Page 61 of The Servants’ Matchmaking

"Several things, Mamma. He rarely bothers investigating them."

"Mr. Darcy has not come about Lydia."

"Why would he?"

"She danced with Captain Carter twice."

"Then Captain Carter may answer for himself."

Bingley glanced at Jane, hoping for translation. Jane only shook her head, and he accepted the instruction without question.

The gentlemen remained in the library for twenty minutes. Elizabeth counted every stroke of the clock and despised herself a little more with each one. When the door opened at last, Mr. Bennet looked both amused and faintly sad, an expression she had rarely seen him wear at once. Darcy looked like a man who had just sat an examination and had no idea, yet, whether he had passed it.

"Lizzy," her father said, "Mr. Darcy has asked permission to court you. I told him the permission belongs to you — but that I will allow the visits, if you will."

Mrs. Bennet made a noise generally associated with kettles reaching the boil. "Mr. Darcy!"

"Court Lizzy? Mr. Darcy — ten thousand a year?"

"Mamma, I have agreed to a courtship, not a marriage."

"Courtship leads to marriage, when it is properly managed."

"That sentence," Elizabeth said, "explains my caution entirely."

Darcy stood very still, as though bracing for something. Elizabeth crossed to him.

"Will you walk in the shrubbery? Jane and Mr. Bingley may come."

Bingley was on his feet before she had finished the sentence. Jane rose more slowly, preserving what dignity she could for both of them.

Outside, the winter air was sharp and bright, the kind of cold that made the light look cleaner than it had any right to. Jane and Bingley walked ahead and were soon absorbed in a conversation that appeared to require them both to study the exact same bare hedge, at very close range.

"What did my father ask you?" Elizabeth said.

"Whether I considered you an obligation. Whether I meant to remove you from your family. Whether I could bear to be laughed at, every day, for the rest of my life."

"And your answers?"

"No. No." A pause. "I hope so."

"You hope to bear it?"

"I hope to deserve the distinction."

She smiled despite herself. "Papa approved?"

"He approved the attempt. He reserves judgement of the man."

"That is generous, coming from him."

They walked in silence for a while. Darcy did not take her arm. Not until the path narrowed and she offered it herself, and even then he seemed to accept it the way a man accepts something he has been forbidden to want too openly.

"Caroline left this morning," he said. "Bingley has said nothing publicly. Mrs. Nicholls knows enough to keep Sarah safe from retaliation."

"Protect her from what?"

"Caroline accused Sarah of theft before she left. Bingley rejected the accusation outright. Mrs. Nicholls had a footman's account of seeing blue fringe beneath Caroline's wrap, and Sarah had reported the shawl missing before the accusation was ever made."