Page 142 of Twice Chosen

"Terrible," Bingley said cheerfully. "But very useful."

Darcy shook his head.

Bingley clapped him on the shoulder. "Marriage improved you."

Darcy stared.

Bingley grinned and walked away before Darcy could answer.

Elizabeth, who had heard from the terrace, laughed for several minutes.

Darcy and Elizabeth's new children eventually learned there had been grief in their parents' marriage that no one could quite explain. Clara noticed first. She was fifteen when she found her mother crying in the chapel on a date that meant nothing to the family calendar.

"Mama?"

Elizabeth wiped her face. "I am well."

Clara sat beside her. "That is what people say when they are not."

Elizabeth almost laughed. "You sound like your father."

"He says I sound like you."

"Then we have both failed."

Clara smiled, then waited.

Elizabeth could not tell her about Anne. Not without telling everything.

So she chose a truth. "There are people I loved who are gone. Sometimes I remember them on particular days."

Clara took her hand. "People I knew?"

"No."

"Do you want to tell me about them?"

Elizabeth looked at her daughter.

Anne had been patient. Thomas reckless. Henry thoughtful. Margaret musical. If she spoke of them, they would become ghosts in Clara's home.

"Someday," Elizabeth said.

Clara nodded. "All right."

Then her thumb moved once, twice, three times across Elizabeth's fingers.

I am here.

Elizabeth stopped breathing.

Clara frowned. "What?"

"Nothing."

Elizabeth pulled her close.

The gesture had passed naturally into the family without explanation.