Page 116 of A Most Unwelcome Acquaintance

Lady Catherine’s brows rose. “You refuse me?”

“I cannot give you letters written to me.”

“You can and you must. Your brother is my nephew. If he places his consequence in danger, I have a right to know it.”

“I do not believe he has placed anything in danger.”

“You are seventeen and know nothing of danger where young women are concerned. This Miss Elizabeth Bennet, if that is the girl, may be a gentlewoman in name, but that does not make her suitable. A country girl with a sheepdog, a vulgar mother, sisters among officers, and a house soon to pass to Collins is not fit to lift her eyes to Darcy.”

Georgiana’s face warmed, but she kept her hands still. “My brother would not thank us for discussing him in such terms.”

“Your brother will thank me when I save him from a connection beneath him.”

Anne spoke from her chair. “Has he asked you to save him?”

Lady Catherine turned on her. “You will not interfere.”

“I asked a question.”

“You asked impertinence.”

Anne lowered her eyes, but she did not apologize.

Lady Catherine returned to Georgiana. “The letters.”

“No.”

The word was quieter this time, but no weaker.

Lady Catherine looked at her for a long moment. “Then I must judge without them.”

Georgiana understood that the matter had not ended. She knew her aunt’s temper, but Lady Catherine’s sense of duty concerned her more because it would not pass with the anger.

She went to her room after being dismissed and found the drawer undisturbed. The thread was as she had left it and the letters lay in order. She touched them, then closed the drawer and kept the key in her pocket.

That should have been enough.

It was not.

Lady Catherine did not need the letters if she could gain their substance. Georgiana learned this by accident two hours later, when she came down the back stairs sooner than expected and stopped at the sound of her brother’s name from the housekeeper’s room.

Mrs. Wilcox stood near the table with the stillroom maid, who held a small stack of waste paper. Lady Catherine was not present, but her authority filled the room.

“Her ladyship said to bring any blotting paper from Miss Darcy’s grate or writing table to her before burning it.” Mrs. Wilcox said. “Not letters. Paper. You understand the difference.”

The maid looked doubtful. “Yes, Mrs. Wilcox.”

“It is family business. Her ladyship said there are concerns about Mr. Darcy, and that Miss Darcy is too young to know what she should keep.”

Both women started when Georgiana stepped into the doorway.

“There is no such concern,” she said.

Mrs. Wilcox colored. “Miss Darcy, I beg your pardon. I was following her ladyship’s instruction.”

“I know.”

The housekeeper’s embarrassment did not comfort her. Lady Catherine had not broken the lock or taken a letter but used discarded blotting paper and called the distinction propriety.