Page 88 of Twice Chosen

There was the vulnerable thing beneath the vanity.

Elizabeth did not lecture. "Why?"

Lydia shrugged. "Because I am supposed to be the lively one."

Elizabeth stopped walking.

Roles again.

Jane the beautiful one. Elizabeth the clever one. Mary the serious one. Kitty the follower. Lydia the lively one.

How easily families made cages out of descriptions.

"You are allowed to be other things," Elizabeth said.

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Such as?"

"You tell me."

It took months before Lydia found answers.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Courtship

Darcy courted Elizabeth for four months.

They had never possessed four months the first time. Not really. Their original courtship had been made of misunderstandings, a disastrous proposal, a letter, one accidental meeting at Pemberley, Lydia's crisis, and a second proposal after Lady Catherine had accomplished what neither of them managed on their own.

This time they walked.

Read.

Argued.

Visited.

Pretended surprise when discovering similarities they had shared for fifty years.

Darcy brought Elizabeth a book one afternoon. She opened it, read the title, and stared at him. "You hate this author."

Darcy looked offended. "I have matured."

"You said his prose was 'an assault upon punctuation.'"

Darcy stared.

Elizabeth grinned. "Rule five."

"You broke it."

"So did you when you ordered apricot preserves at Netherfield."

"That was before the rules."

"Convenient."

They attended a concert in London with the Gardiners. Darcy sat beside Elizabeth while an ambitious soprano attempted an aria beyond her comfortable range.