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He laughed softly, and she caught his hand to draw him toward the bed.

Darcy followed his wife.

Epilogue

JANE’S NURSERY HAD a yellow curtain, a comfortable chair, and a door which opened directly into her own room.

Elizabeth admired all three, then stood aside while Charles demonstrated a defect in the door which he had already undertaken to have repaired.

“It catches here,” he said, moving it gently. “The carpenter will come tomorrow.”

“I can open it perfectly well,” Jane assured him.

“But you ought not to have to lift it.”

“I scarcely lift it at all.”

“You see, Lizzy? It is fortunate you have come. She means to excuse every inconvenience until I begin to suppose the house requires nothing more of me.”

Elizabeth looked about the little room. The cradle stood near Jane’s chair, out of the draught from the window. A basket of linen waited upon a chest; a shawl lay where her sister could reach it. There was very little of the elaborate arrangement Caroline had once preferred, and everything Jane had wanted.

“I am afraid I must agree with Charles. He should have the door attended to.”

“Thank you,” he said.

“But perhaps he might wait for the carpenter instead of opening and shutting it until the child wakes.”

Jane laughed. Charles looked into the cradle and immediately released the handle.

Alderbrook had received its new family five days earlier. The first week of February had supplied enough dry weather for the short removal, though not enough warmth to satisfy Charles that every room was comfortable. He had lit fires wherever Jane might conceivably wish to sit and apologised for the rooms in which she had no intention of setting foot.

She had borne it with affection. Now she took his arm and drew him away from the nursery door.

“Go and show Mr. Darcy what has been done in the stable yard. He will be interested, and Lizzy will not.”

Elizabeth protested sufficiently to be civil. Charles was not deceived. He kissed his wife, glanced once more into the cradle, and went to find Darcy.

The sisters sat down together.

“Are you happy here?” Elizabeth asked.

“Very.”

“I knew you would be. I wished to hear you say it.”

Jane looked toward the open door. “I liked being at Pemberley. You must not suppose that I did not.”

“I shall survive your preference for your own house.”

“It is pleasant to discover where I wish things to stand before everybody else has decided.”

“Then you must write to Mama before she visits.”

“She will move something.”

“Certainly. But if you describe the nursery well enough, she may consent to its being the drawing room.”

Jane laughed and reached to touch her sister’s hand.