Page 226 of What Change Entails

“No. Lady Catherine is less curious.”

Elizabeth laughed, then pressed both hands to her cheeks for one moment, attempting to restore herself into a lady who had merely taken a walk and not returned with the man she loved.

Darcy watched her with open affection.

“Ready?” she asked.

“No.”

“Good. Come anyway.”

She opened the gate and went ahead of him toward Longbourn.

Behind her, the horse snorted. Darcy murmured something soothing to it, then followed.

From the house, Lydia’s voice rose through an open window.

“Kitty, I told you he would come!”

Elizabeth stopped on the path.

Darcy came to stand beside her.

After a moment, he said, “Your sister has excellent hearing.”

“She has dreadful restraint.”

“I have noticed.”

The front door opened before they reached it.

Mr. Bennet stood in the doorway, book in hand, eyes traveling from Elizabeth to Darcy to the horse and back again.

“Well,” he said. “This is a more interesting afternoon than I was promised.”

Elizabeth drew in a breath.

Darcy bowed.

“Mr. Bennet, may I request the honor of a private conversation?”

Her father’s eyes sharpened with amusement and something more difficult to read.

“I suspected you might.” He stepped aside. “Come in, Mr. Darcy. Lizzy, you may wait in the parlor and pretend not to listen.”

“Papa.”

“I said pretend. I know my family’s limitations.”

From somewhere upstairs, Lydia shrieked, “He came!”

Mrs. Bennet answered with a shriek of her own, though hers contained no information whatsoever.

Darcy regarded Elizabeth. The corner of his mouth moved.

Elizabeth lifted her chin. “Welcome to Longbourn.”

He leaned just near enough to speak for her alone.