Page 116 of Twice Chosen

"I know."

"You will visit."

"Charles has already invited himself."

"Naturally."

They sat in silence.

Then Jane said, "Mr. Darcy loves you very much."

Elizabeth's throat tightened. "Yes."

"You never doubt it."

Elizabeth looked down at their joined hands. "No."

Jane smiled. "I think that is what I noticed first. Not that you loved him. That you trusted being loved."

The words settled deeply.

In her first life Elizabeth had needed months to believe Darcy's love could survive disappointment, family, pride, and her refusal. In this life she had carried that certainty from the beginning.

Perhaps that, more than knowledge of events, had changed her.

Elizabeth kissed Jane's temple. "You are becoming too perceptive."

"I learned from you."

"Terrible choice."

Jane laughed.

Upstairs Mrs. Bennet shouted that someone had misplaced Elizabeth's traveling shawl.

Both sisters sighed.

Then they rose together and went to find it.

Chapter Thirty-One

Pemberley Again

Marriage was strange.

Not because Elizabeth and Darcy were strangers.

Because they were not.

On their first morning at Pemberley, Elizabeth woke in Darcy's bed and automatically shifted toward his side before she remembered that the room, the bed, and even the body beside her were all decades younger than memory suggested.

Darcy was already awake.

Watching her.

Elizabeth opened one eye. "That is unsettling."

"What is?"