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Elizabeth brought out a new length of linen thread.

“This is what we shall use.”

For weeks she had practised the movement Elspeth used before the curse. Her fingers knew how to leave the loop open and draw the strand through without tightening it in the wrong direction. She could call warmth more readily now. Holding both things in her attention remained harder than doing either alone.

She looked at Mrs. Reynolds’s workbasket.

“May I borrow the tape?”

The housekeeper brought the short length they had used before. Elizabeth tied the tape into a simple knot upon the desk. She held her fresh thread in her right hand, keeping her left palm open beside the tape, and tried to release the knot without losing the warmth.

The knot eased. She looked at it too eagerly, and the warmth faded.

Mrs. Reynolds did not congratulate her merely because the tape lay straight.

“Did the warmth remain?”

“No.”

Elizabeth tied the knot again.

This time she closed her eyes for a moment before beginning, recalling the warmth without attempting to command it. Then she opened them, watched the thread, and spoke the familiar words.

The knot moved more slowly. She kept her palms steady. When the turn opened, a faint warmth remained against the skin.

“That was better,” she said.

“Again?”

“Yes. But not until I have stopped being pleased with myself.”

Mrs. Reynolds laughed. Elizabeth laughed with her, and found the next attempt easier for having done so. Before they stopped, she had managed to answer two questions about the linen while the knot opened.

By lunch her fingers were stiff. Mrs. Reynolds took the tape away, and Elizabeth joined her parents upstairs. While Mama displayed her sewing, she rested her hands and listened; she could not improve them by wearing them out.

On Sunday afternoon Mrs. Reynolds proposed a different trial.

“You can answer me now,” she said. “Let us see whether you can keep hold of my hand as well.”

Elizabeth looked up.

“Mrs. Bingley will want your hand, or a cup, or an answer to a question. You cannot expect her to remain as still as a piece of tape while you attend to it.”

“No.” Elizabeth set down her sewing. “What do you suggest?”

“The little cupboard. I can fasten its latch with the tape. Yesterday you warmed your own hand. Today let us see whether you can keep mine warm while you loosen it.”

The cupboard stood against the sitting-room wall and held spare writing things. Mrs. Reynolds took out the ink bottle before closing it, so that nothing could spill if the door moved suddenly. She passed a loop of tape through the latch and its fastening ring, then tied it loosely.

“There is nobody inside it,” she added when Elizabeth looked doubtful.

“I had observed that.”

“And nothing we require urgently.”

“You have removed most of my objections.”

Mrs. Reynolds brought two chairs near the cupboard. They sat side by side, close enough that Elizabeth could see the fastening clearly. The housekeeper held out her hand.