Elizabeth fiddled with the ribbon in her lap. “He brought papers with Papa’s signature.”
“Oh, Lizzy.”
“And he spoke sensibly. Humbly, even. He sees my father’s life without contempt. He knows what it is to be neither one thing nor another in society.”
Jane took her hand. “That matters.”
“Yes. It does.”
“And?”
Elizabeth pulled a loose thread from the ribbon and wound it around her finger. “And I found myself wondering what Mr. Darcy would think of him.”
Jane did not smile.
For that mercy, Elizabeth loved her.
“What do you suppose he would think?” Jane asked.
“That Mr. Wilson is practical, intelligent in business, and more observant than he first appeared.”
“That sounds generous.”
“It is true.”
“And is that all Mr. Darcy would think?”
Elizabeth peered toward the window.
The orchard lay beyond it, gray-brown beneath the winter sky. Somewhere below, Thomas shouted triumphantly, followed by Toby declaring injustice.
“No,” she said. “I suspect he would also dislike him.”
Jane squeezed her hand.
Elizabeth shook her head.
Downstairs, Mr. Wilson was likely speaking with Mrs. Bennet. Properly and sensibly, with every appearance of honorable intention.
No dread filled her at the prospect.
That concerned her less than the absence of joy.
Darcy arrived at Longbourn the following day with Bingley and a packet of books for Mary.
That was the excuse.
A decent one, in fairness. Mary had requested the second volume of a history from Netherfield’s shelves, and Darcy had located it himself, along with two others he thought might interest her. He had even placed a ribbon in one to mark a passage concerning ecclesiastical reform, which had struck him as precisely the sort of thing Miss Mary Bennet would appreciate.
He mentioned none of this to Bingley.
Bingley would only grin.
The house welcomed them in its usual fashion, which meant the footman admitted them with an expression suggestinghe had already seen three small disasters that morning and expected a fourth before tea.
Darcy removed his gloves in the hall and heard Elizabeth’s voice before he saw her.
“Thomas, if you have tied Toby to the chair again, you may untie him this instant.”
