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“If the hearth cannot be used safely tonight, Mrs. Bell and the boy must have somewhere dry and warm. Ask where she would prefer to go. Reynolds can send what they need.”

Hammond made a note.

“And obtain a definite answer from the mason. If he cannot leave the mill tomorrow, find someone who can attend to this cottage.”

“The work at the mill cannot be abandoned unfinished.”

“I have not asked that it should be. I have asked that Mrs. Bell should cease bearing the inconvenience of it.”

The steward closed the book. “I shall go there now, sir.”

Darcy rose with him. “I accepted the delay when you first reported it. I ought to have asked what was being done in the meantime.”

Hammond looked briefly surprised, then bowed. Darcy saw him to the door and waited until he had gone before returning to the desk.

Miss Bennet had stood. Her gloves were held loosely now, instead of folded between her hands.

“Thank you,” she said.

He was weary of wondering what degree of reluctance accompanied her thanks.

“You need not thank me for repairing a cottage upon my own estate.”

“No. But I may thank you for hearing something you did not wish to hear.”

He considered that. “Do you make a habit of bringing such things to people’s attention?”

“Only when I have failed to persuade myself that somebody else will do it.”

There was a trace of her former manner in the answer. He should have liked to pursue it, but she was already moving toward the door.

“I shall tell Mrs. Bell that Mr. Hammond is on his way,” she said. “If Mrs. Reynolds has not told her already.”

Darcy let her go.

The unfinished letter remained where he had left it. Pritchard was to send particulars of a house with a nursery conveniently placed near the principal bedchamber. Darcy read the request and thought of the confidence with which he had examined another man’s property while his own tenant set pans beneath her chimney.

It was not a comparison he enjoyed.

By late afternoon, Hammond returned. The carpenter had examined the roof from inside before going up. A temporary covering had been secured over the place where water entered, leaving the flue clear. Mrs. Bell wished to sleep at her daughter’s cottage that night; Cook had sent supper for both households and the boy had helped carry a basket of dry fuel.

“The mason will come tomorrow morning,” Hammond said. “I have spoken to him myself.”

“Will one morning be sufficient?”

“He will know when he has uncovered the damaged joint. He has agreed to remain until the work is sound.”

Darcy nodded. “Send me word when he arrives.”

He could leave it there. The work was assigned, the tenant provided for, and his instruction would be obeyed. He found, however, that he wished to see the kitchen after the rain had ceased to enter it.

“When the repair is finished, I shall call upon Mrs. Bell,” he added.

Hammond made a note and took his leave.

At dinner, Charles described a letter from a second agent. There was another property he hoped might be worth seeing, though he had learned to distrust an enthusiastic account of a drawing room. Jane asked whether the particulars included a nursery, and Caroline suggested requesting a plan before anyone undertook another journey.

“I have written down the rooms Jane would wish to have near one another,” Miss Bennet said. “Charles may send the list with his inquiry.”