Page 106 of The Engagement at Longbourn

"Nothing."

"That answer is never true when you say it."

Elizabeth smiled and touched the sapphire. "I was thinking about Pemberley."

His expression became attentive at once. "Worried?"

"A little."

"So am I."

That made her laugh. "It is your own house."

"Exactly. I know all the ways it can overwhelm someone."

Elizabeth slipped her hand into his. "Then we shall be overwhelmed together."

Darcy looked at their joined hands and smiled.

Richard, waiting by the door, groaned loudly. "If marriage makes you two any more sentimental, I shall request foreign service."

"Please do," Darcy said.

Georgiana laughed all the way to the carriage.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Dinner with an Earl

The Bennets had dined with the Earl and Countess of Matlock several times during Darcy’s illness, but those meals had taken place under the strange truce created by fever, physicians, and the possibility of death.

A formal engagement dinner was different. Mrs. Bennet worried for three days. “Which fork does one use for fish if there are two?” she demanded at breakfast.

“The one nearest the plate,” Mary said.

“No, the outermost.”

“That is what I meant.”

“It is not.” Kitty said,

“What if there is no fish?” Lydia said, “La, I shall use whichever fork I like. If an earl objects to my fork, he is a very dull earl.”

Mr. Bennet folded his newspaper. “An excellent principle. We shall extend it to spoons.”

Mrs. Bennet glared at him. “You will not encourage them.”

Elizabeth, who knew Lady Matlock had once eaten cold pie standing in Longbourn’s kitchen because she had missed luncheon while sitting with Darcy, refused to be anxious. “Lady Matlock likes you, Mama.”

“That is because I have never dined at her table as her nephew’s future mother.”

“You were still his future mother when she ate your seedcake.”

Mrs. Bennet paused. “That was very good seedcake.”

Netherfield’s dining room was arranged for twenty. The Matlocks had returned from London for the final fortnight before the wedding, bringing one of Richard’s brothers and his wife. Georgiana sat beside Mary by choice. Bingley placed Jane near himself with all the subtlety of a lighthouse.

Darcy escorted Elizabeth in. She looked up at him. “You are nervous.”