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Elizabeth felt Charlotte's fingers against her wrist. The cost was not Darcy's alone; his aunt had found the part of his answer which could still frighten her.

“I know,” Elizabeth said. Her mouth was dry. “I will not purchase another silence by going where you send me.”

Lady Catherine turned to Sir William. “And you permit this?”

He looked at his daughter before answering. “I shall remain with Charlotte.”

Richard turned to his aunt. “Ma'am. For God's sake, put it away.”

For a long moment Lady Catherine looked at the nephew who had always been agreeable, and Elizabeth watched her understand that he would not be agreeable now. Richard rose without waiting to be dismissed. At the door he stopped long enough to tell Sir William, stiffly, that he would not pursue Mrs. Collins again. Charlotte did not thank him, and Elizabeth loved her for knowing that gratitude was not required.

After the door closed, Lady Catherine turned to Darcy. “Your father would scarcely recognise the judgment you have displayed.”

“I arrived after the violence,” Darcy said. “What I did afterwards was my own decision, as was the use I made of the women's fear.”

Beneath the table Charlotte's hand found Elizabeth's and gripped it. He had named the violence without naming her. They both knew how short a step his aunt would need to take.

“I made my assistance conditional upon Elizabeth's marrying me. She had no reason to believe she could refuse safely. That was the bargain I offered.”

Lady Catherine pushed her chair back. “You will cease speaking in this manner.”

“No,” Darcy said. “I shall cease asking other people to bear the consequences of it for my convenience.”

* * *

Elizabeth had thought that such an admission would make the room louder. Instead Lady Catherine looked from Darcy to Gardiner, then at the papers before the solicitor. She appeared to be measuring now how much of the account existed beyond the people she could summon to her own table, and how much of it bore her own family's name.

“If these extraordinary assertions are repeated,” she said, “you must understand the injury you do this family.”

“They are recorded,” the solicitor said. “That is different from circulating them. My clients have made no complaint and do not intend to make one.”

He asked for a copy of the tenant's letter for the women's adviser. Her ladyship allowed it to be transcribed at the table with an ill grace, then took back the original and closed it in her case. Elizabeth watched it go.

“Mrs. Collins may refuse an invitation meant entirely for her benefit,” Lady Catherine said. “I shall make no further arrangements for her.” She rose. “Nor for you, nephew. You will not come to my house again. I shall not receive you, or your wife, while I live.”

Darcy bowed. It was perfectly correct, and Elizabeth saw what it cost him in the set of his jaw. Lady Catherine was his mother's sister. Elizabeth wanted to cross the room to him and kept her seat, because he had not done it to be comforted.

“And you,” Lady Catherine said to Elizabeth at the last, as if it were a final weapon. “You will live apart from your husband upon your relations' charity?”

“My residence is my decision.” Her voice held. “I am remaining with my aunt for the present.”

Darcy allowed the sentence to stand. Her ladyship had withdrawn her conditions. She had not withdrawn her letter. Nor had the tenant promised silence; no one in this room could promise it for him.

In the hall Elizabeth found Darcy beside her. The others had gone ahead to the carriage. For a moment they had the small privacy afforded by people putting on gloves and refusing to look towards them.

“You told her,” she said. “Knowing what she might do with it.”

“It was true.”

“It was also the most dangerous thing you could have said before her.” She held his eyes. “And you let my answer stand after it.”

He looked at her with a weariness which made yesterday seem very far away. “It was yours to give.”

“Yes.” She touched his sleeve briefly, then let go. “I shall write.”

He remained while she joined Charlotte. His aunt had one thing more to say to him alone, and he went back into the drawing-room to hear it. Elizabeth entered the carriage beside her friend, with Sir William opposite and her uncle attending them home. She was leaving her husband to a difficult conversation he had earned, and the afternoon sunshine warmed her as she settled beside Charlotte.

CHAPTER 11