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She looked behind her to see the tall form of Thomas some distance away, but steadily making his way towards the small group. She reached her sisters, breathless and desperate. "Please do not say anything, Mina. Please, I could not bear it. Just give me a little time to sort through everything. I do not know what..."

Bella took her by the shoulders and shook her gently, looking directly into her face. "All will be well, Kate. Be still." With that, she turned her attention to their youngest sister. "Mina, stop squawking. It will do no one any good."

"But what I saw! That man! He took liberties!"

"Lower your voice! When Thomas approaches, we shall simply say that I required your immediate presence to see about some embroidery I have been struggling with."

"But you never embroider anything," said Mina in a petulant tone.

"Well, that is beside the point. Do you remember those sable brushes you wanted from the artists' supplier in Derby? The ones Papa said cost more than a groom's monthly wages?"

Mina's eyes widened. "Yes, of course."

"I shall buy them for you if you will only be silent for the moment."

Mina pressed her lips together determinedly. Thomas was approaching more quickly now, a concerned frown upon his face. "Mrs Harwood, Miss Darcy, Miss Mina," he said, giving a bow. "Is all well?"

Bella smiled sunnily at him. "All is well, Thomas. I am sorry we gave you a fright. I had an urgent need for my sisters concerning a matter of embroidery. Mina may have made the situation sound more desperate than it really was. I am sorry to have troubled you, but I believe Kate has finished at the site for the day. Have you not, Kate?"

"Yes," said Kate in a small voice.

"So we shall have no further need of you there. Please go about your business."

"Yes, madam," he said, giving another bow before walking away.

"Now, you two, to my room." Bella took both her sisters by the arms and practically marched them towards the east wing of Pemberley and the suite of rooms she shared with her husband, George. She pushed open the door with such force that Kate's brother-in-law jumped out of the armchair where he had been sitting at his ease, reading his newspaper with his feet propped upon a stool and his coat abandoned on a nearby settee.

"Good God in heaven, Princess!" he exclaimed. "What is all this commotion?"

"George, we have an urgent need for a sisterly discussion, and I beg you to make yourself scarce."

"Is all well, love?"

"All is perfectly well, and I shall be even better if you will remove yourself from this room. I do not mean to cause you any discomfort, darling, but it is urgent that I speak to my sisters right away, and it is not a discussion for a man's ears."

His eyebrows rose almost to his hairline, but he folded his newspaper and lifted his hands in surrender before shrugging himself back into his coat. "I know when I have been beaten, Princess. I shall take myself off to the mill and see how those alterations are coming along."

Bella released Kate's arm to catch her husband's hand as he manoeuvred his way past the three women. "And George, do not breathe a word of this to my parents."

He turned back to her and waggled his eyebrows. "Secrets, eh? I cannot wait to find out what all this is about, my love. Don't enjoy yourselves too much without me." With that, he planted a quick kiss upon her cheek and disappeared.

Bella ushered her sisters further into the room, closed the door with a firm thud and turned the lock.

No sooner had the lock clicked than Kate opened her mouth and attempted to offer some explanation, her words tumbling over one another and making little sense even to her own ears. At the same time, Mina burst into a breathless account of what she had witnessed, declaring that Mr Briar had been behaving most improperly and that she had never in her life expected to find her sister in such a position, particularly in a hole in the ground.

Bella held both hands high in the air and, in a voice that sounded very much like their papa's, said, "Enough!"

The room fell silent.

"Let us sit and talk about this like civilised people," said Bella, ushering her sisters towards the small sitting area beside the fire, which held a low table, a chintz-covered couch and two generous armchairs. Mina perched on the edge of an armchair, her expression pained, while Kate lowered herself onto the couch beside Bella.

"Now, Kate, what exactly happened?"

Kate began to tell her sister, in halting words, how they had been documenting a potential discovery when she had turned to speak to Mr Briar and found herself standing very close to him. She struggled to explain exactly how things had progressed from there, only that somehow it had ended in a kiss.

"Just a kiss," she finished, looking miserably at her sister.

Bella smiled kindly and covered Kate's hand with her own before rising to unlock the door and pull the bell cord.