Page 59 of Twice Chosen

"At a ball?"

"It is Mary."

Darcy said something.

Mary laughed.

Elizabeth's chest tightened.

She had almost never heard young Mary laugh like that.

Darcy looked over and caught Elizabeth watching. His smile was small and private.

Charlotte's head turned slowly toward her friend. "Oh."

Elizabeth sighed. "Do not."

"You love him."

The natural answer nearly escaped.

Yes.

Instead Elizabeth remembered she was twenty and supposedly acquainted with Darcy for scarcely two months. "I like him."

Charlotte stared.

"What?"

"Liar."

Elizabeth laughed.

Across the room Lydia was flirting with Lieutenant Carter, who had become engaged to Miss Barker three weeks earlier. The old instinct to be embarrassed rose immediately. Elizabeth felt it, recognized it, and set it aside.

Lydia was loud. She could be corrected privately. Public humiliation would only sharpen defiance.

Elizabeth crossed the room. "Lydia, may I borrow you?"

"Why?"

"Your hem."

Lydia looked down in alarm. Elizabeth bent as though adjusting it and whispered, "Lieutenant Carter is engaged."

Lydia's eyes widened. "To whom?"

"Miss Barker."

"Oh."

"Perhaps do not sit quite so near."

Lydia flushed. "I wasn't--"

Elizabeth looked at her.

Lydia sighed. "Fine."