Page 104 of The Engagement at Longbourn

He crossed the room slowly.

"No."

His voice had roughened. He took her hand and looked at the sapphire.

"She wore this often."

"Your aunt told me."

Darcy's thumb brushed beside the ring, careful not to disturb it.

"You need not wear it if you dislike it."

"I like it."

"You need not wear it because it was hers."

"I know."

He looked at her.

Elizabeth said softly, "I would like to carry something of her into Pemberley. Not because I intend to become her. Because she mattered to you."

Darcy's eyes closed briefly. When he opened them, he bent and kissed her hand just below the ring.

"Thank you."

Elizabeth touched his cheek.

"You are becoming sentimental again."

"It is your fault."

"Naturally."

He smiled. And when Elizabeth returned to Longbourn, Mrs. Bennet saw the ring from halfway across the hall and shouted, with tremendous satisfaction, "I knew it was jewels!"

The ring caused a second commotion after dinner when Georgiana came to Longbourn and found Elizabeth wearing it. She stopped in the drawing-room doorway. Elizabeth held out her hand.

"Your aunt said you approved."

Georgiana crossed the room and touched the sapphire with one fingertip.

"I hoped you would like it."

"I do. Very much."

"I remember Mother wearing it once." Georgiana frowned with the effort of memory. "Or perhaps I remember a portrait and think I remember. I was so little."

Darcy, behind her, said quietly, "There is a portrait in the west gallery. She wears it there." Georgiana looked at him. "That must be it."

For a moment brother and sister shared the uncertainty of children who had lost a parent too young and spent years sorting true memory from stories told afterward.

Elizabeth understood without intruding.

Lydia did not. She bounded over. "La! Let me see. Oh, it is beautiful. Is that a real sapphire? Of course it is. What a silly question. Mr. Darcy would hardly give Lizzy blue glass."

"Lydia," Kitty said.