Page 239

Darcy rose to move the dog. Elizabeth watched him persuade Sir onto the rug, lift the footstool back to Kitty, and answer her thanks with no appearance of having done anything remarkable. Then he came to sit beside her again.

She took his hand beneath the fold of her shawl and kept it there while Mary turned to her next piece.

Chapter Sixty-One

DARCY FOUND ONE of Mr. Bennet’s books upon the shelf Elizabeth had chosen for her own.

He recognised the worn corner before he read the title. It was the volume of essays which had travelled from Longbourn in a parcel and remained a subject of dispute ever since. Elizabeth had placed it between two novels, where her father would have no difficulty finding it if he wished to renew his claim.

Darcy took it down, then heard a voice behind him.

“Do not let her conceal it again. I have only just discovered where she put it.”

Mr. Bennet stood in the doorway wearing the coat in which he intended to attend his daughter’s wedding. He looked at the book, then at the lower shelves.

“She told me you had made room.”

“We chose this part together.”

“Then you have been allowed to keep something.”

“Several things. Though their order has been altered.”

Darcy returned the essays to their place. Elizabeth had spent the previous afternoon arranging the books she brought with her in August and those which her family had carried north in December. She had left room for more, and moved one of his volumes twice before deciding that it belonged precisely where it had stood before she touched it.

He had enjoyed watching her so much that he had said nothing of the unnecessary labour.

The shelves stood near the window, low enough that she could reach every book without assistance. He had offered to move a writing table closer. She had declined because she preferred its present view of the fire, then asked for a chair which did not oblige her to perch upon the edge of its seat.

That chair waited beside the table now. A little workbag hung over one arm.

Mr. Bennet examined it with a smile Darcy could not quite read.

“Her mother believes she is upstairs attending to her appearance,” he said. “I suspect she has been down here this morning.”

“The bag was not here last night.”

“Then I am right. I shall enjoy telling my wife that Lizzy has found time to arrange her sewing while the rest of the household prepares to marry her.”

Darcy glanced toward the doorway. He had been told not to expect Elizabeth until they left for the church. He resented the instruction more now that she had been so near without his seeing her.

“Is she well?”

Mr. Bennet’s expression softened. “Very well. A little impatient, which you may take as a compliment.”

“I do.”

“She sent me to discover whether you had begun to regret the number of her relations.”

“Not yet.”

“An admirable answer. I shall report it exactly.”

The older man came to the shelf and touched the essays without removing them.

“She may keep these until your visit.”

“She will be pleased.”