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Miss Bennet had heard him speaking of a mistress.

“I see,” he said.

There was hurt enough in that understanding to make him wish he had not brought her here. He had hoped for her good opinion, had sought occasions to please her, and she had been wondering what he had done with the woman who bore his child.

Yet he had sent Anna through the servants’ passage beneath her eyes. He could hardly accuse her of imagining the concealment.

“You need not tell me anything more,” Elizabeth said. “I have already obliged you to reveal what you meant to keep private.”

“I would rather you knew the truth.”

He had not known that until he said it. Once said, he found he did not wish to withdraw it.

“There was a man named George Wickham. His father managed this estate for mine. We grew up together.”

Elizabeth listened without speaking.

“My father was fond of him. Georgiana knew him as someone who belonged here, someone she ought to trust. I knew more of his character by then. I had not made her understand it.”

“How old was she?”

“Fifteen when he found her at Ramsgate. Last summer. Eighteen hundred and twelve.”

He passed a hand across his brow. It sometimes seemed much longer.

“She was there with a companion I had engaged. Mrs. Younge. I learned afterward that the woman knew Wickham already. She encouraged the acquaintance and made it possible for them to be alone.”

Darcy had spoken these facts to his cousin, to a man sent to inquire after Wickham, and once to a solicitor. He had stated them in order and supplied the names necessary for each purpose. None of those accounts had required him to remember Georgiana looking up when he entered the room.

“I went unexpectedly. She told me he wished to marry her.”

He paused. The pen upon his desk lay beside the cap. He moved it farther away before he could bear to continue.

“She believed he loved her. When I confronted him, he spoke of money. There was no difficulty in learning what he wanted once there was no need to deceive her brother.”

“Did your sister hear?”

“Some of it.”

He had meant her to hear nothing. He had shut the door and raised his voice, and afterward found her waiting upon the other side. That was another protection he had accomplished very badly.

“I took her away. I thought I had arrived in time to prevent the worst.”

Elizabeth’s hands tightened again, but she did not look away from him.

“Later she told me she was with child.”

He could still remember the effort it had cost Georgiana to say it. She had begun three times with an apology before he understood why she was afraid. He had told her that nothing she said could make him cease to love her. Then he had gone out of the room to consider what must be done, leaving her with his assurance and no one to hold her hand.

“I stayed with her,” he said. “That is why I did not go to Netherfield with Bingley. I could not leave her.”

“And why you missed the wedding.”

“Yes.”

“Charles never doubted that you were needed.”

“I know. He has been kinder than I deserve.”