A Modern Pride and Prejudice.

I hadn't moved from the bed for a while. It felt like hours that I had been lying there and Charlotte, James and his grandmother were still at Miss Darcy's. I was grateful for that; I just needed time to...think.

The door downstairs slammed shut and I bolted up straight. The sound of footsteps stomped up the stairs and stopped just outside my room and I heard a voice call out my name. I couldn't believe whose voice I was hearing though.

"Darcy?" I gasped.

He pushed the door open and peered in, checking the room to see if I was in there. Spotting that I was still lying on the bed, my elbow propping me up into a half sitting position, he remained framed in the doorway.

"Oh, I'm - I heard you weren't feeling well. I came to check on you; did I wake you up?"

I shook my head, momentarily forgetting that I was mad at him. "No, you didn't. I thought someone was breaking in or something, you could have knocked."

He shrugged apologetically but remained in the doorway. I waited for him to say something else but he just stared at me. My anger with him was starting to flood back and I wished that he would just spit whatever he wanted to say out already. He was the last person I wanted to look at right now.

"Look - " I began but he had started talking at the same time.

"Elizabeth - "

I paused and he stepped into the room. Sighing loudly, he paced across towards where I was sat, then back to the door and back towards me again. I moved swiftly, kicking my legs off the bed to sit up and looked up into his earnest face.

"I can't do this anymore. I have to tell you. Elizabeth - Lizzy... I love you." he confessed.

I tried to speak but the words caught in my throat. He pushed on as I stared incredulously at him.

"I've struggled to keep my feelings rational. I knew I shouldn't like you but I couldn't control myself. You - you waltz around, judging people because of their background or position in society. James, Carol, even my aunt! All of this and I still love you."

I was dumbstruck but still, he had more to say.

"Your family act unreasonably, like your two sisters at Charlie's party. I was ashamed to like someone from such a family." he said, his face darkening at the thought of Katy and Lily. "Your mother especially - "

"What about my mother?!" I asked heatedly.

"I heard her talking about Charlie - about how rich he is and how hopefully sometime in the future, Jane may be a part of that wealth." Darcy hissed, his handsome features contorted with disgust.

I felt my face burning and hardly realising what I was doing, I jolted up from the bed and moved suddenly away from him. He watched me, confused by my retreat. I forced myself to keep calm, trying to keep my breathing as level as possible and focused my attention on the wall, my back to him.

"I'm sorry, Darcy, that you've struggled so long with liking me. I can see that you've wrestled with it for some time and if I'd known, I would've made a conscious effort to help you get over those feelings."

There was a scuffle behind me; Darcy moving around? His voice sounded closer but quieter - more vulnerable.

"Is - is that your answer? Is that all you've got to say to me?"

I laughed coldly, startled by the sound of it. It was an alien noise to me. I turned on my heel to glare at him in the face, my anger getting the better of me.

"Well, one of us should keep their mouth shut. You clearly had no problem in that, with your insulting me and the way you spoke about my family!"

William narrowed his eyes. "I only told you the truth, I wasn't going to sugar-coat my feelings."

The rage in me was coursing through my entire body, my heart pumping so hard against my chest that I thought it was going to smash through. It enticed me to go on.

"And while you're here, what would make you think that I could return the same feelings to a guy who has ruined my sisters happiness forever? I know you did it, so don't you dare deny anything!"

At this, William laughed. "No, I don't deny that. I did my best to split Charlie and your sister up and I wish I'd had more sense to stop myself liking you. I should have tried harder to quash my own feelings."

I strode forward so that we were almost nose to nose. We were practically gasping for air and being a head shorter than Darcy, I summoned as much hatred as I could when I stared up into his arrogant face. We were evenly matched in this aspect.

"And George Wickham? What about him? I know everything you did to him but you can still stand there and laugh?" I breathed, watching his face redden.

"Wickham? You care a lot about a guy you hardly know."

"And so would anyone, if they knew what you've done to him!" I countered.

Darcy took a step back from me and paced to the door. He turned, hand on handle, and surveyed me.

"So, this is what you think of me now? I might have looked past it if you weren't so angry about my reasons for struggling to like you. I'm not ashamed of telling you and I certainly won't regret it." he spat, pulling the door open with force. I winced as it collided with the wall, the crash echoed throughout the house.

I followed him through to the corridor outside, chasing after him and letting my fury take over completely.

"No matter what you might have said to me, I knew I could never, ever like a man like you!" I shouted, jumping down the stairs after him.

So abruptly did he halt that I almost ran into him. He turned on me with a look of disbelief and pain. I ignored it, despite the small voice in the back on my head telling me to stop, and refused to censor my feelings when it came to William Darcy.

"Ever since I first saw you, the way you behaved to others and the arrogance you've shown, you're total lack of conscious when you separated Charlie and Jane and the unforgivable way you treated George, made me realise that you were the last guy in the world who I could ever fall in love with!"

Darcy opened his mouth and inhaled, as if he were about to say something but couldn't quite get the words to rise out of his throat. I lowered my gaze, suddenly bashful at what I'd said. I watched the adams apple in his throat bob up and down when he swallowed and nervously, I peered up to meet his indifferent expression.

"You've said enough, Elizabeth. I'm sorry for wasting your time." he said, his voice unusually tight.

With one last lingering stare at me, he clambered from the house.

I was rigid and my eyes were trained on his withdrawing figure down the garden path. For a moment, I was alarmed when I heard a broken, quivering sound.

Then I realised that I was sobbing.