Page 128 of Twice Chosen

When Elizabeth recovered fully, she resumed longer walks around the estate. Clara sometimes came in a small carriage, and Darcy often joined them. Tenants who had once found their master formidable now saw him stopping to retrieve a baby's fallen blanket from the lane.

One elderly woman told Elizabeth, "Marriage agrees with him."

Elizabeth smiled. "So I have been informed."

The woman lowered her voice. "He smiles now."

Elizabeth looked toward Darcy, who was listening seriously while a tenant boy explained the importance of a frog he had found.

"Yes," she said softly. "He does."

The question of their first children surfaced again when Clara was baptized. The vicar asked whether there were family names they wished to include.

Elizabeth looked at Darcy.

Anne.

Margaret.

The names stood between them.

Darcy answered first. "Clara Elizabeth."

Elizabeth turned toward him.

He smiled faintly.

Afterward, in the carriage, she asked, "Why Elizabeth?"

"Because I like the name."

"You are very original."

"I married one."

Elizabeth laughed, then became quiet. "Thank you."

Darcy knew what she meant. "Anne's name is hers."

"Yes."

"We do not have to prove we remember by giving the dead to the living."

Elizabeth looked out the window at the winter road. "You always know when I need you to say the difficult thing."

"Not always."

"Often enough."

He took her hand.

The christening breakfast filled Pemberley with noise. Mrs. Bennet declared Clara the image of Elizabeth despite having spent the previous hour declaring her the image of Darcy. Lydia insisted babies were dull until they could talk. Mary offered a serious observation about infant development and stopped when everyone looked frightened.

Georgiana held Clara near the window and whispered something no one heard.

Elizabeth watched her.

Darcy came beside her. "What?"