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On Monday morning at a quarter to seven in Hunsford, the Reverend William Collins escorted two ladies out of the back door and down the garden path to the lane, where a gig stood waiting.

He handed two small bags to the young man who was driving before turning to the smaller of the two ladies.

“Godspeed, Miss de Bourgh,” he said as he handed her up into the gig.

Next he turned to his wife. “Godspeed, Charlotte. Do take care. Are you certain you have enough money?”

“I feel sure I do, William. I have what I started with and the extra you gave me.” She placed her hand on his arm. “Look after those poor souls at Rosings, especially Mrs. Jenkinson.”

“You have my word.” The church bell began tolling the hour, and Mr. Collins kissed his wife and handed her up into the gig.

Nine o’clock found Elizabeth presiding over a family breakfast for the first time as Mrs. Darcy and pouring coffee for her husband and Colonel Fitzwilliam.

All three were determined to be cheerful despite the dreadful news from Longbourn, and the conversation centered on their attendance at church the day before and the anticipated arrival of the Earl.

The Colonel prepared to leave directly after breakfast. “Do not be surprised, Cousin Elizabeth, if my father stops by for a visit soon after his arrival in town. If he comes home first, I will accompany him here.”

Darcy spoke from his end of the table. “Elizabeth, we have one more errand to discharge this morning. When you have finished your breakfast, I suggest you get your bonnet and pelisse.”

The barouche was waiting for them at the front of the house as they left it arm in arm, and Darcy handed his wife up. He gave the coachman a written direction before entering the carriage himself, but to Elizabeth he would only say, with a small but satisfied smile, “My turn.”

The shop was a jeweler’s. “I like to regard myself as a compassionate man, and your trinket box has struck me as being very lonely. Indeed, it contains only one trinket at the moment. The other is around your very elegant neck. Our first task today, therefore, is to fill the trinket box. My sister has been adding to hers since her twelfth birthday, so we have some catching-up to do.”

They began to study the various cases together, and Elizabeth found his tastes coincided very much with hers and that his instincts were unerring.

“I am content, Mr. Darcy,” said Elizabeth at length. “These are all beautiful, but the most important thing is that they are gifts from you, and you have helped me to select them.”

Darcy turned back to the cases and added a necklace and earrings in pink topaz.

He also selected several pairs of combs including a pair inset with a simple design in diamonds.

Then he turned to the hovering assistant and said, “Please tell Mr. Blackstone we are ready for him, and have these waiting for us.”

Mr. Blackstone, the proprietor, bowed Darcy and Elizabeth through a door into a large, well-appointed private office and seated them in front of a desk near a window that flooded the room with light. The sight of what was laid out there quite took Elizabeth’s breath away.

The two men sat back and regarded her with an air of expectancy.

She gazed at each parure and demi-parure in turn, not knowing what to say.

Eventually, after careful thought and encouragement from Darcy, she selected a simple riviere necklace of sapphires with matching earrings.

She was also interested by a cunningly wrought set of diamonds.

It included earrings, a beautifully simple necklace, and a sunburst brooch.

“I think you had better have both,” said Darcy. “Having seen you wearing them, I cannot choose between them.”

“It is fortunate that I have bespoken several new gowns to match such beautiful jewels,” replied Elizabeth with a teasing smile.

Elizabeth clasped the heart pendant back around her neck, Darcy shook hands with Mr. Blackstone, and they returned to the showroom together. When the jewels were wrapped and stowed safely in Darcy’s pockets, they left the store and found the barouche waiting for them in front.

“I do not know how to thank you,” said Elizabeth as they started for home.

“I cannot kiss you in this open carriage.” She spoke quietly to avoid being heard by the coachman and footman.

To her delight, Darcy winked. “Wear the sapphires for my uncle this evening,” he said.

He knew what she did not. By day’s end, Mr. Blackstone would have informed half of fashionable London of what trinkets and serious jewels from his shop had been favored by Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy and purchased for her by her obviously adoring husband.

“Well, they did tell me in Audley Street that some gentleman would soon have me covered in gems.”

“The only gentleman who will be covering you in gems is me. In fact, I would not object to seeing you covered in those sapphires and very little else.”

