Page 54 of Courting Elizabeth

She picked up the notebook again and opened it to a dog-eared page.

“Georgiana is not why I wanted to see Mrs Allen.”

“Thwaite has withdrawn his three daughters.”

The name did not immediately register. I searched my memory, found it: forty acres north of the river, a lease renewed last year, four children living out of seven.

“Since when?”

“Tuesday. Two other families followed on Thursday. Mrs Allen writes that she has eleven boys left and a half-empty room, and that she would sooner hand in her apron than teach children who are taken from her every week.”

“What reason does he give?”

“None that he will put in writing.”

I knew the reason. A farmer doesn’t withdraw his daughters from a free school because he objects to the arithmetic. He withdraws them because his wife heard at Lambton market that the new Mrs Darcy comes from a county where girls learn to read and start getting ideas.

I opened my mouth to give an order.

Thwaite held his lease from me. Three sentences, a letter from my steward, and his daughters would be seated at their table before Sunday.

Three sentences.

I thought of the last page of my register and the rule I had set for myself on a London staircase.

I closed my mouth.

“What do you intend to do?”

Elizabeth turned to me with a surprise that shamed me for everything that had come before.

“You’re not going to suggest I write to your steward?”

“Would that help you?”

“No.”

“Then no.”

She picked up her notebook. She took an unusually long time sliding it under her arm.

“I’ll call on them Monday.”

“Alone?”

“With Mrs Allen. A man in the yard would make conversation impossible.”

It was the most difficult day of my resolution, and it wasn’t yet noon.

“That’s at least an honest answer.”

I took the notebook she handed me. The first pages contained a plan for reading and arithmetic lessons for the estate girls, along with an estimate of the books needed.

“You’ve worked hard on this.”

“And I intend to continue after the ball.”

“Then I won’t decide your appointments anymore.”