Mia opened hers first. She looked at what was inside. Then she looked at Darcy. Then back at the box.
"Mr. Darcy," she said.
"You are welcome," he said.
"This is a diamond bracelet."
"Yes."
"A real one."
"I do not buy the other kind."
Mia picked it up very carefully, turned it in the light and said nothing for a moment. Then she said, "I love it," with a directness that had nothing performed about it. She put it on next to Georgiana's bracelet and held her wrist up
"Mum would have loved this." Her voice was steady. "She always said diamonds were for women who had earned something." She looked at Darcy. "I have not earned anything yet. But I will. Thank you."
Elizabeth opened hers next.
Her eyeballs nearly popped out of the socket when she saw the necklace.
"You did not have to do this," she said.
"I know."
"This is — Darcy, this is too much."
"It is not," he said simply.
She looked back at the necklace. Delicate, precise, exactly the kind of thing she would have chosen herself if she had ever allowed herself to choose something like this, which she never had. She held it a moment longer than she intended to.
Then she put it on.
Georgiana, who had been watching all of this with the quiet attention she brought to things she found interesting, received her own box last. She opened it, looked at the earrings inside, and said: "Thank you, big bro."
***
In the afternoon Georgiana and Mia went upstairs to watch something, and Elizabeth and Darcy were left in the kitchen with the remains of lunch. The quiet that had been building all week settled around them as they worked.
Elizabeth was washing up. Darcy was drying. The radio was on low.
"She likes you," Elizabeth said.
"Georgiana?"
"Mia."
"I know."
"She did not have to." Elizabeth handed him a glass. "She could have been difficult about all of this. She had every right to be."
"She is remarkable," Darcy said.
"She is Charlotte's," Elizabeth said. "All the way through."
They worked in silence for a moment. Then Darcy set his cloth down and turned.
"Elizabeth."
