Page 140 of The Crown’s Gift

One afternoon George disappeared.

The child had last been seen near the rose garden with his nurse. Within minutes servants spread across the grounds. Darcy's face became white with controlled fear. Elizabeth issued clear instructions, then gripped the edge of a table when no one looked.

Sir Thomas remembered a small door beneath the west staircase which George had examined the day before. He found the boy asleep inside an old linen cupboard with the broken wooden horse clutched to his chest.

George woke to three adults staring at him.

"Socrates wanted a cave," he explained.

Darcy lifted his son and held him too tightly.

"You must never hide without telling Nurse."

George began to cry at his father's voice.

Darcy stopped. He knelt, keeping the child in his arms.

"I frightened you. I am sorry. We were afraid because we could not find you. The rule is not punishment. It helps us keep you safe. Do you understand?"

George nodded against his shoulder.

Elizabeth sat on the floor beside them. Sir Thomas withdrew to the corridor, where Lady Bennet waited.

"Found?"

"In a cupboard."

"I said children should not play near west staircases."

"You said the same of east staircases and gardens. We chose not to raise them in a chair."

Lady Bennet embraced him.

That evening George was permitted to bring Socrates to dinner on condition the horse occupied no plate. Sir Thomas told the story of its missing wheel. Anne insisted the toy should be repaired. George refused.

"Grandpapa says the broken part remembers."

Sir Thomas had never said precisely that, but he approved.

On the final night of the visit, Darcy and Sir Thomas sat on Pemberley's terrace.

"You once asked what I would do when Elizabeth's judgment differed from mine," Darcy said.

"I remember."

"I gave an excellent answer."

"Most proposals contain them."

"The truth is less orderly. Sometimes I speak too soon. Sometimes she does. Sometimes we decide and discover both were wrong."

"And then?"

"We remain. We correct what can be corrected."

Sir Thomas looked across the dark park. "That is marriage. And parenting. And estate management. An alarming lack of final examinations."

Darcy smiled. "You have been a good father to me."