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"My dear uncle," Darcy said, "Elizabeth has agreed to become my wife."

Georgiana crossed the room before anyone else moved. She embraced Elizabeth with such happiness that Elizabeth nearly lost her balance.

"You will truly be my sister," Georgiana whispered.

"I shall be very glad of it," Elizabeth answered, holding her close.

Richard declared that the entire household had known of the attachment except the two people chiefly concerned. Saye observed that such an arrangement was not unusual where Richard's powers of observation were involved, and the Earl demanded that everyone stop talking long enough to congratulate the couple properly.

Lady Matlock embraced Elizabeth and then Darcy. "I could not have wished better for either of you."

Saye offered Darcy his hand, and his congratulations were warm without extravagance. When he turned to Elizabeth, he did not immediately speak. His eyes were bright, and she recognized the thoughtful expression with which he had greeted her on her first arrival.

"You are happy?" he asked quietly.

"Entirely."

"Then I am satisfied." He bent to kiss her forehead. "He must take excellent care of you, or he will find that he has acquired two most disagreeable brothers by marriage."

"Three," the Earl corrected. "I will not be omitted from the reckoning."

"Four if you count me twice," Richard added. "I am prepared to be twice as disagreeable as Saye."

Darcy endured the threats with a composure that would have been impressive had his smile not betrayed him.

After their engagement was announced, Darcy and Elizabeth escaped the congratulations for a few moments in the conservatory. The air was warm and smelled faintly of damp earth. They had spent so much time debating ordinary things that Elizabeth found the silence between them newly surprising.

"You need not be solemn on my account," she told him.

"I am trying to remember everything you said in the garden. I fear I shall discover some important part of it only after you have married me."

"That would be dreadful. You might learn that I have opinions about your books."

"I had already prepared myself for that calamity."

His smile faded. He looked at the little fold in her glove where she had twisted the fabric during the proposal. "Were you frightened?"

"Of refusing you? No." She touched the leaf of a fern with one finger. "Of finding something precious and not being able to keep it. Perhaps."

He took her hand, but did not try to make a promise that neither of them could control. "I cannot make the world safe from every sorrow," he said. "I can promise to remain beside you while we meet it."

Elizabeth let the silence settle. She had heard people make extravagant assurances all her life, and she had learned to distrust them. His smaller promise seemed to ask something of him every day. She turned her hand within his and held on.

The celebration continued through dinner, when the Earl requested wine and Richard insisted upon proposing a toast of such length that Saye finally interrupted to inquire whether he meant to publish it as a pamphlet. Georgiana sat beside Elizabeth with a look of quiet pleasure. Now and then she touched Elizabeth's hand as if to assure herself that the promise had been made and would not vanish when she looked away.

"I fear you will soon find us an excessive family," Georgiana said during a pause in the conversation.

"I have already found it so," Elizabeth answered. "You must not suppose marriage will improve my tolerance."

"But you will come to Pemberley."

"Indeed I shall. And I hope you will help me learn its habits before I offend the housekeeper by placing a vase in the wrong room."

Georgiana shook her head, smiling. "Mrs. Reynolds will be pleased to have you there."

"Then I am very fortunate. Your brother says she has known him since he was small. That means she is fully acquainted with his faults."

"She knows he dislikes having them discussed," Georgiana said in a confidential tone.