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"The roads were troublesome, but otherwise there is nothing to report. Georgiana sends her affection. She regretted being unable to accompany me."

"Then I shall write and tell her that I approve of her decision to avoid your company."

Darcy arched an eyebrow. "Has my company become so objectionable?"

"Not yours. The colonel's. Yet I understand cousins are expected to stand together in misfortune."

He might have answered, but Richard, unwilling to allow an alliance to form, began discussing the afternoon's invitations. Darcy let the familiar family noise settle around him. He was welcome here in a fashion unlike that of most London houses. In his uncle's rooms he need not calculate every expression, and Georgiana had always been more at ease among the Matlocks than in formal society.

He was glad, too, that Elizabeth had found her place among them. Four years earlier he had known that Lord Matlock intended to take responsibility for a bereaved girl whose circumstances were difficult. He had not doubted his uncle's generosity, but he had wondered whether an independent spirit would sit comfortably amid the customs of an aristocratic household. The question had been answered long ago. She belonged to the family as thoroughly as Richard did, and with considerably less effort to command attention.

At dinner Lord Saye arrived late with the disagreeable intelligence that a gate on his estate had been destroyed by two young men disputing the right to cross a meadow.

"One claimed permission from his father," Saye told them. "The other claimed an ancient right enjoyed by his grandfather. Neither could explain why a new gate should be the principal casualty."

"Had you summoned me," Richard said, "I would have resolved the matter immediately."

"I know," Saye answered. "There would have been three casualties."

"And a much shorter inquiry," Richard assured him.

Elizabeth asked about the families involved. Saye explained that both had lived on the estate for years and that he intended to hear their accounts separately before deciding what must be repaired and by whom.

"You will make an excellent magistrate," Darcy told him.

"He makes an excellent older brother," Elizabeth said. "He listens patiently and then discovers that we have been unreasonable all along."

"A grave inconvenience," Richard said. "It is the one talent I have never acquired."

"You have not attempted it," Lady Matlock answered.

"That is my other talent, Mother. I know when I should refrain from trying."

The Earl turned the conversation toward Elizabeth's approaching presentation at court. Darcy saw her smile diminish, though she answered Lady Matlock readily enough.

"I have been studying the required curtsy," Elizabeth said. "My chief concern is whether I shall rise from it without assistance. I have also been made to retreat backwards across the drawing room until I can do so without treading upon my train."

"If you do not," Richard answered, "Saye shall retrieve you. He has experience restoring order to family disasters."

"I should rather trust Mr. Darcy," Elizabeth said. "He looks as though he would prepare a plan in advance."

Darcy was surprised into a laugh. "I assure you, Miss Bennet, I have not studied the evacuation of court drawing rooms."

"Then you are less prepared than I imagined."

Lady Matlock smiled. "Fortunately, Elizabeth, no gentleman will be required to rescue you. You have practiced satisfactorily."

"Her ladyship says that," Elizabeth told Darcy in a lowered voice, "because she has already seen me stumble over the train twice while wearing the practice hoops and refuses to risk a third attempt."

He looked down at his plate to conceal his amusement. It seemed unfair that someone could speak so much nonsense and make him pleased to hear it.

Later, in the withdrawing room, Darcy found Elizabeth examining a portfolio of landscape drawings. He had intended only to retrieve a book from the cabinet, but a familiar sketch of Pemberley's eastern approach caught his eye.

"That was made before the trees were thinned," he said.

She glanced up. "I wondered whether the artist had invented the hills. I have never been to Derbyshire."

"He has taken liberties with the perspective, but the hills are real."