Page 130 of A Most Unwelcome Acquaintance

Georgiana’s gaze followed Sarah as she circled the sheep and pressed them away from the garden wall. “May I call her back?”

“When she has turned them. Hold your hand low, then bring it toward you.”

Sarah completed the arc and paused at the field’s edge. Georgiana copied the signal. The dog returned, slowing as she entered the yard, and stopped before her.

“She obeyed me.”

“No, she obeyed your signal,” Elizabeth said, “which is safer for both of you. Trust should not depend upon a mood.”

Lady Catherine had come to the doorway with Anne behind her. She saw Georgiana touch Sarah’s head and Darcy standing near Elizabeth with none of the distance she expected him to preserve. Jane and Bingley had moved toward the garden gate, their conversation quiet enough to exclude no one and private enough to please Mrs. Bennet, who peered through the drawing-room window.

“This is the animal Mr. Collins described?” Lady Catherine asked.

“Sarah,” Elizabeth said.

“I do not require her name.”

“She answers better when people use it.”

Lady Catherine’s gaze moved over the yard, the field, the dog, and the mud upon Elizabeth’s glove. “A young woman who spends her time among livestock cannot expect to acquire the accomplishments required in a different sphere.”

Elizabeth folded the cloth and gave it back to the groom. “I have not found that reading, music, and livestock exclude one another.”

“They encourage different habits.”

“Useful habits need not injure the ornamental ones.”

Georgiana laid her hand on Sarah’s head. “She is better trained than many dogs at Pemberley.”

“Pemberley’s dogs remain in their proper place,” Lady Catherine said.

“So does Sarah,” Elizabeth replied. “Her place changes with her work.”

The answer displeased Lady Catherine because it carried no challenge she could condemn, or submission she could reward. She saw what Darcy had seen and drew the opposite conclusion. Elizabeth managed the dog, the servants knew her expectations, Bennet trusted her judgment, and Georgiana had spoken more in the yard than she had during half the journey from Rosings. None of it made Elizabeth less dangerous. It proved that her influence did not depend upon beauty, flirtation, or accident.

“We have remained long enough,” Lady Catherine said.

Georgiana’s hand left Sarah. “May I say goodbye?”

“You have done so.”

Elizabeth spared Georgiana the need to answer. “I hope we shall meet again, Miss Darcy.”

“So do I.”

Lady Catherine heard the reply and looked from Georgiana to Elizabeth. She had found no vulgar ambition, no attempt to secure Georgiana’s favor, and no disorder in the dog she expected to despise. None of this reassured her; it removed the easiest grounds for dismissal and left Elizabeth’s influence untouched.

“Miss Elizabeth, I require a word with you.”

Jane stopped beside Bingley, while Darcy’s attention fixed upon his aunt.

“Elizabeth has received enough of your attention for one afternoon,” Bennet said.

“This concerns my family.”

“Then I suggest you discuss it with them.”

Lady Catherine ignored him. “Miss Elizabeth?”