had molded her heart otherwise.

"I apologize, sir, for my cousin's outlandish presumptions." Every word belabored her. She licked her lips, then swallowed. "I promise I shall do everything in my power to dissuade him of his perceived notions. His presumptions that I am engaged at all - much more to you, sir - I - I cannot imagine the humiliation you must feel! I myself - I myself cower in embarrassment. I - "

She stopped short, throat tight and eyes watery. The now-open library door offered them little privacy, but the thought that all witnesses of their 'discovery' had now fled a scene they deemed uninteresting and moved on to gossip of said scene amidst the ballroom crowd terrified her to no end.

"There is no humiliation, Elizabeth, in being engaged to you," came his answer, spoken with depth and warmth and apparent sincerity.

She looked up quickly, heart awake. Was he toying with her? Was he mocking her utter ruin?

He - the man with the actual fiancée - may share such compliments all he wished, for there would be little consequence for him.

Her own life was another matter.

"My mother would be barging in any instant, sir - demanding a marriage that cannot occur. Pray, do not mock me." She looked askance, blinking all the while. "My father, if he attends her, may be difficult to reckon with as well. For your peace, flee, now."

He did not reply, and she dared not look up.

Then his voice was by her ear all of a sudden. Her entire being lit as if on fire. "I jest not, Elizabeth. Perhaps chance has dealt us a much kinder card than we may have sought for ourselves."

"I cannot claim kindness for destructing your honor, sir. I promise to clear - "

"I do not need you to."

"My cousin is a fool - "

"But Providence is not."

"I - I refuse to entrap you, sir."

"But you already have."

Her face whipped up instantly to his, and there they stood, panting - brow to brow, nose to nose, and almost lips to lips. Her eyes searched his, curious and prying. He met her gaze an open book. He was hers, now and forever.

"I don't understand," she whispered. He knew, rejoiced, even, that anyone who would chance upon the library at this moment would readily declare them irrevocably engaged.

"You enchant without trying, engage without thought, entrance without effort or force. You capture my heart so thoroughly that your rejection would render me incapable of ever loving another." Prose had never been his forte, until tonight. He heard her heart, and his, echoing between their chests. His eyes remained fixed on her ever-lovely ones, their depths unfathomable - until tonight. "You intend to clear my honor, but I have every desire to engage yours."

Her eyes blinked twice, dewy and young. The challenge he had so often seen in them before this destined evening had been wholly replaced by wonder and surprise.

"I cannot speak for you, Miss Elizabeth." He softened his tones, still refusing to pull away. "But I, for my own sake, am decidedly thankful that Mr. Collins misunderstood."

"You would have him believe me engaged?" The happier, softer lilt had returned - and he loved her all the more for it.

"I see no problem in this impermeable plan."

She laughed, almost kissing him from the movement. His chest, and other parts, tightened in response.

"My father might deem your plan faulty, sir." She smiled now, shadows of her odious cousin gone.

He smiled too. "And have you a better solution?"

"Perhaps." She paused, as if thinking. Her eyes smiled, danced. "Would you, Mr. Darcy, be kind enough to call at Longbourn tomorrow morning?"

"Shall I bring the settlement papers? I can muster an attempt, but I doubt, even with my lawyer's speed, that we could - "

"To ask for a courtship, sir!" She laughed wholeheartedly now, face bright and shoulders moving. She calmed slightly before adding, "Contrary to Mr. Collins' belief, to have one's heart belonging to another - need not always require a context of betrothal."

Her words carved sprightly rivers through every desert cliff in his heart.

"I shall do as you say, madame, lest I be considered as deaf as your other suitors."

"One cannot be a suitor when the lady does not even consider one's actions a suit."

"And me?"

She smiled again - perfect and glad - before allowing him to lift her hand to his lips. "I shall be very glad to refer to you thus."

A/N: I hope you liked this short story. It was originally supposed to be a one-shot. Then it kept outgrowing itself. I hope you have a smile on your face because of this! Thank you for reading :)