Page 58

"Look at this." Darcy pointed to a diagram. "The rain most often comes when our conversation is difficult."

"Fascinating," Bingley said, though he looked slightly concerned. "But isn't this... I don't know... slightly obsessive?"

"I'm looking for a pattern."

"You're looking for a way to see Elizabeth. I can't blame you for it, but I'm beginning to miss the table."

Darcy gathered two sheets. The table remained invisible.

"Right." Bingley lifted a sheet headed Possible Meetings. "Did Elizabeth give you these walking times?"

Darcy looked at the penciled routes. "No. I inferred them."

"Then you have drawn a very handsome way of surprising her when she wishes to be alone."

Darcy took the sheet back. For a moment Bingley thought he would defend it. Instead he turned it over. "What should I send?"

"An invitation. They are an old invention, but serviceable."

The new sheet contained three places and three afternoons on which Darcy would be free. At the bottom he wrote: Or another time and place, if you prefer. I shall await your reply before making any arrangement. Bingley read it twice. There were no secluded corners, no predicted encounters, and a great deal of immaculate space for Elizabeth to disagree.

"Better," Bingley said.

"Less comprehensive."

"People frequently are."

Darcy gave the invitation to the servant unsealed, to travel inside a note from Bingley to the Bennets.

Jane came in carrying more charts. Bingley rose to take them, and discovered that he had nowhere to put those either.

"I've compared the forecast with the scenes which still seem to be required," she said. "If they occur in the expected order, Elizabeth would reach Pemberley in about four chapters."

"Four chapters?" Darcy looked crushed. "That's too long."

"It is my best guess," Jane said. "You must not mistake it for an appointment."

Darcy looked at the new pages as though Jane might have brought a shorter answer on one of them. "Four."

"Then let us hope Jane is wrong," Bingley said.

"I had hoped for sooner."

"So had I," Jane said. "But the estimate for freedom at Pemberley is better. Nine out of ten, if we are right about how the story will end."

Darcy perked up. "Nine out of ten?"

"Possibly. It is your own house, and the major quarrels should be over. That may leave you freer to choose what happens. I would not promise it."

"So I just have to survive four chapters of forced separation and then⁠—"

"Perhaps you will be able to ask her what she wishes."

"Finally."

Bingley watched them work on the charts together. "You two have gotten very focused on this."

"Someone has to," Jane said. "If we don't understand the patterns, we can't work around them."