Page 41 of Twice Chosen

Her heart softened. "That is new."

"Yes."

They sat beneath the oak, close enough that their shoulders touched. For the first time they spoke plainly.

Georgiana. Lydia. Jane. Bingley. Charlotte. Their parents.

Then silence came, different from the earlier silences.

Their children.

Elizabeth whispered, "Anne."

Darcy took her hand.

"Thomas," he said.

"Henry."

"Margaret."

All gone now. Or not yet born. Perhaps never born.

Elizabeth's eyes filled. "If we change too much, they may not--"

Darcy squeezed her hand.

There was no answer. No promise. They could not save everyone and demand precisely the same future.

Elizabeth leaned against him. "We cannot live only to reproduce what we had."

"No."

"That would make everyone else pieces on our board."

Darcy looked at her. "You sound like yourself."

"I should hope so."

His thumb moved over her wrist once, twice, three times.

I am here.

Elizabeth closed her eyes. "Then we choose carefully."

"Together."

"Always."

They remained beneath the oak for nearly two hours after discovering the truth, though either would later insist it had been much less. There were too many questions to fit into sense.

Darcy wanted to know Elizabeth's final memory. She told him about the blue room chimney and made him laugh so suddenly that a bird startled from a nearby branch.

Elizabeth wanted to know his. Darcy did not answer at first.

"William."

He looked away. "Your hand."