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“It came from my mother, I think,” Albrecht answered. His expression softened. “If you play it, I may be able to tell you whether I remember it correctly.”

The evening passed more gently than Elizabeth had feared. Georgiana played the melody Minna had taught her daughter; Albrecht supplied a verse Elizabeth had never heard; and Darcy sat close enough to catch Elizabeth's hand when the unfamiliar words overcame her. Lord Saye and Richard joined the discussion over supper, Richard maintaining that the first duty of a newly discovered uncle was to defend Elizabeth from the tyranny of his elder brother. Albrecht declared himself unable to promise such a thing until he had established which brother was most troublesome.

Adelheid smiled when courtesy demanded it. She watched Albrecht look between the young people who loved Minna's daughter, and she saw that his affection was no passing astonishment. It had found new roots in England, deep enough that he had already begun to imagine himself among them.

The next week, Albrecht was invited to tea at Matlock House after Elizabeth had gone to purchase music with Saye and Richard. He waited beside the window with an impatience that Lady Matlock regarded sympathetically.

"You will wear a path through my carpet," she said.

"Then I must compensate you for it. I have crossed countries with less difficulty than I have waited through these ten minutes."

From the hall came Richard's indignant voice.

"I protest! You have persuaded Saye to make common cause against me, and I have not even heard the charge."

"That is because you began your defence before anyone accused you," Elizabeth answered. "An innocent gentleman generally waits to discover his offence."

"You give the innocent far too much credit," Saye said. "I have known Richard all my life."

The three entered together. Elizabeth carried a narrow packet of sheet music, Saye her gloves, and Richard wore the expression of a man who had lost an argument while insisting victory remained possible.

"At least permit me to state the facts," Richard demanded.

"Gladly," Saye said. "Begin with your promise that Elizabeth might purchase music in peace. Then explain why the poor proprietor was obliged to endure a lecture upon military marches."

"He admired my taste."

"He admired the prospect of your eventually purchasing something and leaving," Elizabeth said.

Saye laughed. Richard placed a hand over his heart in injured dignity, and Elizabeth smiled at them both. The glance she received in return was affectionate, familiar, and so entirely free of ceremony that Albrecht forgot the room around him.

For one dizzying instant he stood at Falkenried in the sunshine. Friedrich was telling Minna she could not possibly take Albrecht's horse across the eastern meadow. Albrecht was defending a plan he had invented solely to make his elder brother object. Minna laughed so hard she caught Friedrich's arm for balance and demanded that he cease being sensible for one afternoon.

The memory was so vivid that Albrecht gripped the back of a chair.

"Uncle Albrecht?" Elizabeth said.

Saye returned her gloves without a word and drew Richard toward the tea table, where their mother had suddenly developed a question of extraordinary importance regarding the arrangement of cups.

"Are you unwell?" Elizabeth asked, turning naturally to German.

"No. Only surprised by an old memory."

Elizabeth waited while he found the words. At last Albrecht raised his eyes to hers and went on.

"Friedrich was like Lord Saye," Albrecht said. "Not in appearance. Friedrich had our father's hair and wore a solemn expression whenever he suspected we intended to make his life difficult. But he noticed everything. If Minna was unhappy, he knew it before she spoke. If I had done something foolish, he had generally begun arranging a remedy before I confessed it."

"And were you often foolish?" she asked.

"As often as Richard, if I judge him correctly. I thought myself very clever, and Friedrich was kind enough to permit the opinion until the consequences became inconvenient."

Elizabeth laughed. Albrecht found himself studying her less for Minna's features than for the easy confidence with which she had entered beside her two adopted brothers.

"Minna would have liked them," he said. "It is a strange thought that you have found something so like the family she lost."

"They are not my brothers by blood," Elizabeth answered. "But Richard would be profoundly offended if I reminded him of it. Saye takes a quieter pleasure in pretending to defend me from him."

"Friedrich always claimed he defended Minna from me. I think he enjoyed our foolishness more than he admitted."