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She had gone to the window often enough that morning to be ashamed of doing so again. Jane had offered to take a turn at watching, and Charles had promised that two people could scarcely arrive unnoticed in a carriage full of Mrs. Bennet’s preparations. Elizabeth had laughed, sat down, and remained seated for nearly ten minutes.

She set her workbasket upon the chair beside her and hurried into the hall.

Mr. Darcy looked up from a paper the butler had brought him.

“They are here,” she said.

He set the paper aside and followed her outside.

Her father appeared at the carriage window, looking tired and entirely himself. Elizabeth had forgotten how much she loved the particular expression with which he surveyed a new inconvenience before deciding whether it might amuse him.

“There you are, Lizzy.”

She waited until he stepped down, then put her arms about him without preparing a single sensible greeting.

“My dear,” he said, returning the embrace. “We have not been lost for quite so long as that.”

“I know.”

He held her a moment longer anyway.

Behind him her mother was asking whether the small bandbox had been placed beneath the larger, because she had expressly forbidden it at the last inn. Mr. Darcy offered his hand and assisted her down while a servant answered the question.

“Oh, Lizzy, how cold you are! Have you been standing out here waiting? You ought to have put on something warmer. Where is Jane? She has not come outside, I hope.”

“In the morning room, Mama.”

“Then take me to her directly. Mr. Darcy, I am sure we are very much obliged. What a handsome place this is. I could see nothing properly when we first turned, for your father would insist upon showing me a tree.”

“You asked what sort of tree it was,” Mr. Bennet said. “I had scarcely begun to answer when you discovered the house.”

Mrs. Bennet accepted the explanation without attending to it. She had reached Elizabeth and was examining her face.

“You look very well.”

“So do you, Mama.”

“I am exhausted. I have scarcely closed my eyes since we left home.”

Elizabeth kissed her cheek. It was possible for both statements to be true, and she was too glad to see her mother to inquire further.

They went inside. Charles came from the morning room to greet them, and Mrs. Bennet’s account of the journey immediately acquired further privations for the benefit of her son-in-law. Mr. Bennet thanked Darcy quietly while the ladies entered ahead of them.

Jane rose only far enough to receive her mother’s embrace before being told to sit down again.

“My dear girl. You are quite altered.”

“I hope not so much that you dislike it.”

“Dislike it! I have come all this way to see that you are taken care of. Charles, she is not too near the window?”

“Jane chose the chair,” he replied.

“Then she chose very well,” Mrs. Bennet said, before moving the little table so that nobody could easily reach it.

Elizabeth put the table back when her mother turned to remove her bonnet. Jane caught her eye and smiled.

Mr. Bennet kissed his eldest daughter, asked how she was, and listened to the whole answer. Charles found him a chair.