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"That is a comfort. Landscape painters should be allowed imagination, but I object when it carries away an entire county."

Darcy showed her where the river curved behind the grove and explained that the old bridge had been rebuilt after a winter flood. Elizabeth asked intelligent questions about the work, the tenants, and the gardens, rather than the number of rooms or the value of the estate. In return she told him of walks with Lady Matlock and a little school established with the help of one of Saye's tenants. The conversation had the agreeable balance of two people who did not require admiration to continue speaking.

"You are always finding occupations," Darcy observed.

"Lady Matlock says I am happiest when I am useful, provided I do not imagine I alone know what ought to be done."

"Sound advice."

"I suspect she says it because I once reorganized Richard's papers without permission."

"Did he object?"

"He praised my industry until he discovered that I had separated his amusing letters from the letters he ought to answer."

"A distinction he considers unnecessary," Darcy said.

She laughed, and the warmth of it reminded him that he had stayed rather longer than necessary. He bowed and left her to the drawings, pleased by the exchange in a fashion he did not trouble to examine.

The following morning Saye requested Elizabeth's company while he examined plans for a small schoolhouse upon his estate. He had brought the plans to London because the architect wanted his approval of alterations. Richard, overhearing the discussion, insisted upon attending, and Darcy discovered himself included before he had decided whether he wished to participate.

They gathered around a long table in the library. Saye spread out the drawing while Richard made a show of examining the roofline with military severity.

"The doorway is too narrow," Richard declared. "An entire regiment could not pass through it."

"The intention is to educate children, not quarter soldiers," Saye answered.

"Children are very nearly the same in a hurry."

Elizabeth studied the plan. "Where will the girls enter?"

"Through the same door as the boys," Saye said, looking up. "The schoolmistress intends to teach them in the mornings, though the older pupils will require separate arrangements."

"Then I should enlarge the window on this side. If the younger children are to sit here, they will need the light. And perhaps the stove ought to be nearer the centre."

The architect, a quiet gentleman who had arrived with the drawings, began to explain that the original measurements had been constrained by cost. Saye listened and asked the price of moving the stove. Darcy watched his cousin take the suggestion seriously rather than dismissing it because Elizabeth had never supervised a building.

"You have a gift for finding the people a room is meant to serve," Darcy said when the architect stepped away to fetch another sheet.

"Only because Saye has taught me to ask," Elizabeth answered. "He showed me the accounts of a widow on his estate who could scarcely keep her cottage warm. I had thought a new fireplace the obvious solution. He showed me why repairing the roof first mattered more."

"She has become an excellent critic of my decisions," Saye said. "Unfortunately she is sometimes right."

"That must be an inconvenience," Darcy replied.

"An immense one. I was beginning to consider myself infallible."

Richard examined the drawing upside down. "It would be easier to make the entire building twice as large."

"And twice as dear," Saye answered. "Shall I send the account to your commanding officer?"

"You see, Elizabeth," Richard said, "our elder brother does not wish for a grand schoolhouse. He wishes only to prevent our happiness."

"He wishes the roof to remain attached," Elizabeth corrected. "It is an unromantic but necessary ambition."

When the architect left, Saye rolled the drawings carefully and thanked Elizabeth for attending. She tried to refuse the thanks, but he shook his head.

"You will have ideas worth hearing wherever you go," he said. "Do not make the mistake of believing they matter less because someone else owns the land."