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"I am afraid not, Your Majesty. She lost much of her memory before my parents married."

"How sad. And her name?"

"Minna, Your Majesty. That was all she remembered clearly."

The Queen considered this. "Such a name might belong to many families. Yet your speech is very finely formed. She must have been well educated."

"She was, Your Majesty. I have always been grateful for what she taught me."

"Then you honour her by remembering it." The Queen's gaze rested upon Elizabeth with thoughtful kindness. "One must never suppose that a mother's lessons perish because her name has been forgotten in the world."

Elizabeth's eyes stung unexpectedly. "Thank you, Your Majesty."

The Queen turned to another guest. The moment was over, and no great secret had been disclosed. Yet Elizabeth carried the remark home with her as carefully as if it had been a private gift.

Darcy called the following afternoon and found Elizabeth in the library with a book of German poetry open upon her knees.

"I understand you conversed with Her Majesty," he said.

"I hope Lady Matlock has not told the story in a manner that makes me appear heroic. I was required only to speak and listen."

"For some people, listening would be the greater trial."

"For Richard, certainly."

He sat opposite her, smiling. "You appear pleased."

"I am. The Queen said something about my mother that I shall remember. She did not pretend to know who Mama was. She simply thought that the things Mama taught me mattered, even if her family remained a mystery."

"She was right," Darcy said.

Elizabeth studied him over the book. "You say that very firmly."

"Because I believe it. I have seen the manner in which you speak of your parents. Whatever else your mother was, she was evidently a woman who loved her daughter."

The simple observation moved her more deeply than a grand expression could have done. She closed the book and set it aside.

"You knew nothing of my father," Elizabeth said. "I wish you might have met him."

"I suspect he would have asked rather searching questions of anyone who argued with you."

"Quite the reverse. He would have encouraged the argument and then taken my side when the consequences became inconvenient."

Darcy laughed, then grew thoughtful. "Perhaps you will tell me more of him sometime."

"Gladly. Though I warn you that the stories are not always flattering to his superior officers."

"I shall endeavour to bear it."

When he left, Elizabeth found she had not resumed her reading. She had never lacked listeners among the Matlocks, but Darcy's quiet attention had made it unusually easy to speak of things she ordinarily kept to herself.

Later that evening Richard found her at the pianoforte attempting to recover the melody of Minna's song.

"I thought I heard a German air," he said.

"You did. It is something my mother sang. I can remember the words more readily than the notes."

"Then let Georgiana help you when she visits. She has an ear for such matters."