Page 43

"Not generally. But it is useful to know whether the fox is cunning by nature or because he has been denied his dinner."

Darcy looked at her with interest. "You might apply that principle to half the human disputes I have heard."

"It would make conversation less entertaining."

"And perhaps more charitable."

Her smile softened. "I should hope we might manage both."

Their discussion continued through supper. Darcy discovered that Elizabeth could describe the political anxieties of the German states with considerable understanding, though she was careful not to claim knowledge where she possessed only impressions from Frau Adler and her reading. She had questions about trade restrictions and travel that he could not answer with complete certainty. Their exchange was so engrossing that Richard, seated two places away, watched them over a glass of wine and leaned toward Saye.

"Darcy is smiling," he whispered.

"A rare condition," Saye murmured.

"Twice in one course. Shall we summon a physician?"

"You may summon one for yourself if you continue counting your cousin's expressions."

At the end of supper the baroness asked Elizabeth about her mother.

The baroness resumed their conversation in German. "I should be curious to know where she was raised. Your speech is exceptionally cultivated, and yet there are little turns of expression I have heard only from people who grew up near certain courts."

Elizabeth rested her hands in her lap. "I am sorry, madam. She died when I was eight, and she could never tell us where she came from."

The baroness's expression changed from curiosity to sympathy. "She had forgotten her family?"

"After an accident. My father found her injured and frightened. She remembered her familiar name but little else."

"How distressing. What was the name?"

"Minna."

"A very common affectionate name. It may have belonged to a Wilhelmine or any number of young ladies with longer baptismal names." The baroness spoke gently. "I hope she was happy in England."

"Very happy," Elizabeth answered. "That much I know."

She was grateful when Lady Wexford began another conversation. Strangers were sometimes moved to treat her mother's unknown past as a fascinating riddle. Elizabeth could not entirely dislike their interest, for she felt it herself, but she disliked the implication that Minna's marriage and motherhood had been somehow lesser things because no one knew what came before.

On the drive home Lady Matlock asked if the questions had upset her.

"Only a little," Elizabeth said. "I was proud to speak Mama's language, and then I felt foolish for being proud of something I could not explain."

"There is nothing foolish in it. You may value what she gave you without producing an account of every ancestor."

"I know. Yet the baroness spoke as if she had heard certain expressions before. For a moment I wondered whether there might still be someone who remembered Mama."

Lady Matlock patted her hand. "If there is, I hope you shall meet them. But nothing in your life depends upon their being found."

Darcy's interest in her mother's language soon provided Richard with a fresh source of entertainment. Having asked Elizabeth for a few exercises, Darcy arrived one afternoon with a small notebook and confessed that his command of German was less complete than he wished. He read competently enough and understood much that was spoken slowly, but he was dissatisfied with his pronunciation.

"I had not realized you meant to submit yourself to lessons," Elizabeth said as they settled at a table in Lady Matlock's morning room.

"You told me I abandoned arguments when they became interesting. I intend to remedy my deficiencies."

"Then you must be prepared to make mistakes."

"I am prepared to make a few."