“He has never come in the past,” said Neithern.
“Truly?”
Neithern sighed. “I don’t know. You may be aware it is a masque, and maybe he is there, but so disguised that I could not make him out.”
“I shall speak to him and make certain he is coming,” said Elizabeth. “Then you can speak to him then, certainly.”
“Maybe,” said Neithern.
“Should I ask him to speak to you before then?” she said.
“You would do this for me?” said Neithern. “Why? I understand my grandmother—Her Grace the Dowager Duchess of Neithern, that is, no blood of mine—was not very kind to you.”
Elizabeth lifted her chin. “Well, she did offer money. I said I didn’t want it, but…”
“But as you are the actual legitimate child, you should take something,” said Neithern. “And if she is insistent on keeping me here as this pretend duke, as she seems to be, then I shall see to it that you are well taken care of. We may not be sister and brother, after all, Elizabeth—”
“But we have a kinship,” said Elizabeth.
“You lived the life I should have lived, the life of a fatherless child—”
“Indeed, I did not,” said Elizabeth. “It was all kept from me, in truth, and this is why I know how you feel.”
He nodded. “All right, granted. But you were kept from the life you should have had, even so, and I was given a life I never deserved, and I shall do something to make that up to you.”
“But who deserves anything just for being born?” said Elizabeth.
“You shall take what I give you.”
“For the sake of my husband, I shall,” said Elizabeth with a sigh.
“Yes, because you said your situation was financially precarious.”
“Yes,” she said.
“Good,” said the duke.
“I shall also speak with Houseman. If I can convince him, shall I bring him on my walk tomorrow morning. We could all three meet here?”
Neithern nodded slowly. “Yes, quite. Please do. Early in the morning.”
“By eight?”
“Indeed,” said Neithern.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE NEXT MORNING, Neithern, Houseman, and Elizabeth all met on the path halfway between Barralds and Neith Abbey, but another person was present, listening.
Caroline Bingley was there, but hidden, just listening, out of sight.
This had come about because Caroline had seen Miss Darcy go up to her room in a flood of tears, and Caroline had seen all three of them—both the Darcys and Elizabeth—get out of a carriage bound from somewhere. Caroline knew not where.
Caroline was in a position of some desperation at this point in her life. She had, foolishly, she now realized, devoted herself to a future between herself and Mr. Darcy. She had devoted herself so whole-heartedly to it that she had never considered it wouldn’t come to pass, unfortunately. When Jane Bennet appeared and her brother took such an interest in the girl, Caroline had done everything she could to get her brother away from the influence of that girl and back to London. When Mr. Darcy had assisted her, she had taken this as confirmation that he wished for Charles to marry Georgiana.
If he could desire a union between the families of matrimony, then she must be good enough for him, she thought. He must want her as she wanted him. She believed it.
Now, having her hopes dashed, she was in a state of constant agitation, unsure of what she could do or what her future might be. She was desperate to marry, desperate in a way that made her behave in ways she might not have otherwise just a few months ago.
