Page 215

Elizabeth began to laugh and discovered that she was crying. She had been prepared for fear, effort, and pain; she had not prepared herself for the sight of her sister trying to lift her head because she wished to see the person who had made them all wait so long.

“Lie quietly a moment,” Mrs. Talbot told her. “You shall have him.”

Reynolds brought the clean wrapping. The child cried again, displeased with some part of the attention bestowed upon him. Elizabeth wiped her cheek with the back of her free hand and tried to see him past the midwife’s shoulder.

Jane looked at her.

“Is he truly all right?”

Elizabeth turned toward Mrs. Talbot rather than answer what she had not yet been told.

“He is doing very well,” the midwife said. “You may look at him for yourself in a moment.”

“And Jane?” Elizabeth asked.

Mrs. Talbot glanced at her, then gave her attention to her patient again. here.”

“Your sister has worked very hard. She is to rest while I finish

Elizabeth waited.

The light grew at the window. Saturday morning had come to Pemberley, the thirteenth of November, and somewhere downstairs Charles still waited to learn that he had a son.

“Charles,” Jane said, as if she had followed the same thought.

“We shall send word,” Elizabeth told her.

“He will be so frightened.”

“Mrs. Talbot will tell us when.”

Jane nodded. Her eyes followed the wrapped child as Reynolds brought him nearer. The housekeeper lowered him carefully into his mother’s arms, helping her support him while Elizabeth drew close enough to see his face.

He was smaller than Anna. The difference ought not to have surprised her, yet she had grown so accustomed to Anna’s lively reach and determined grip that the tiny face above the linen seemed impossibly new.

Jane looked down at her son.

“Oh.”

It was all she said. Elizabeth could not have supplied anything better.

The child’s mouth moved. One hand escaped the edge of the wrapping, fingers spreading before they closed again. Jane touched them with a gentleness which made Elizabeth remember her sister’s question beside the window two days earlier.

Mrs. Talbot finished what she needed to do and looked closely at Jane once more. Then she straightened.

“You may tell Mr. Bingley that his wife and son are well. I shall have her comfortable before he comes in.”

Elizabeth shut her eyes for an instant.

When she opened them, Reynolds was looking at her. The housekeeper came around the foot of the bed and stopped beside Elizabeth’s shoulder, beyond Jane’s immediate attention. Jane had begun to examine the little hand which rested upon her breast.

“Gone?” Reynolds whispered.

“Yes.”

Elizabeth spoke as quietly.

Reynolds pressed Elizabeth’s shoulder once. Her eyes shone. She turned before Jane could notice and went to the door.