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Elizabeth heard the passage read a second time at Lady Catherine's demand and could not feel her hands. She remembered sitting on her bed with the door shut and Charlotte's shoulder against hers, listening for the kitchen door. She had not seen the men go. She had imagined it so often since that the tenant's words fitted the picture like a key. So this was the more particular account. Darcy had ordered her trunk packed upon it before either of them had seen a word, and now that it lay on the table it was worse than either had supposed. None of it had been made safer by being kept from her.

“There may be particulars which ought to be explained,” the solicitor said. “This account does not explain them. It does not say who the men were, nor what happened inside the house before the death.”

“He says enough,” Lady Catherine said. “A magistrate would know what to make of a light leaving that parsonage in the small hours and two men carrying something heavy to the water. I have no wish to send it to one. Mrs. Collins will come to Rosings on Monday. Mrs. Darcy will leave London with her husband, and this very undesirable intimacy will end. Then this letter will remain in my case.”

“Our friendship,” Charlotte said. Her voice was low, but everyone at the table heard it. “I shall not return to Rosings. If you mean to send it, ma'am, send it.”

Sir William made a sound as though he had been struck. Charlotte did not look at him; Elizabeth thought she could not afford to.

Elizabeth's eyes stung. She kept them upon her ladyship until they were steady again.

“Then you will send a magistrate to that parsonage, and to Rosings,” she said. “He will ask who was in the house that week, and who was staying with you. Your tenant saw two men. You may not like the names a magistrate is given.”

Lady Catherine's colour rose. She looked to Darcy, evidently found nothing in his face she could use and reached for the bell. “Richard will tell you what prudence requires.”

Charlotte's hand tightened on Elizabeth's sleeve. This was not the order they had agreed. Elizabeth kept her eyes upon Lady Catherine while she laid her hand over Charlotte's.

* * *

The servant admitted the Colonel, then withdrew again. Richard took the chair left for him across from Sir William and looked first at Darcy, then at the letter before the solicitor. At Charlotte's request the solicitor read the tenant's passage to him. Richard listened without taking off his gloves.

“This need not have become so formal,” he said to Charlotte. “Had you spoken to me before leaving, we might have reached an understanding.”

“You bought me a chair. You did not ask whether I wished to remain in the house.”

Elizabeth saw Sir William's bewilderment, followed by a distressed attempt to understand why a chair mattered. Charlotte did not explain the whole history of being provided for. She asked Richard whether he had received the ring, and he answered that he had.

“I returned it because I do not accept the future you appear to have attached to it,” she said. “I never promised to marry you.”

Richard looked towards Lady Catherine. “I had hoped that in time you might think differently.”

“That is not a promise from me.”

“You accepted the house. You knew what I hoped.”

“I knew what you hoped. I did not tell you that I shared it.”

His gaze moved to Sir William, who offered him no assistance. “No,” he said at last. “You made no promise.”

“I have left Brook Street,” Charlotte went on, resting both hands upon the table where her father could see them. “I do not want another house from you, or visits arranged through servants of your engaging who tell you when I may be found alone.”

Richard's mouth tightened. “Then you had better go to Rosings. You know what that letter says.”

Darcy came to the table then. “I consider using her fear to obtain obedience indefensible. I shall not help either of you do it.”

“Then the letter goes to the magistrate,” said his aunt.

Before he answered, Darcy looked at Charlotte, not at his aunt. Elizabeth understood that whatever he risked now, he risked for Charlotte as well. Charlotte held his gaze and gave the smallest nod. Then he looked at Elizabeth, and she found she had nodded before she had decided to.

“And my account goes before it.” Darcy did not raise his voice. “It is signed. It names me as the man who directed a false report, and Richard and me as the two men who carried Mr. Collins to the water. If a magistrate is to read anything, madam, he will read Darcy and Fitzwilliam on the first page.”

Richard had gone white. “You would put us both in the dock.”

“If she sends it, yes. I would sooner stand there than live by her leave.”

Elizabeth looked at her husband and understood that he meant it. She could not tell whether what rose in her was fear for him or something nearer pride. Beside her, Charlotte did not move at all.

“You would not,” Lady Catherine said. “You would bring the same enquiry upon your wife.”