Overcome (A P&P fanfiction)

Chapter 5 - Overcoming perceptions

CHAPTER 5 – Overcoming perceptions

He caught her fragrance of lavender surrounding him... and it alerted all of his senses. Closing his eyes he drew a deep breath, flaring his nostrils to fully cherish the sensation. Her heavy breathing filled his ears like a raging storm as she stood only inches away from him, her entire body vibrating because of his closeness.

When he opened his eyes again, a blazing heat spilled out of hazel brown orbs searing a fiery path through his consciousness deep down to the very core of his soul, burning him alive. He wanted to throw all of him into her fire and so he leant into her bodily presence to let her consume him completely.

And that she did. Under the overwhelming attack of her lucious and unrelenting essence, his awareness was engulfed in her flames and desintegrated into nothingness until Fitzwilliam Darcy was no longer.

Darcy awoke drenched in sweat at the crack of dawn in his chambers at Rosings. It took him a moment to realize where he was and that he was. His whole body still resonated from the vivid impressions of his dream and he panted for air. Once his senses had readjusted to reality, the ache in his chest constricting his soul returned, remembering that all he would have of Elizabeth in the future would be memories and dreams such as this.

It was time to escape the siren's call.

Colonel Fitzwilliam was not surprised to find his cousin up and ready to leave at first light in the morning, restless for the carriage to start its voyage back to London. What did surprise him though, was that Darcy looked worse than the night before. It seemed to Richard as if sleep had evaded the Master of Pemberley completely as dark shadows circled his eyes. And although the Colonel's cousin was impaccably dressed and composed as was his custom, he still emanated an air of disruption and wrinkledness.

No, this must have been the works of more than just a rain shower, Fitzwilliam mused.

Visits to their aunt often had a negative effect on both her nephews with Richard being his good-natured self usually recuperating quickly whereas most of the times Darcy would leave Rosings in a severe bout of sulkiness. But today Darcy was different – worse – and the Colonel started to wonder in earnest whether the coincidence of Miss Elizabeth's simultaneous indisposition last night had been really that accidental after all.

Curiosity kills the cat, they say, but a cat has nine lives. Richard was willing to sacrifice one of them on stilling his need to find out if his suspicion held any relevance.

"It's a pity we do not have the time to make a last call at the parsonage to take our leave of our acquaintances there. I for one would have wanted to say goodbye to Miss Elizabeth," he ventured smugly in a try to cause some reaction on Darcy's side. He was not disappointed.

"Why so eager, Richard? Do you nurse any specific interest in that lady?" Darcy snapped with a quick glance towards his cousin before he reined his feelings in and returned his gaze back out of the carriage's window, immediately berating himself silently for losing his composure.

Fitzwilliam's smirk widened into a mischieveous grin, raised eyebrow included. "Would that be so surprising? You know her longer than I do, so you should be aware that she would be worth it. Or... Am I stepping on your toes, cousin?"

"Do not be ridiculous."

"And why would that be?" Richard inquired further, grin still firmly in place.

Darcy's eyes flickered to the colonel for a second before averting them again and donning his mask of indifference, pretending to watch the countryside glide past the window. "You know why. She is below my station, has no connections of consequence and a dowry too little to speak of."