Page 76 of Twice Chosen

Jane laughed. "Very."

He proposed then.

Jane accepted.

She cried.

Bingley cried more.

Mrs. Bennet screamed when they returned to the house.

Mr. Bennet retreated to the library for ten minutes and came back with suspiciously bright eyes.

Elizabeth found Darcy later in the Longbourn garden.

"It happened," she said.

"Yes."

She smiled. "Without us."

"Mostly."

Darcy raised one eyebrow.

Elizabeth laughed. "I spoke to Jane once."

"I spoke to Bingley several times."

"Then perhaps not entirely without us."

Darcy took her hand where the hedge concealed the gesture. "But they chose."

Elizabeth looked toward the house, where Bingley's laugh carried through an open window. "Yes."

That mattered.

Bingley's proposal did not instantly erase the awkwardness between Caroline and Jane. Jane knew Caroline had hoped for a different future for her brother, and Caroline knew Jane knew. Their first meeting after the engagement was painfully polite.

Elizabeth watched from the edge of Netherfield's drawing room.

Jane finally broke the impasse.

"I hope," she said gently, "that we may eventually be friends for Charles's sake, if not immediately for our own."

Caroline looked at her.

Jane did not smile falsely.

"I know you did not wish this," she continued. "I do not ask you to pretend you did."

Caroline's expression changed. "You are very direct today."

"Lizzy has been a bad influence."

From across the room Elizabeth called, "I heard that."

Bingley laughed.