Page 235 of The Long Road Back to Yesterday

Lady Catherine looked at her daughter. “And where, precisely, do you imagine you will go?”

“To Aunt Helen, if she will have me.”

Fitzwilliam said, “Aunt Helen will have you, but if she does not, you may stay with Elizabeth and me until we find a house for you. Anne, as I said before, you are of age. With Mrs. Jenkinson as your companion, you may have a home of your own if that is what you wish.”

Anne looked at him. “I should like that very much.”

“Then go upstairs, Cousin, and pack what you require for a few days. We shall return to Darcy House today and call upon Aunt Helen this evening.”

Anne rose. “There is very little here I wish to take with me.”

She made a half turn before him and glanced down at her gown.

“You see what Mamma has me dressed in. I shall take my night things and another gown or two. When I reach London, I shall ask Aunt Helen to take me to her modiste and order an entirely new wardrobe.”

Anne looked at her mother.

“What do you think of that, Mamma? You have never allowed me to choose my own gowns, but I shall do so now. I have my own money, and I shall spend some of it purchasing gowns I actually wish to wear.”

Lady Catherine stared at her.

Anne crossed the room and kissed her mother's cheek.

“I hope you will change your mind about me, Mamma, but I shall not change mine. Mrs. Jenkinson is coming with me. She has spent all these years keeping me alive, and I cannot possibly abandon her now.”

Anne left the room.

* * *

At Darcy House, Anne stood before the mirror in Elizabeth's dressing room while Elizabeth held two lengths of ribbon against the gown she had lent her.

“The blue,” Anne said.

Elizabeth handed it to her.

“I have spent eight-and-twenty years wearing what Mamma considered suitable. I see no reason to begin my freedom wearing a ribbon I do not like.”

She tied the blue ribbon beneath her breast and examined herself in the mirror.

“I shall need gowns in blue. Several, I think. Perhaps yellow as well.”

“Yellow would suit you.”

Anne smiled. “Excellent. I have never been permitted yellow.”

Elizabeth went to her jewel case and took out a delicate gold chain.

“Lizzy, I cannot take your jewelry.”

“You may borrow it.”

Anne bent her head, and Elizabeth fastened the chain around her neck.

Anne touched it with her fingertips. “Thank you.”

* * *

Lady Helen came forward the moment Anne entered the drawing room at Matlock House and took both her hands.