Page 80 of A Question of Character

“I should dislike to see the first.”

“You would have approved the substance.”

“Would I?”

“It contained several threats.”

“Then why abandon it? Threats are useful when deserved.”

“Because I need him warned away, not provoked into some retaliatory stupidity that exposes Georgiana.”

Richard tossed the letter back upon the desk. “He has already committed retaliatory stupidity by attempting to marry her.”

Darcy closed his eyes briefly. “Do not.”

His cousin’s anger checked, though only just. Richard took the chair opposite the desk without being asked and leaned forward, elbows on his knees.

“Does she understand what he intended?”

“I do not know. She says nothing now.”

“Nothing?”

“She answers if I ask a direct question. Otherwise, no. She has neither defended him nor condemned him since we left Ramsgate.”

Richard rubbed a hand over his face. “Poor child.”

Darcy’s head came up sharply.

“Yes, Darcy, poor child. I know you are angry. You have every right to be angry. But she is a girl, and she was trapped by a woman employed to guide her.”

“I know that.”

“Do you?”

Darcy sat at the desk and began aligning the pages that did not require alignment. “I know it when I am not in the room with her.”

Richard’s expression altered, the anger giving way to a reluctant sympathy Darcy did not want. “Ah.”

“Do not say ah.”

“I shall say nothing, then.”

“You have never done so in your life.”

“That is untrue. I am silent during sermons.”

“Especially since you are asleep.”

Richard sat back with a short, unwilling laugh that faded quickly. “What will you do with her?”

“I have written to Mrs. Annesley. She will come if she is able. Until then, Georgiana remains here.”

“No more companions chosen for agreeable manners.”

“No.”

“And Wickham?”