Page 45 of The Crown’s Gift

Elizabeth could not move toward her. Protocol held everyone in place.

Mary looked past the Queen, toward the cluster where Georgiana stood. Georgiana touched her wrist.

Slow the measure.

Mary breathed, freed the silk with a minute movement, and continued.

Her curtsy faltered slightly and recovered with grace.

Queen Charlotte leaned forward. "You are the musician."

Mary raised her eyes. "I study music, Your Majesty."

"Miss Darcy tells me you play with feeling. That is rarer than speed."

Georgiana turned scarlet. Mary looked toward her friend and then back to the Queen.

"Miss Darcy is generous."

"So is your sister, I understand. She waited for you."

Mary's eyes filled. "Yes, ma'am."

"Then neither of you shall wait any longer. Welcome to Court, Miss Mary Bennet."

Mary withdrew without stumbling.

In the antechamber, Elizabeth caught her before tears could fall upon the silk.

"You did it."

"I caught my train."

"And recovered. That is the doing."

Georgiana joined them. Mary embraced her before remembering where they stood. Georgiana embraced her back.

Darcy watched Elizabeth hold both young women, her own feathers tilting dangerously. Love rose in him without permission and without the old catalogue of objections. It was no longer admiration he might abandon at a prudent distance. It had become a future imagined in pieces: Elizabeth at Pemberley's piano beside Georgiana, Elizabeth arguing with his steward, Elizabeth laughing in rooms grown too quiet since his father's death.

Then he saw Sir Thomas watching him.

The older man's expression was not hostile. It was attentive.

Darcy understood that if he approached Elizabeth, he would not encounter a negligent father easily persuaded by fortune. He would face a man who had once crossed drawn swords and had spent ten years learning not to retreat again.

Strangely, Darcy respected her more for the obstacle.

That evening, at a private supper, Queen Charlotte spoke with Sir Thomas.

"Your daughters did well."

"They did better than I expected, ma'am, and exactly as I hoped."

"The second one was frightened."

"Very."

"Courage is not the absence of it. You know that."