Free By Force of Instinct by Abigail Reynolds

reaction to their encounter, but, as she approached rosings that evening with the rest of the party, she could not help recall the devastating feeling of his lips upon hers.
    Half afraid that her thoughts would show in her face, she kept her eyes downcast during the greetings and introductions. When she was finally forced to look up by the need to move to her table, it was to see Mr. Darcy turning an attentive smile on an attractive young lady seated next to him, who seemed far from averse to such attention. she felt an unanticipated stab of pain at his defection; she had been prepared for a reaction of distaste from him, but not to find herself so rapidly displaced in his mind. Blindly she turned to colonel Fitzwilliam, who had seated himself next to her, and deliberately gave him the brightest smile she could manage.
    she was seated at a table across the room from Mr. Darcy; she was unable to follow the progress of his conversation, but she heard his laugh ring out on more than one occasion, and the murmur of his voice. clearly Wickham had been telling the truth in one small item—Darcy was indeed able to be pleasing among those he thought to be his equals in consequence, a group to which she did not, and never would, belong.
    Her pride would not allow her to let slip any hint that Darcy’s desertion troubled her. she engaged colonel Fitzwilliam in a lively manner which soon drew a pleased response from that gentleman, who remained quite taken with the lovely Miss Bennet and had rather felt her withdrawal from him after his confession of his need to find a well-dowered bride. Her smiles were brilliant, and she teased him with many a sideward glance which might in other circumstances have led him astray, and by the end 47

    Abigail Reynolds
    of the evening he was willing to declare it the pleasantest evening he had spent at rosings since his arrival.
    It was a conclusion that would not have been shared by his conversational partner, who felt her attention painfully drawn to the opposite side of the room. she could not justify her dislike of the situation; after all, she had refused him and had no interest in furthering a relationship with him, so why should she feel any distress to see him moving on? she finally reached the painful conclusion that it was because Miss temple was everything she was not; wealthy, dressed in silks and jewels, and fashionably pale and languid in the manner of the ton . she would, elizabeth was forced to conclude, make a much more suitable bride for Mr. Darcy, but she could not deny the pain this thought caused her.
    Darcy’s displeasure at seeing elizabeth turn her sparkling eyes upon his cousin reached the level of near-torture as the evening progressed. she was facing away from him, but all too frequently he could see her dark curls brushing near colonel Fitzwilliam’s arm, and the obvious pleasure that gentleman took in her attentions. So her subdued air lasted only so long as she thought I might be watching her, he thought bitterly. No sooner does she see my attention turned elsewhere than she is laughing with him once again!
    He was gripped by the desire to take elizabeth away, forcibly if necessary, from his cousin. Better yet, to take her away from all of these people and their superficial ways, and to demand that she accept him. His mind began to travel down a familiar route as he imagined how he would convince her, a scenario in which his bedroom and her swollen lips and passion-filled eyes played leading roles. The crystal sound of her laughter reached his ears, breaking into his fantasy and bringing him closer to thoughts of murder than he ever cared to be.
    “Mr. Darcy?” Miss temple’s languid tones pierced his distraction, and he turned to her half in irritation before recollecting himself. no, he would conquer this, he told himself with angry determination. elizabeth would never be his, and it was time to move on with his life. she would be some other man’s wife, and their