“If you keep whispering against my ear, Mr. Darcy, that might happen before we reach home.”

He managed to do quite a bit more whispering, and when they walked into the house, Elizabeth threw him a look that told him his presence was urgently requested above stairs.

When they reached the hallway that led to their apartments, Darcy threw her over his shoulder and carried her to their rooms, pausing to lock the door behind him.

When at length she clung to him trembling with pleasure, he laughed and kissed her and said, “I know the way to your heart, my girl, and it has nothing to do with jewels.”

This adventure proved eminently satisfactory to both of them, and eventually Elizabeth said, “I will just ring and have a light luncheon brought to my room, shall I?”

“I cannot think of any pleasanter way to pass the afternoon.”

Just as they finished their luncheon, a footman knocked and announced, “Mrs. William Collins and Miss Anne de Bourgh have arrived and are waiting downstairs.”

Puzzled, Elizabeth finally managed to say, “Please have them wait in my sitting room. We will be right down.” She was momentarily rooted to the spot by the idea that the two had come here to represent Lady Catherine. However, her husband’s voice reassured her, and they walked downstairs arm in arm.

Elizabeth embraced them both, saying, “You are very welcome to London. I am so glad to see you both.” After Darcy had greeted them, Elizabeth continued. “Let me take you upstairs. I am sure you will want to take off your bonnets and pelisses. Have you come all the way from Kent?”

Mrs. Peterson came bustling in, sent by the butler.

Darcy instructed her. “Mrs. Peterson, please arrange for a luncheon to be brought here as soon as possible and prepare the two adjoining rooms near Miss Darcy’s apartments for our guests.

Colonel Fitzwilliam, my uncle Matlock and Sergeant Parker are expected.

Please bring them in here when they arrive.

Otherwise, unless Mr. Gardiner or Mrs. Gardiner were to call, we are not to be disturbed. ”

When the ladies had returned a few minutes later, and their privacy was assured, Darcy turned to his cousin. “Now tell us why you are here, Anne. While we are certainly happy to see you, you have never left Rosings on your own before. What has happened?”

Anne’s voice shook. “My mother tried to kill me yesterday. She read the announcement of your marriage in the paper, and it made her so angry that she threw a carving knife at my head, barely missing me. I left the house and ran to the parsonage. Mr. and Mrs. Collins hid me there until this morning, the first opportunity we had of reaching London.”

Elizabeth was surprised but said nothing. She reasoned that Anne’s plight must have been dreadful indeed to have attracted the sympathy of Mr. Collins.

“That was not her first violent attack on me. The day before yesterday, she threw the contents of a pot of hot tea at me and burned my arm.”

“Anne, why would your mother attack you so violently? Was it merely the news of the marriage?”

“Fitzwilliam, I have come to understand that my mother desires but one thing: To possess Rosings and Pemberley and their associated fortunes. When she attacked me, she screamed that I was ‘useless.’ And of course, I had been useless in forwarding her ambition. You are my cousin, and I am fond of you, but I never wished to marry you. That makes me useless. My mother has kept me virtually a prisoner at home. She retains complete control of Rosings, which I should have inherited by now. I am not even given an allowance.”

“She lies about Miss de Bourgh’s age,” added Charlotte.

“My husband would have taken an oath that she had recently turned twenty-three, when in reality she is twenty-six years old. He found yesterday that the parish register which should have recorded her birth and baptism had the relevant pages torn from the volume. This was what finally convinced him that we should give all aid and succor to Miss de Bourgh. And so here we are. I should also add that we are concerned for the welfare of those servants and retainers still at Rosings. And Mr. Collins is alone in holding things together.”

Darcy took Anne’s hand. “Here you will stay under my protection until these matters have been resolved. You have been the victim of a terrible injustice, Anne. I will do whatever is in my power to help you.”

“I had hoped to secure your assistance in getting to Derbyshire to our uncle,” said Anne.

“Fortunately, he is on his way here. In fact, he may already have arrived. Fitzwilliam is also in town, and they are dining with us this evening.”

Anne’s eyes closed briefly, and she seemed to relax for the first time. “It has been very difficult to live at Rosings with my mother. She appears to have lost her mind.”