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“Where would you like them?”

“Where I can reach them without asking a footman to undertake the expedition.”

“There are lower shelves in the library.”

“I have seen them. Most are occupied.”

“I could move what is there.”

“You see how quickly I become troublesome.”

“I expected some inconvenience.”

“Some?”

“A quantity which I am willing to discover.”

Elizabeth laughed and leaned a little nearer against his arm. Darcy would willingly have promised her every shelf in the house for the pleasure of feeling her there.

“You need not move anything yet,” she said. “I should like to sit in the library with you and decide.”

“So should I.”

“And there must be room for you to disagree with me.”

“I do not anticipate any difficulty in finding it.”

Her laugh warmed him more than his coat. They turned back toward the house, walking slowly enough that neither could pretend the cold had compelled them.

At the foot of the terrace she paused.

“There is something else I ought to tell you.”

Darcy waited. The change in her voice warned him that they had left books and happy speculation behind.

“We have read more of Mara’s attempt. Mrs. Reynolds told you that we found the cord?”

“She told me you had finished the account. Nothing more.”

Elizabeth described it briefly: the movements Mara understood, the warmth she could not call, and the cold which remained when she opened the thread. She had felt the same pressure for a moment upon touching the old cord. It had ended when she took her hand away.

“Have you tried to release it now, before she is brought to bed?”

“Twice. Beside Jane. The warmth came and the thread opened, but nothing resisted me. I cannot say whether there was anything there for me to touch.”

“Then it may not take hold until her labour.”

“That is when Elspeth meant it to act. I shall try again if I feel it sooner. I will not wait upon a date because it is written in a book.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“Frightened?”

“Yes. Less by knowing what to expect than I was by not knowing. I can do more than I could in October. But I cannot tell you that practice makes me certain.”

“I have not asked you to be certain.”