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"An important discovery. We shall have to discuss them when he is elsewhere."

Darcy looked across the table. "Am I the subject of some conspiracy?"

"Only a modest one," Elizabeth answered. "It concerns the management of Pemberley."

"Then I should be grateful if you allowed me to be informed before any sweeping changes are made."

"You may submit your suggestions in writing," Georgiana said, surprising everyone, herself most of all.

Richard laughed so heartily that Lady Matlock was obliged to remind him that the company had not yet finished supper. Darcy regarded his sister with delighted astonishment, and Elizabeth saw Georgiana sit a little straighter. Her happiness was not simply that Darcy would be married, but that she would have a companion within his household who could encourage her to laugh at him without fear.

After dinner Saye found Elizabeth in the passage leading toward the library, where she had gone to retrieve the book Darcy had given her. He carried a little leather portfolio and appeared unusually uncertain how to begin.

"I intended to offer you this when you first came to us," he said. "But Father wished you to have time to settle before we opened all the old correspondence."

Inside were copies of several letters Thomas Bennet had sent to the Earl during Elizabeth's earlier visits, and a small note Saye had written after meeting her at fifteen. The note was brief: Father has been happier since the child began to write. She possesses Henry Bennet's wit, but I hope she will be allowed a place where it is cherished rather than merely tolerated.

Elizabeth read it with growing emotion. "You wrote this when you scarcely knew me."

"I had heard Father speak of you often. I thought anyone who had made him so cheerful after his accident deserved a proper welcome."

"And you provided one," Elizabeth answered. "I did not know then how much it would matter."

Saye took back the portfolio only long enough to close it and put it safely into her hands. "You may keep the copies. They are yours by right of affection, if not by any other claim."

She embraced him impulsively. He returned the embrace without the awkwardness she might once have expected from his reserved manner.

"I cannot promise to remain as frequently in your household once I am married," she said.

"You will never be required to count your visits," Saye answered. "When Richard and I were children, Mother would scold us for treating every room as ours. She now has one more child to scold. That does not cease because the child acquires another home."

Elizabeth drew back and smiled. "I hope she will continue scolding me. I should miss it terribly."

"Then we may all be confident of her devotion."

When she returned to the drawing room, Darcy was standing near the window speaking to Lord Matlock. He looked up as Elizabeth entered. Something in the simple warmth of his expression confirmed what she had begun to understand: accepting his love would not require her to abandon any of the people who had taught her how to receive it. He held out his hand, and she went to him without fear.

That night Elizabeth wrote to Jane. She told her cousin the news first, then filled several pages with an account of Darcy's gentleness, Georgiana's joy, and the extraordinary manner in which the day had altered her future. At the end she added: I was once so frightened of being indebted to anyone that I scarcely knew how to accept love. I think I am learning at last. He does not wish me to repay him for anything. He merely wishes us to be happy together.

She sealed the letter and placed it beside the locket on her bedside table. For a long while she sat with the memory of Darcy's face when she accepted him. She wished her parents could have known him. She wished Mr. Bennet might have heard the news and teased her for finding a man nearly as stubborn as herself.

Then she thought of the people who would greet her at breakfast and of the gentleman who had promised to meet her in the garden the following day. Her sorrow for those she had lost was real, but it no longer filled every part of her heart.

She turned down the lamp with a smile. Tomorrow, she thought, would be a very fine day indeed.

CHAPTER 16

The Assembly at Meryton

The first letter from Jane after Elizabeth's engagement was composed with such warmth that Elizabeth read it aloud to Lady Matlock and then carried it into the garden to read again privately.

Her cousin had written that she could scarcely believe the news and was happier for Elizabeth than she could express. Mrs. Bennet, however, had expressed her joy in terms that required considerably less imagination. A man of ten thousand a year, she had cried, and related to an earl! She had then informed everyone within hearing that she had always expected extraordinary things of her beloved niece.

Elizabeth set the letter upon her knee and laughed until she had to wipe her eyes.

Darcy found her beneath a tree and asked what amused her.

"My aunt has decided that she always intended I should marry you."