Page 133 of The Long Road Back to Yesterday

“Yes.”

He ran his finger over Jane’s drawing of a hawthorn blossom. “Perhaps some old warnings survive for a reason.”

“The very same. Mamma said it meant misfortune and death, while Lydia insisted it meant marriage.”

“Marriage and misfortune upon the same page.”

Elizabeth rested her hand upon his shoulder. “None of us could have known how prophetic Lydia’s words would prove to be.”

He drew her around the chair until she stood between his knees and looked again at the letter.

“Samuel Grange’s receipt presented no such difficulty. He received it on the day it was written.”

She settled onto his lap. “Whereas I have three possible dates, and who is to say which one matters most?”

“If it takes you to any of those days, Elizabeth, you will return to a safe, familiar place, and your family will still be alive and well, living at Longbourn.”

Elizabeth leaned back until she rested against him.

“Papa will be alive.”

“Yes, darling.”

She bent and kissed him.

When she straightened, Fitzwilliam kept his arm around her. “Let us secure them in my strongbox.”

* * *

Fitzwilliam sent for Georgiana, asking her to bring the receipts they planned to use as tokens. She came to his study carrying the red Morocco portfolio they had purchased at Clementi’s shop. After removing the two receipts, she handed them to her brother, who laid Aunt Maddie’s letter beside them.

The receipts both bore the date April 12, 1811.

Georgiana studied Elizabeth’s letter for a moment before looking at the hawthorn blossoms. “I remember when you first showed us the letter at the Radcliffs’. I wished then that you had a simple token like our receipts.”

“Yes. A receipt worked for Samuel Grange and will most likely work for the two of you, but my letter remains an enigma.”

“I definitely prefer our receipts,” Georgiana said. “They are much less troublesome.”

Elizabeth laughed. “I envy you both your shopping.”

Georgiana touched her brother’s arm. “If the tokens return us to a moment connected with them, Fitzwilliam and I ought to arrive together.”

“We shall not know the exact day Elizabeth will return, but never mind, darling. You will return to your family circle, and I will wait for you.”

“You say that now, sir, when I am standing beside you. If several weeks pass and I have not appeared, you may become less confident.”

“I may become impatient. I shall not become less certain of you.”

The letters they had written to their former selves were already sealed and waiting in Fitzwilliam’s strongbox.

Fitzwilliam rose and unlocked it. “We shall keep everything together until the twenty-first.”

He placed the two receipts from Clementi’s music shop beside Elizabeth’s letter and locked them away for safekeeping.

* * *

The first days of December passed quietly.