Page 188 of What Change Entails

There were accounts to review.

Correspondence to answer.

Repairs requiring attention.

His thoughts displayed a remarkable inability to remain fixed upon any practical subject.

He wondered whether Elizabeth had resumed her book after tea.

Whether Lydia had succeeded in convincing Georgiana that geese were dangerous.

Whether Miss Bingley had chosen to nurse her wounded pride in private or seek another audience.

That final thought darkened his mood considerably.

The confrontation lingered unpleasantly.

He regretted none of what he had said.

He regretted just that circumstances had allowed the situation to progress so far before he addressed it.

The memory faded beneath the demands of the journey.

Kelton came into view shortly before evening.

The property itself possessed little grandeur.

A respectable house.

Productive land.

Reliable tenants.

The sort of estate many gentlemen overlooked precisely because it lacked any dramatic feature worth discussing.

Darcy valued it for the opposite reason.

It worked.

Which made Sir John Vale’s sudden interest in several acres of it particularly irritating.

Mr. Maddox awaited him in the yard.

Whitacre, the tenant farmer, stood nearby.

Both appeared relieved by his arrival.

“Mr. Darcy.”

Maddox removed his hat.

Whitacre followed suit.

Darcy dismounted.

“You were correct to send for me.”

Maddox exhaled visibly.