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He smiled, but Elizabeth would not leave the broken seedlings for him to repair alone. Under his direction she pressed soil round the roots of three which could be saved. Mrs. Reynolds fetched a small board to close the gap until it could be properly mended. Two seedlings were too badly crushed, and Elizabeth asked Carr to charge any replacements to her.
He told her he had others enough. She thanked him and accepted the answer without trying to improve upon it by touching the leaves.
When they finally left, there was soil beneath her nails and a mark upon her shoe which Sally would certainly notice. Behind the garden wall, the hens were making a great deal of noise over their breakfast.
“I think,” Elizabeth said, “that tomorrow I shall practise doing nothing.”
Mrs. Reynolds looked at her muddy hem.
“That, miss, would be a very useful accomplishment.”
Chapter Sixteen
BINGLEY RETURNED FROM Alderbrook with a roll of plans, two muddy boots, and considerably less enthusiasm for the word sound than he had possessed when he left Pemberley.
“Sound walls,” he told Darcy, standing in the hall while a servant took his coat. “Sound roofs. Sound prospect. I have learnt to ask what is underneath.”
“Was the surveyor useful?”
“He put his foot through a board. I found that very persuasive.”
Darcy looked at him more closely. “Was he hurt?”
“Only in his opinion of the particulars. Mine suffered with it.” Bingley held up the roll. “We ought to show Jane. She will want to know what can be done before I promise anything.”
It was Tuesday, and he had been away since the previous morning. Darcy had offered to accompany him, but Charles had wished to conduct this examination himself, with the surveyor there to answer the questions he had learnt to ask at Highwood Lodge. Darcy respected the decision. He also found that waiting for Charles’s account required more restraint than supplying his own opinion would have done.
After Charles had changed his boots, they found the ladies in the morning room. Jane put aside her sewing as soon as she saw her husband. Caroline asked whether the property was all he had been led to expect. Miss Bennet glanced at the plans and moved a workbasket from the table.
“Come and sit down first,” Jane said. “You look cold.”
“I am very well.” Charles bent to kiss her cheek. “And you?”
“Much better now that you are here to contradict your sister. She thinks I have walked too far this morning.”
“Did Lizzy go with you?”
“She did.”
“Then Caroline may be right.”
Miss Bennet smiled at him. “We went as far as the east terrace, and Jane chose the distance. You must not accuse me merely because I should have preferred to go farther.”
Darcy watched Charles’s shoulders relax. His friend had plainly brought more anxiety home than his account in the hall suggested. He could joke readily enough while standing alone with Darcy. Before his wife, he looked at her face first.
Bingley unrolled the plans. Darcy fetched two books to hold the corners flat, and Jane moved her chair nearer the table.
“The house is not so grand as Highwood,” Charles began.
“That recommends it already,” Miss Bennet said.
“But its principal chimney draws.”
“Charles,” Jane said, laughing, “tell me what you liked.”
He placed his finger upon the drawing. The south-facing rooms looked over an orchard. The kitchen was separated from the family rooms by a passage wide enough to keep the noise at a tolerable distance. There was a small library, a drawing room large enough for company without requiring it, and a sheltered walk along the garden wall.
Darcy listened while Charles described each part. His friend had noticed more than he would have noticed a month earlier. He knew where the servants would sleep, which windows required repair, and how far the nearest village lay from the gate. When Jane asked about the stairs, he turned to a second sheet and showed her their width.
