She gasped and smacked his shoulder lightly. “Fitzwilliam Darcy! How could you say such a thing to a lady?” She tried to look indignant, but it was difficult when her eyes were filled with mirth and her shoulders were shaking with suppressed laughter.

“When the lady is my wife, I believe the rules differ,” he said huskily before rising and throwing her over his shoulder, causing her to shriek loudly.

“Put me down, you brute!” she cried as forcefully as she could while laughing uncontrollably.

“Never!”

The servants in the house looked the other way when a laughing mistress thrown over the shoulder of a running Mr. Darcy rushed into the master suite and slammed the door behind them.

Epilogue

Spring, 1823

“Come, Robin, we’re almost there,” called Elizabeth as she crested the hill.

“I’m coming, Lizzy,” returned her ten-year-old brother.

They reached the top of Oakham Mount and he looked out at the view surrounding him.

“I never tire of this view,” she said wistfully.

“Do you miss it when you are away in Derbyshire?”

“I am not away in Derbyshire. It is my home now.”

“But you said this morning that this would always feel like home,” he said, perplexed.

“Yes, because I grew up here. I know every tree and stream and farm. But the lot of women, or most women, is to move to their husband’s home, as I did when I married Fitzwilliam.”

“Will this always be my home?” he asked.

“Yes. Longbourn is yours already. We’re just helping you look after it until you’re older.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “When do you think I’ll be old enough to look after it on my own?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps two and twenty? Papa was five and twenty when he began managing Longbourn.”

“I wish he was here now,” said Robin.

Elizabeth sighed. “As do I. But we were very lucky to have him with us as long as we did.”

Robin sighed and agreed, absently kicking a stone on the path. “When will Kitty come back again?”

She ruffled his hair and repressed the urge to pinch his round cheek. “She will return in six months, and then you will live with her and Mr. Thurston at Netherfield until you are old enough to live here alone.” She squeezed his soft hand. “Are you nervous about her being gone so long?”

“A little,” he said softly. “I am happy to stay with you at Pemberley and with Jane, too, but I have never been away from her so long before.”

“I know, dearest. It cannot be easy. But Bennet and Alex and Charlie will keep you so busy the time will rush by, and she’ll be back before you know it.”

He smiled shyly and she led him back down the hill. “Come. I want to visit our parents before the wedding.”