Page 68 of The Servants’ Matchmaking

"No, sir. You have said 'if you wish' aloud three times in the last five minutes."

Darcy crossed one of them out.

"I want her to come," he admitted, more to himself than to McKeever.

"Then you might simply say so, sir."

"You have grown very free with your advice lately."

"Mrs. Darcy will require a candid household."

The title landed before the presumption behind it did. Something in Darcy's chest went tight and warm at once, before he could stop it.

"There is no Mrs. Darcy," he said.

"No, sir."

McKeever's innocence was hopelessly ruined by the hope underneath it, and he did not even try to hide it.

Darcy finished the letter by writing, plainly, that he wanted Georgiana to know Elizabeth because he loved them both. Then he sanded the page at once, in case the impulse to smooth the sentence back into something safer arrived before the ink dried.

"Send this by the morning post," he said.

"Yes, sir."

McKeever took the folded sheet and left the Cowper behind on the desk, as though he had forgotten it.

Darcy opened the book anyway. A fresh length of blue thread marked a poem about domestic peace. Of all things. Sarah's choice was sentimental almost past bearing. McKeever's decision to deliver it here, tonight, was worse.

Darcy removed the thread and set it in the drawer beside Georgiana's earlier notes, where a small, growing collection of blue silk was beginning to accumulate whether he wanted it to or not. He had spent years guarding love by keeping it locked away and private. Only now was he beginning to understand that privacy without any speech at all could look, from the outside, exactly like indifference.

Tomorrow the letter would travel to London. Georgiana would choose her own answer. Elizabeth would choose hers, when at last he asked. Darcy could control neither outcome.

For once, hope required no correction at all.

CHAPTER 15

Elizabeth

Georgiana Darcy came to Hertfordshire in the second week of the courtship. Darcy announced the visit at Longbourn with such careful, deliberate calm that Elizabeth knew at once how much it mattered to him.

"My sister has been staying in London with Mrs. Annesley," he said. "Bingley has invited them both to Netherfield for a fortnight. Georgiana wishes to meet you."

Mrs. Bennet heard the last sentence from clear across the drawing room, as she heard everything of consequence.

"Miss Darcy wishes to meet Lizzy? Then she must dine here. Hill! We shall need the blue service, and the silver wants inspecting at once."

"Mamma, Miss Darcy has not even arrived yet."

"That is precisely why there is time."

Darcy looked, for a moment, alarmed. Elizabeth took pity on him.

"Perhaps Jane and I might call at Netherfield first," she said. "A smaller party will be easier after the journey."

"Mrs. Annesley will be present," Darcy said, a shade too quickly. "Bingley as well."

"And Sarah?"