Page 97 of Twice Chosen

"Well?"

"He thinks me peculiar."

"He is correct."

Darcy leaned closer. "He also said you are his favorite child."

Elizabeth's smile faded.

"He should not have."

Darcy understood immediately.

Elizabeth looked toward the drawing room, where Mary and Kitty were arguing over a book while Lydia attempted to insert herself into the quarrel. "I don't want to be."

Darcy touched her hand. "Then perhaps help him learn the others."

Elizabeth smiled. "We already started."

Behind them the library door opened.

Mr. Bennet said dryly, "If you two intend to whisper in my hallway for the next fifty years, I shall charge rent."

Elizabeth laughed.

Darcy looked at her father with suspicion.

Mr. Bennet smiled.

For one alarming instant, Darcy wondered whether the man knew far more than he should.

Then Mrs. Bennet called from the drawing room, "Mr. Darcy, you must tell me whether Pemberley has a music room!"

Darcy closed his eyes.

Mr. Bennet laughed harder.

The engagement also forced Elizabeth to face one practical problem she had previously ignored: her family's behavior would not become magically polished because she possessed older memories.

Mrs. Bennet still talked too loudly about Pemberley's income. Lydia still forgot that servants could hear gossip. Mr. Bennet still enjoyed provoking fools. Mary still occasionally used words so long that even Darcy lost the thread.

Elizabeth could not control them.

She tried once.

At a dinner with the Gouldings she spent nearly an hour anticipating every possible embarrassment. She redirected Lydia twice, interrupted her mother once, and gave Mr. Bennet such a warning look before he answered Mr. Collins's latest letter that her father deliberately said something worse.

By the time they returned home Elizabeth had a headache.

Darcy found her the next day near the shrubbery and listened while she complained.

"I cannot make them behave," she said.

"No."

"You sound pleased."

"I am relieved you have discovered it."