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Elizabeth folded the pattern for Martha and put it safely beside the workbasket. She did not look at him as he kissed Anna’s forehead.

He was grateful for that small courtesy.

Ruth came from the inner room when Anna began to fret. At the sound of her voice the child turned at once, the rattle forgotten. Darcy gave her back, enduring a brief, unreasonable pang when she settled so readily against the woman who cared for her.

“She is tired,” Ruth said. “She has been awake since before you came.”

“Then we have kept her company long enough.”

Elizabeth collected her gloves. Darcy waited while she took leave of Martha, and they went out together, Sally following after a last word about the flowers.

It was a mild afternoon for October. The path beneath the hedge remained damp, but sunlight fell across the open lane. Elizabeth put on her gloves as they walked. He noticed that one finger required coaxing into place and resisted an absurd impulse to assist her.

“Mrs. Hargreaves has made the cottage very comfortable,” she said.

“She has.”

“Anna is plainly happy with her.”

“I have never doubted their affection.”

“No.” Elizabeth drew the second glove over her wrist. “Nor have I.”

The qualification was quiet, but Darcy heard it. He glanced back. Sally had stopped to fasten the ribbon of her bonnet and was sufficiently far behind them that their next words need not reach her.

“There is something you wish to ask,” he said.

Elizabeth looked at him. “There is. I have been considering whether I ought.”

“You may ask it.”

“When Anna is old enough to ask who you are, what will she be told?”

He had expected a question about Georgiana. He found that he would almost have preferred one.

“She will know that I care for her.”

“As you care for the other children upon your estate?”

“Not in the same manner.”

“Will she know the difference?”

He did not answer immediately. Beyond the next gate lay the shorter way to the house. He could have turned there and ended the conversation within a few minutes. Instead he paused beside the gate, with the cottage still visible behind them.

“I intend to provide for her education, and to settle an income upon her. She will never be left dependent upon the goodwill of whoever possesses Pemberley after me.”

Elizabeth waited. He disliked the sensation that she expected something more when he had named the assurances which ought to matter most.

“I have considered her future, Miss Bennet.”

“I did not suppose you careless of it.”

“Yet you do not approve.”

She looked back toward the cottage. “I saw her reach for you before Mrs. Hargreaves could offer her. She knows you already. In another year, or two, she will know that you come and then go away. After that she will begin to ask where you go.”

“Many children are brought up apart from their relations.”