Page 43 of Twice Chosen

Elizabeth looked into his young face and saw the old man she had lost. "And not enough."

"Exactly."

That was when they began speaking of rules, though Elizabeth would later insist she had agreed only because Darcy was becoming unbearable without them.

Before leaving the oak, Darcy asked one more question. "Do you regret telling me to find you sooner?"

Elizabeth looked at him for a long moment. "No."

"Even knowing what it may cost?"

"Ask me when I am seventy again."

Darcy smiled. "I intend to."

She squeezed his fingers. "Then we had better be careful crossing roads."

"Elizabeth."

"You are the one who died of heartbreak."

"That has not been medically established."

She laughed all the way down the hill.

Chapter Eleven

Rules

They made rules.

Elizabeth mocked this immediately.

"Of course you need rules," she said as they walked along a quiet lane several days after their discovery. "We have apparently defeated death, but Fitzwilliam Darcy must still organize the experience."

Darcy ignored the insult. "We require some order."

"We have been dead less than a month from our perspective and you are already regulating eternity."

"First," he said firmly, "we do not tell anyone."

Elizabeth's teasing faded. "Agreed."

"Second: we do not assume events will occur as before."

"Obviously."

Darcy gave her a look.

Elizabeth sighed. "Very well. Agreed."

"Third: we do not interfere merely to make people produce outcomes we prefer."

She nodded slowly. "Jane and Bingley."

"Especially."

"Charlotte."