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She was scrutinised closely.

“Do you think it is relevant? You have no young cousins, you have no family members in trade. While there may be life lessons in my story, none of them will apply to you or your circumstances.”

Georgiana flushed at Elizabeth’s response.

“You have led such an interesting life Elizabeth. What you say is true but it does not make it any less fascinating for someone like me who will never get the chance to see this world.”

Mrs. Annesley and Mrs. Smith were quietly conversing on the other side of the parlour.

“I think you should discuss this with your companion. There will be much talk of trade and I will have to censor several parts of the tale.”

With such a tantalising titbit Miss Darcy was even more keen to hear Elizabeth’s story. The two companions moved closer and Mrs. Annesley was applied to.

“From the way Miss Darcy has described it there are several layers to this story, yes?”

Elizabeth agreed.

“That is a good way to describe it.”

“I see no harm at skating over the surface, delving deep occasionally but moving past certain aspects.”

The other three smiled at Miss Darcy’s excitement. Everyone agreed to an early luncheon so that the next chapters in the tale were not interrupted. 45 minutes later they were all back in the parlour.

“I will deal with the grim part of the tale at the beginning so that we can move past it. The accident that claimed the life of my aunt and injured my uncle was in early July ’07. July and August are a blur, so many things had to be dealt with. Even something as simple as where my uncle was now going to sleep, given that he was no longer able to climb the stairs. My oldest cousin Edward was 13 and his returning to school is a good place to start.

“The other children are Angela who was seven, Rebecca who was six and Michael who would turn four that September. I was sixteen and now effectively the mistress of the house. Much of that first six months was spent with the children, helping them deal with the loss of their mother. I was aided in an unexpected way, my uncle was now around the house every day, and the children saw much more of him than before the accident. Those initial months set the routine which we followed in the subsequent years. My uncle’s business was doing well, there was a housekeeper, a cook, a nursery maid and he had a carriage out in the mews. I was not trying to raise the children myself with one maid of all work.

“As life started to settle into a routine I found I had more free time. It was at this point I started to assist my uncle where I could. For all four years this was primarily as his eyes and ears at his business. He used to scandalise people by saying I was his eyes, ears and legs.”

The expected gasps came from Miss Darcy and her companion.

“I know. He explained to it to me as his way of dealing with his permanent injury. There was no point sitting there, a black cloud of despair over him. He had been granted a second chance at life and so he just shrugged, made a somewhat tasteless joke and moved on.”

Elizabeth paused and sipped her tea and watched as Miss Darcy and Mrs. Annesley both nodded. She thought that neither of them realised they were doing so.

“My routine was now set. Due to the excruciating pain from the stumps of his legs if they were jostled, Sir Edward only travelled to his offices on a Wednesday each week. The other five days I would go there in his stead. On many of these days there were no documents for me to collect and there was no need for me to be present. And most of these documents could have been delivered to his house. He asked me to visit every single day so that everyone, be they his customers, his competition, his suppliers or his staff, knew that I was giving him an account of his business. Early in ’08 I was misled by one of his clerks, thinking he could bamboozle the ignorant young woman. My uncle travelled to his offices the next day and publicly fired him. After that no one played any tricks on me.

“My education continued as I brought bills of lading, bills of sale, manifests, orders, contracts, every and all documents relating to his business, I collected them for my uncle. He invested huge amounts of time answering all my questions while I was updating the ledgers.”

“Were you not worried about your reputation? A gentle-born young lady engaging in trade?”

Mrs. Annesley’s question made Elizabeth smile.

“No, it is not a silly question Mrs. Annesley, far from it. What made me smile was something I have not thought about in months.”

She stood and curtseyed. Two of the other three looked confused although Claire was smirking.

“Allow me to introduce myself, I am Rose Gardiner, a distant cousin of Mr. Gardiner who I call uncle given the differences in our ages.”

She sat back down.

“To answer the questions writ large across your faces I assumed a made-up identity when involved with Gardiner Import/Export. My oldest cousin thought this to be the most exciting thing ever, as if I was some kind of spy.”

“Lizzie, that is extraordinary. And no one found out?”

“At first it was somewhat comedic as there were several of the clerks at the office who knew my real name. But quite quickly it just became accepted. I was Miss Rose and that was how I was introduced from then on. My father was concerned with the taint of trade attaching to the family and so this was how my uncle and I dealt with it. There are countless members of the Ton who would sneer at those in trade, exaggeratedly sniffing while rudely talking of the stench of trade, and who would take delight in gossiping if it was well known. Given my uncle’s elevation to a baronetcy it is no longer an issue but from early ’08 until last summer I was two people.”

There were smiles across everyone’s faces as they imagined the scene.