Page 86 of One Night with Mr. Darcy

Elizabeth visited once, with her two youngest daughters and Dorian. It was a strange and stilted visit, and it only lasted about three quarters of an hour. After, she took her children out to Jane’s grave. Her father was buried there too.

The children gathered wildflowers and they laid out the bouquets.

Elizabeth sat next to Jane’s headstone, eyes stinging. “I have done it, then, for you. I’ve lived as wild and strange and risky a life as I could. And you’ve been with me, vicariously, all along. I just wanted to give you excitement.”

If Jane were there, Elizabeth knew she would have laughed.

She heard the echo of her laughter in her girls’ giggles as they frolicked in the waving grass.

Dorian brought her a flower. “This one is for you, Mama.”

“Thank you.” She beamed at her tiniest child.

“Mama!” called her middle daughter Lily.

“Yes?”

“Are we going home to Papa now?”

She nodded. “We are, my darlings. Let’s go home to your Papa right now.” She never wanted to be separated from him, after all, not for very long.

She held out her hands and the children rushed to her, the youngest holding her hands and the elder ones clinging to the smaller one’s hands. Together, they marched into the sun, towards their waiting carriage, back towards their home.

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