Page 87 of The Crown’s Gift

Mr Lucas stopped. "Naturally. Most importantly, Elizabeth."

Lady Bennet received callers in rose silk and attempted humility with heroic failure.

"We had no expectation of it. None. Mr Darcy admired Lizzy's eyes from the first, but who could have known? Ten thousand a year has nothing to do with happiness, though the house contains a gallery and two libraries. I have not asked how many chimneys."

"Thirty-two," Lydia supplied.

"No one asked you."

Elizabeth escaped with Darcy into the park whenever propriety allowed. Kitty or Mary accompanied them at a tactful distance. Lydia was not selected after she hid behind a hedge to hear whether Darcy used Elizabeth's Christian name.

"I already knew he did," she protested when discovered. "I wished to know how often."

Miss Harwood assigned her an essay on privacy.

The engagement altered Darcy's manner without making him careless. He spoke more. He laughed where he once might have withdrawn. Yet he asked before taking Elizabeth's hand in secluded paths, as if the freedom to touch her remained a gift renewed each time.

On their third walk, she stopped beside the lake.

"You need not look alarmed whenever your sleeve brushes mine."

"I am attempting respect."

"Respect may survive contact."

Darcy looked down at her with a warmth that made teasing difficult. "May it?"

Elizabeth placed his hand at her waist.

He drew her closer, slowly. "Your sister is behind the cedar."

Kitty's bonnet appeared at once. "I cannot hear anything."

"That is the intention," Elizabeth called.

Kitty retreated, laughing.

Darcy bent and kissed Elizabeth beneath the shadow of the trees. The kiss began gently and deepened when she leaned into him. His arm tightened around her; her hand rested against his chest, feeling the rapid beat beneath waistcoat and linen.

When they separated, Darcy kept his forehead near hers.

"Respect survives," Elizabeth whispered.

"Narrowly."

Not every response was joyful. Lady Catherine sent Darcy eight pages in a hand pressed so hard the nib had torn through twice. Anne wrote separately.

I congratulate you, she said. My mother has long arranged my future without asking whether I desired it. I do not wish to marry you and never did, though I hope we may remain cousins once she recovers from discovering we possess wills. Miss Elizabeth was kind to Charlotte. That recommends her more than sixteen quarters of ancestry.

Elizabeth liked Anne immediately.

Caroline sent no congratulations.

Bingley brought the silence to Darcy after dinner at Longbourn.

"She says she is unwell."

"Is she?"