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Caroline leaned forward. “There is a very good room there. A nurse could manage perfectly well, and you would not have the child disturbing you all night.”

“I chose the room beside mine.”

“Yes, when you were considering the plan. You have not seen the house.”

“Neither have you,” Elizabeth said.

“I have considered its arrangements.”

“So has Jane.”

Charles put a hand upon the table. “Lizzy, allow me a moment.”

Elizabeth closed her mouth. He spoke without anger, but she knew she had been too quick. Jane did not require her to answer before she had finished speaking for herself.

“Caroline,” Charles continued, “I asked you to obtain curtain samples and tell Finch which colours Jane liked. I did not ask you to change the use of the rooms.”

“I thought you wished me to assist.”

“I did. In the matter we discussed.”

“It seemed foolish to have a nursery in a room which could be so much pleasanter for Jane’s own use. She will have very little privacy otherwise.”

Jane set down her sewing.

“I would like to hear my baby,” she said. “I do not consider that an interruption to the use of my rooms.”

“You say so now.”

“Yes. And when I find that I wish for a different arrangement, I shall speak to Charles.”

Her voice remained mild. Elizabeth looked at her with a pleasure she could not quite conceal.

Caroline saw it.

“I hope you will find everything as convenient as you expect,” she said to Jane, with her eyes upon Elizabeth.

“I hope so, too,” Jane replied. “That is why I chose it.”

Charles drew the letter back toward him. “I shall answer Finch today. The nursery remains where Jane put it upon the plan. He is not to act upon another instruction without asking us.”

“There is no need to make a great business of it.”

“I do not mean to. I mean to make it clear.”

Caroline rose and went to the window. For a little while nobody spoke. Elizabeth could hear the sound of a carriage in the court below, and somebody calling to a servant to move a trunk out of the way.

Charles sat beside Jane.

“Do you wish to change anything else upon the plan?”

“No. Only the curtains, if Caroline has found something prettier than the samples we first saw.”

Caroline turned from the window. Her expression altered at the ordinary question.

“The striped one is better in daylight. The little piece he sent before was too small to judge.”

“Then I should like to see it when it comes.”