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The man bowed. “Very good, sir.” He departed at once.

It was only a matter of a house number. Bingley would call in Gracechurch Street regardless, and giving him the direction did not make Darcy wrong. It was not as if he would have any occasion to go there himself.

Upon that, Darcy was quite decided.

CHAPTER 5

It was the nursemaid’s half-day, and Elizabeth’s uncle had come home for a midday meal to find the house a mess and her aunt rather fatigued by the antics of the two youngest Gardiners.

“I shall take the boys for some exercise,” he said, leaning in to kiss his wife’s cheek.

“Do you mean exorcise?” Aunt Gardiner had inquired, ruffling Henry’s hair and placing a kiss atop young Edward’s head.

Uncle Gardiner had laughed. “That as well. We shall be an hour, my dear, and I will return to you two boys ready for warm milk”—his voice dropped to a whisper—“and their nap.”

“Mind the ice,” Aunt Gardiner said. “The boys like to slide on it.” And then they were off.

Jane went upstairs with the girls to read them a story while Elizabeth and her aunt worked to put the parlour to rights. When they were nearly finished, Elizabeth walked to the window at the front of the house to see whether her uncle and the boys were returning.

Instead, she spied a very fine carriage coming to a stop near the front door. It was the Hursts’ carriage, the one that had conveyed them home after Jane’s illness at Netherfield.

“Please ask my sister to join me,” she told the maid. “We appear to have callers.”

A footman lowered the carriage step, and Miss Bingley appeared in the doorway wearing a blue pelisse trimmed with white fur. She looked up at the house, and the woman’s mouth twisted—in disgust, Elizabeth surmised.

The Gardiners’ house was large, handsome, and located on a very prosperous part of Gracechurch Street. There was no reason for anyone to turn up their nose at it, except perhaps a duchess, and Miss Bingley was no duchess.

Elizabeth heard Jane’s light step upon the stairs.

“She has come?” Jane asked.

“You sound surprised.”

“I am not surprised she has come, only that it is so soon after our call yesterday morning.”

“I had not imagined that Miss Bingley would be able to overcome her distaste for the neighbourhood. Truthfully, I expected that if she and her sister made a visit at all, it would be the day before we departed.” She paused while Miss Bingley stepped down and adjusted her gloves. The footman shut the carriage door. “Mrs. Hurst is not with her.”

“Should we not revise our opinions, given that Miss Bingley is here to return our call, and has come so soon?”

Elizabeth turned from the window. “I promise to suspend my judgement until we have had our visit.”

Unfortunately, the visit did not support Jane’s hopes.

They received her in the drawing room, but Miss Bingley remained scarcely a quarter of an hour. She accepted no refreshment, asked no question to which she appeared to desire an answer, and addressed Aunt Gardiner with the barest of civilities. Jane attempted twice to speak of Netherfield and once of mutual acquaintances in Hertfordshire. Each effort met with a brief reply and an immediate change of subject.

And then Miss Bingley rose.

Jane rose with her. “I hope we may see you again while I am in town.”

There was a small pause.

“You are very obliging, Miss Bennet, but you need not trouble yourself.”

Jane’s face fell. “I see,” she said.

“I thought it kinder to be plain.”

Elizabeth’s hands tightened in her lap. Jane’s dignity deserved better than a quarrel in her aunt’s drawing room.