Page 33 of The Servants’ Matchmaking

Elizabeth looked at the Cowper on the side table, its spine worn soft. "I do not know."

"Do you wish to know?"

That was a different question entirely. At Netherfield, Darcy had occupied her thoughts because he was near. Impossible to avoid, in a house that small. At Longbourn, distance had not removed him at all. If anything, it had only clarified the exact size of the space he had taken up.

"Yes."

Mr. Bennet leaned back in his chair, a dry glint in his eye. "Then I shall endure his visit tomorrow. I may even manage to stay awake for it."

"Papa."

"A man who proposes before he has properly courted a girl must expect a certain amount of examination."

"He did not intend insult by it."

"You defend him very quickly."

Elizabeth stood, smoothing her skirts. "I report accurately."

"Naturally." He picked his book back up, but Elizabeth caught the corner of a smile before the pages hid it.

Jane waited in her room, propped against pillows with more colour in her cheeks than she had had in days. She had heard the carriage arrangements discussed below, and knew perfectly well that Bingley meant to call.

"Tomorrow is very soon."

"He visited you three times a day at Netherfield. One day apart may feel like an absence to him."

"Mr. Darcy is coming too."

"So I understand."

Jane watched her a moment. "You changed your gown."

Elizabeth looked down at herself. She had put on the green muslin rather than the older brown one Hill had laid out that morning.

"The brown needed brushing."

"Hill brushed it this morning."

"Illness has made you unkind."

"Only observant."

Elizabeth spent the evening reading Cowper by candlelight. She disagreed with two of the servants' selections and approved of the third. Beside Edgeworth, Sarah had drawn a small blue knot in the margin. Beside Burney, McKeever had written, in his neat compressed hand: Too much company; useful warning. That line made her laugh aloud, alone in her room, loud enough that Jane called through the wall to ask what was so funny.

Monday morning became an exercise in the whole household pretending very hard that no gentleman was expected. Mrs. Bennet ordered the drawing-room fire rebuilt, though it had burned perfectly well since breakfast. Kitty moved a vase from the mantel to the table. Mary moved it straight back again, on the principle that symmetry encouraged disciplined thought. Lydia wanted to know whether Mr. Darcy might bring officers with him.

"Why would he bring officers?" Elizabeth asked.

"He may know some of them."

"Acquaintance is not friendship."

"Officers are friendly with everyone."

Mr. Bennet looked up from his newspaper. "That is not always a compliment, Lydia."

"Papa, you have not even met any of them."