Page 133 of The Crown’s Gift

"Papa is terrifying him," Lydia told Elizabeth.

"Good."

"Lieutenant Carter says he respects it."

"Better."

"I have not decided whether I love him."

"Best of all."

Lady Bennet continued to hope noisily. Sir Thomas continued to guard quietly. Lydia chose at her own pace.

After Mary's carriage departed, Elizabeth found her parents alone on the Netherfield terrace.

"Three married," Lady Bennet said. "Kitty may never settle because artists are unreliable. Lydia keeps a perfectly respectable lieutenant waiting."

"You have two daughters still at home and complain differently than when you had five," Sir Thomas observed.

"A mother adapts."

Elizabeth sat between them.

"Do you remember when only Jane was out?" she asked.

"I remember every season," Lady Bennet said. "Your father remembers weather and rents."

Sir Thomas looked toward the house where the wedding flowers remained. "I remember more than I once did."

* * *

On the fifteenth anniversary of the King's visit to Meryton, Sir Thomas planted an oak near the southern boundary of Netherfield.

The original oak beneath which His Majesty rested still stood in Meryton, protected by an iron rail and surrounded by inaccurate plaques. Sir Thomas refused another monument.

"Trees are useful," he said. "Statues only collect birds."

The family gathered for the planting. Jane and Bingley came from Hazelwood with Emma and their baby son, Thomas Charles. Mary and Mr Avery travelled from London. Kitty arrived from Derby. Lydia brought Lieutenant Carter under Sir Thomas's inspection. Darcy and Elizabeth came from Pemberley with Anne and a second daughter, little Eleanor Charlotte Darcy.

Lady Bennet counted grandchildren before breakfast and declared the number insufficient.

The children played on the lawn while Sir Thomas set the young tree into the prepared earth. Anne carried soil in a silver cup until Darcy replaced it with a wooden pail. Emma attempted to climb the sapling before it was upright.

"Why a new tree?" Anne asked.

Nearly three, she possessed Elizabeth's eyes and Darcy's seriousness, an alarming combination.

Sir Thomas knelt beside her. "Because the old tree marks where something nearly ended. This one marks what began."

"Mama?"

"Partly. Your mother, aunts, cousins, all of you."

Anne considered the sapling. "It is small."

"Everything begins so."

The brass plate at its base bore no title and mentioned no estate. It read: