Page 103 of The Crown’s Gift

"No. But I can remember who you are when they do not."

She took his arm. "And you?"

"I fear disappointing you after reform has made me attractive. Daily life may reveal I still leave papers everywhere and become silent when worried."

"I have seen your desk. The papers are a serious defect."

"Can you endure it?"

"If you can endure that I walk before breakfast, invite people you have not approved, and sometimes prefer being angry for an hour before becoming reasonable."

"I shall allow two."

"Generous."

He smiled, then became solemn. "I do not expect either of us to remain as we are on the wedding day."

"Good. It would make every anniversary tedious."

Darcy lifted her hand beneath the cover of twilight and kissed her palm.

A little more than a fortnight before the wedding, Mrs Reynolds arrived from Pemberley with two senior servants to accompany the new couple north. She greeted Elizabeth warmly and spent an hour with Lady Bennet discussing linen inventories.

"You must tell her when she is wrong," Lady Bennet instructed.

Mrs Reynolds looked toward Elizabeth. "I believe Mrs Darcy will ask."

Lady Bennet's eyes filled at the title.

"Not yet," Elizabeth said gently.

"In little more than a fortnight. That is hardly time at all."

Later that afternoon, the five sisters gathered in Jane's old room at Longbourn. No mother, governess, husband, or betrothed was admitted.

They sat on the floor among gowns and boxes as they had in childhood.

Lydia asked questions Jane refused to answer. Kitty cried and denied it. Mary gave Elizabeth the first printed copy of Two Houses, inscribed: For the sister who waited until I could walk beside her. Jane placed the last stitch in the oak leaves.

Elizabeth looked at them and understood that leaving did not undo belonging.

"You must all come to Pemberley," she said.

"At once?" Lydia asked.

"Not at once."

"For how long?"

"We shall negotiate."

"You sound like Mr Darcy already."

"Our governance," Mary reminded her.

They laughed until Lady Bennet knocked and demanded her daughters back.

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