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He sounded injured by the choice of another adviser. Even an answer he was willing to give became an offence when she obtained it elsewhere.

“I wished to ask him.” She looked at the letter on the table. “Have you unpleasant news?”

“My aunt means to be in London. She has informed us that she will call.”

“How thoughtful to warn the furniture.” Elizabeth accepted the letter he offered, suppressing a smile when his own appeared. He said the furniture had survived his aunt before. She hoped they might learn from it. Lady Catherine's notice was brief, imperious and entirely occupied with her own convenience. Elizabeth read it through and returned it to the table.

“I shall manage my aunt,” Darcy said.

He stood close enough that she could see where his neckcloth had loosened during the day. The sight brought back the small, private ease of dressing and undressing in the same household, an ease which had not ceased to matter because she was considering leaving it. She wanted him to sit beside her and ask something he would allow her not to answer.

Instead he held out his hand for the copy in her reticule. Elizabeth rested her own hand upon the clasp.

“No,” she said. “I am keeping it.”

He lowered his hand, but remained standing. She left him the letter from his aunt and kept her own papers in her hand as she went.

CHAPTER 4

CHARLOTTE

The Colonel had ordered a new chair for Charlotte's drawing-room. He described it on Monday morning with the satisfaction of a man who had discovered a need before the person suffering from it, and Charlotte listened while the housekeeper stood waiting with the accounts she had requested.

“The present one is perfectly comfortable,” she said.

“It is too low. I have watched you rise from it.”

She had not known that the manner in which she stood up was being considered elsewhere and remedied by a tradesman. Beside the window, Richard rested one hand on the back of the offending chair. He was pleasant to look at, well dressed and agreeable when agreement cost him nothing. There had been afternoons when she was glad to hear his step in the hall. He could make an account of a miserable march funny without making the cold or the hungry men ridiculous; she had liked that in him. She still did. It made his inability to hear an unwelcome answer from her more painful, not less.

“Then the new chair will be a comfort to you,” she said. “I asked for the accounts.”

The housekeeper came forward. Charlotte took the papers and thanked her, then said she would ring if anything further was required. Richard waited until the woman had left before laughing a little.

“You will frighten her into thinking the establishment extravagant.”

“It is extravagant.” Charlotte set the papers upon the bureau, aligning them with the bills she already held. “You needn't tell me it is within your means, Richard. I wished to know how far it is beyond mine.”

He came to stand beside her. The emerald ring he had given her was still in its box in a drawer, and she hoped he would not ask about it. She had worn too many things because their giver might be hurt to see them laid aside. Her wedding ring had taught her how little such consideration purchased.

“You need not trouble yourself over money,” Richard said. “That is precisely what this arrangement was intended to spare you.”

She closed the bureau. “I have an appointment with friends this afternoon. I shall need to leave before two.”

“Elizabeth again?” His expression eased. “I have no objection to that.”

“I wasn't asking whether you had.”

The words were quieter than she had expected. Richard's hand, which had been moving towards hers, came to rest on the bureau instead. He looked at her for a moment, then adjusted his cuff.

“I am glad you are able to go out. It will do you good.”

Charlotte let that stand. She needed the remaining hour to check the papers, find her gloves and keep her courage from dispersing among a hundred small household tasks. When Richard left, she asked the maid to procure a hackney coach at the proper time. She had enough money for the fare. It was important to count what she possessed without imagining it would last longer because she disliked the man who had supplied it.

* * *

At two she was seated in the Gardiners' small parlour, with Elizabeth beside her and a solicitor opposite. Mr. Gardiner had introduced him, then asked whether Charlotte would prefer him to withdraw. The offer embarrassed her more than an assumption that he would remain. She had come prepared to endure whatever form assistance took.

“I should like you to stay, sir. Elizabeth, too.”