Page 46 of The Servants’ Matchmaking

"Then the butler will see to it."

Caroline's gaze moved from her brother to Darcy and back again, sharp as a needle. "Have I interrupted something?"

"Ball arrangements."

"Then I may be of use."

"Everything is settled," Bingley said, and the small crack of pain underneath his voice nearly gave the whole thing away. Caroline heard only the dismissal, and not what lay beneath it.

"As you wish."

She left, silk skirts snapping around the doorframe behind her.

Darcy waited until her footsteps had faded down the corridor. "Do not speak to her before tonight."

"I know."

"And do not punish Sarah for whatever you learn tonight."

Bingley turned on him, sharp. "I would never."

"Good," Darcy said, and believed him.

Mrs. Nicholls joined them once Caroline had gone. She had confirmed Sarah's account and added the retiring room to her own rounds.

"Sarah believes Miss Elizabeth must be told the instant Miss Bingley acts, sir."

"On that we agree," Darcy said. "If the shawl leaves the press, Miss Elizabeth is told before anything else. Not after."

Mrs. Nicholls inclined her head. "I will see it done, sir." And then she left to go command the rest of Netherfield into readiness, the way generals presumably commanded armies, except with rather more competence.

Bingley wandered to the card table and straightened a pack of cards nobody had touched all day. "I keep thinking of Caroline at twelve. She climbed the cedar after I told her she could not, and would not come down again till I apologised for saying so."

"Did you?"

"I did. I thought peace was worth more than being right." Bingley turned the top card over and did not look at it. "I fear now I only taught her that persisting is all it ever takes to get her own way."

Darcy came to stand beside him. "You were a child too, Charles."

"I am not a child tonight."

"No," Darcy agreed. "You are not."

Bingley squared the cards with more force than the gesture required. "If she stops on her own, I will say nothing further about it. If she acts, she goes to Scarborough."

"Yes."

"Jane may think me cruel for it."

"Jane thinks more clearly than either of us deserves credit for. Tell her whatever truth you are able to tell."

"You make that sound easy."

"It is not," Darcy said. "Nothing about tonight is going to be easy."

They returned to the ballroom, where the orange trees had somehow been moved yet again, this time by a footman convinced the first arrangement had been a mistake. Bingley directed them back to the corners without so much as glancing at Darcy for approval.

It was a small decision, in the scheme of the evening ahead. Darcy respected it more than he expected to.