Page 48 of A Most Unwelcome Acquaintance

“You are thinking it.”

“That Mr. Darcy behaved well?”

Elizabeth laid the gloves beside her bonnet. “He was useful.”

“I am not sure being useful counts against him.”

“It does not count in his favor when his horse is standing among the sheep.”

Jane picked up the stocking but did not return to it. “He might have ridden on once the horse settled.”

Elizabeth crossed to the washstand and poured water into the basin. “He did not.”

“And you thanked him?”

“Yes.”

Jane waited.

Elizabeth washed the dust from her hands. “He spoiled it afterward.”

“How?”

“He said I should not do such work.”

Jane considered this. “That may have been concern.”

“It sounded like criticism of Longbourn.”

“Did he say so?”

“Not in those words.”

“Lizzy.”

Elizabeth dried her hands. “He said Longbourn -should provide enough men to spare me the necessity. Then he said his steward would have answered to him for leaving a gate in such a condition.”

Jane’s expression changed. “That was unkind.”

“Thank you.”

“But perhaps still meant as concern.”

“It sounded like superiority to me.”

Jane examined the stocking. “Perhaps he does not know how else to express concern.”

Jane’s tone held no rebuke, which made the point harder to dismiss.

Elizabeth turned from the washstand. “He is impossible to interpret.”

“Perhaps because you have decided what every action means before he does anything.”

“That sounds like something Mary would repeat from a sermon.”

“It may be true.”

Elizabeth looked toward the window. From there she could see part of the lower meadow, though not the gate. Sarah crossed the grass below, heading toward the kitchen yard. Someone had likely offered her scraps.