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Georgiana breathed out slowly. "Would that be acceptable?"

"It would be music, not an examination."

She chose to play. Her hands shook through the opening bars, then steadied. Elizabeth turned the pages while Lady Matlock listened without theatrical attention and Darcy kept his eyes upon the music instead of upon his sister's face. By the end Georgiana was smiling.

After the company dispersed, Darcy found Elizabeth alone beside the closed pianoforte.

"You were right," he said.

"I am right so often that you must be more particular."

"About giving Georgiana the choice."

Elizabeth's expression softened. "She has more courage than she believes."

"I believe that too, now."

He remained beside her while the servants carried away the candles. Their conversation wandered from Georgiana's music to Saye's latest estate difficulties and Richard's claim that he could train any horse in England if allowed to speak to it as sternly as his commanding officer addressed him. The hour grew later than either realized. When Darcy finally took his leave, Elizabeth discovered that she was sorry to see him go.

It was a small sorrow, easily explained by the pleasure of good company. She told herself so while Anne helped her undress.

But she found herself listening for the sound of his carriage in the square, and she was not quite satisfied with the explanation.

CHAPTER 14

The Gentleman Reconsiders

Fitzwilliam Darcy had always considered himself an observant man. He knew when a servant was concealing a difficulty in the household accounts, when a tenant required assistance rather than admonition, and when Georgiana's silence meant contentment instead of distress. He had built a life upon attention to duty and an orderly understanding of his own sentiments.

It was therefore irritating to discover that his cousin Richard had understood one of those sentiments before he did.

"You are looking toward the door again," Richard remarked.

Darcy lowered his eyes to the book he had not read for ten minutes. "I am expecting my uncle."

"He has been in the garden with Saye for the better part of an hour. The door you are watching leads to the music room."

"A man may look toward a door without requiring an explanation."

"Certainly. And he may call at the same house four times in eight days because the library possesses a particularly interesting edition of Milton."

Darcy shut the book. "Have you no occupation?"

"Several. Chief among them is the study of peculiar conduct among my relations."

"You will be occupied for the remainder of your life."

Richard grinned. "There is the spirit I hoped to find. You have been remarkably grave these last weeks, except when Elizabeth is present. Then you become a man who discovers that the world contains amusing things after all."

Darcy answered too quickly. "Miss Bennet is agreeable company."

"She is. So is my mother. Yet you do not spend half an hour debating the superiority of Italian and German poetry with Mother while forgetting the time."

"Your mother would not tolerate half an hour of such debate."

"An excellent point. Elizabeth does."

Darcy looked out of the window. There was no sense disputing the evidence of his own behaviour. Since Georgiana's visit, he had found innumerable reasons to call at Matlock House. Some concerned business with his uncle; others involved his sister's health or the timing of a family dinner. More than once he had accepted an invitation solely because Elizabeth would be present. He told himself that he valued their friendship and was pleased by her growing confidence. Neither explanation was false. Neither was sufficient.