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He bent to kiss her cheek before her mother reached them. Then he had to surrender her to the embraces and congratulations of a family which had waited with much less composure than the bride.

Mr. Bennet stood beside him while Elizabeth kissed Jane.

“You see,” her father said. “She is still quite capable of attending to other people. You must be patient.”

“I am trying.”

“Marriage will offer further occasions.”

Darcy smiled. Across the little gathering Elizabeth held out her hand for him, and he went to her without troubling to conceal his relief.

They returned to Pemberley in the same carriage. For the first time that morning nobody sat between them or waited to direct their next movement. Darcy took her hand and turned it so that the ring caught the light.

“Does it please you?”

“Very much.”

“I am glad.”

“Though I confess I have been thinking more of the gentleman who gave it to me.”

He looked up. She leaned toward him, and this time there was no family to interrupt the kiss.

When the carriage slowed before the house, Elizabeth drew back and touched her bonnet.

“You have disarranged a great deal of Mama’s work.”

“I shall apologise.”

“You will do no such thing. Help me put it straight.”

He attempted to correct the ribbon she showed him. She laughed at his care and finished the work herself before the door opened.

The house received them with familiar faces. Mrs. Reynolds waited in the hall, and Elizabeth went to her before attending to any of the more elaborate congratulations which Mrs. Bennet had begun to arrange.

Darcy heard the housekeeper’s good wishes. He saw Elizabeth take her hand and answer warmly, then look up the stairs when a child’s voice interrupted from above.

Anna had woken.

Ruth brought her down once the arriving guests had cleared the hall. The child surveyed the flowers upon Elizabeth’s bonnet with great interest. Darcy took Anna while Elizabeth removed the temptation and handed the bonnet to Sally.

“Now you may come to me,” Elizabeth told the child.

Anna leaned toward her. Darcy placed her carefully in his wife’s arms and kept his hand beneath the little back until Elizabeth had settled her.

For a moment he could scarcely speak.

He had imagined the sight, but imagining had not supplied the movement of Anna’s hand against Elizabeth’s cheek, or the quiet amusement with which Elizabeth caught the little fingers when Anna began to pat her with unnecessary vigour. These were small things. He wanted years in which to see them.

Martha and Thomas joined the company for the breakfast. Martha took Anna when the child wanted her, and Ruth carried her upstairs before the room grew too noisy.

Charles spoke so warmly that Darcy found it difficult to thank him. Fitzwilliam made him laugh immediately afterwards. Mrs. Bennet admired her daughter’s appearance until Elizabeth threatened to require a second meal before she could hear every compliment.

Mr. Bennet asked when they would come to Longbourn.

“In the spring,” Elizabeth said. “When Jane is settled and the roads are kinder.”

“You have promised to bring my essays.”