“That, or a lifelong suspicion of laminators.”
“Fair.”
They took the west path, where the view opened over fields edged with dry-stone walls. In the distance, the lake held a skim of ice like breath on glass. Waffles loped ahead with too much enthusiasm; Athena maintained a stately trot.
After a moment, Darcy began. “I’m aware that I can manage a conversation somewhat like a hedgehog. Spiky. Inelegant. I’m trying not to prick you with the wrong questions.”
Elizabeth looked up at him, eyes warm. “You’re doing very well. Minimal prickliness.”
“High praise,” he said.
She walked a few more paces. “It’s just . . . since we’re being honest—” A breath. “When people say they wish they’d known me earlier, what I hear is, ‘I wish you were different now,’ which is not always what they mean but, well. I know I can be a lot—strange job, odd hours, weird interests—and that’s often made pretty clear to me. Sometimes it just takes me a second to shake it off.”
He felt that comment like cold water; not at her, but at himself, at the accidental clumsiness. “I didn’t mean different,” he said. “I meant more. More time. Greedily.”
She studied his face as if checking a document for errors and finding none. The brightness gentled. “All right,” she said. “Greedy I can handle.”
“I’m a lot like you,” he said. “I was always on the bookish side, and I was entranced with mathematics. If not for Richard and Malcolm, school might have been very difficult socially. But they made the other boys include me in everything. By the time I entered secondary school and started rowing, it was easier to make friends.”
They reached the low stone stile that marked the turn to the beech walk. He held out a hand without thinking; she took it, the brief, firm press of fingers, then released. The dogs followed. Waffles bounding, Athena picking her way over.
He let the quiet have a minute; it seemed to do them both good.
“Tell me something else about the toboggan,” Elizabeth said at last. “I can’t get past your father declaring every run the champion of all runs. That’s a bold philosophy.”
“It made losing impossible,” Darcy said. “But it didn’t make winning meaningless. Each run felt worth a ribbon.”
She touched his sleeve, brief as a bell. “I think that's lovely.”
The path bent. The house came into view again between the trees, square and steady. He felt the oddest sensation of something that had been off kilter settling one notch nearer to true. Not perfect. Just . . . nearer.
“Elizabeth,” he said, daring the name for the simple luxury of it, “if you ever feel I’m getting it wrong, I should be grateful if you’d tell me. Preferably in words of one syllable.”
“I can do better than that,” she said. “I can draw you a diagram.”
“Laminated?”
“Only for posterity.”
Waffles barrelled back at them with a stick too large for his ambitions. He cannoned into Darcy’s shin, missed Elizabeth by a whisker, and was greeted with a chorus of scolding.
He could practically hear Athena rolling her eyes.
They walked on, not hurrying, letting the day be the day.
Darcy felt steadier for the walk; the air had sorted his thoughts into sensible piles.
They rounded the last yew and found Mrs. Reynolds in the forecourt, pink-cheeked and cross, tugging at the fingers of her gloves as if the leather were to blame for the morning. “Oh, I give up!” she declared. “First the Aga burns the strata, and now my wretched car refuses to start. Christmas, of all days!”
Darcy straightened. “I’ll take you to your sister’s.” It would add two hours to the day, perhaps three, but he was rearranging the schedule in his head: push departure, have Elizabeth ring Jane, account for traffic.
Mrs. Reynolds flapped both hands. “Oh, no, sir, it’s almost an hour away. I wouldn’t put you to the trouble on Christmas. I’ll just call the garage tomorrow.”
“I’ll ring someone now,” Darcy said. “Have them look at it.” The words were out before he remembered that most people with sense were at home with paper hats and gravy.
“And pay the surcharge, if you can find anyone at all?” she returned, exasperated.
“If you’d like, I could take a look.”
