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Elizabeth exhaled, relieved. “He will be pleased. I know he has been worried about you.” She could not interpret the turn of her mother’s countenance. “You are well, are you not? There is nothing the matter?”

“Nothing at all,” Mrs Bennet replied. “Now, may I go?”

“Before you do…what did you mean when you said that Mrs Randall had a supporter?”

Her mother frowned, then smiled, then laughed.

“Oh Lizzy, you do like to think you know everything about everything, but you are still so very na?ve. Mrs Randall is the particular friend of a very rich gentleman from the south—Mr Bradshaw. He is excessively fond of her and looks after her prodigiously well.”

Elizabeth stared at her mother, aghast. “She is someone’s mistress? Is that not scandalous?”

“Do you think I would have agreed to stay with her if it were? I can assure you she is received everywhere she goes. Mr Bradshaw is unmarried, and Mrs Randall is widowed, so you may dispose of any moral objections.”

“Why do they not simply marry in that case?”

“Obviously, he needs a wife who will give him heirs.”

Elizabeth could scarcely find the words to express her incredulity. “Does Papa know?”

“I have no idea, and really it makes no difference.”

“I think it makes a world of difference! Mama, you must see it is time to go home. If this Mr Bradshaw is as generous as you say, he can pay for Mrs Randall to have a proper nurse.”

“I daresay he could, but Mrs Randall prefers to have me. And for as long as that is the case, I shall remain.”

“Do you even wish to go home?”

“Enough! I will not be browbeaten. You had much better put that sharp tongue of yours to use by helping your sister get rid of Miss Bingley.” And with that, Mrs Bennet left, slamming the front door behind her.

Elizabeth stood rooted to the spot in disbelief until Hannah walked past her, carrying the tea tray. Unthinkingly, Elizabeth followed her to the parlour, where she discovered Jane looking thoroughly miserable and Miss Bingley looking insufferably superior.

“I was just saying what a cosy little room this is, Miss Eliza. It must be ever so easy to keep warm in the winter.”

Elizabeth was too discomfited to counter her pettiness with anything clever. “Yes, it is.” She sat down, absently nodding in response to Jane’s silent offer of tea. “I trust you have been well, Miss Bingley. Jane tells me your plans for Christmas were not what you had hoped.”

Miss Bingley might have sneered; it was hard to tell beneath the permanent expression of contempt.

“Our plans are always very fluid, which is essential when you have as many acquaintances as we do. And all in all, I think it a good thing for my brother not to be too tied down. He is far too young to settle and ought to be out in the world, making new friends.”

“Goodness, Miss Bingley. You sound just like my mother.”

Miss Bingley’s disingenuous smile flattened into a much more sincere scowl that did not budge from her countenance for the remainder of the visit.

When she was gone, Jane slumped into a chair and closed her eyes.

Elizabeth lowered herself into the adjacent seat and leant on the arm, watching her closely.

“I am well, Lizzy. You need not concern yourself on my account.”

“How could I not after such a disagreeable morning? Mama was unpardonably thoughtless, and as for Miss Bingley?—”

“And you.” Jane opened her eyes and regarded her unhappily. “You were uncommonly quarrelsome. Mama left her friend’s bedside to visit us, yet you seemed determined to provoke her. And I have been waiting to see Miss Bingley for days, yet you could not be civil to her even for my sake.”

Incredulity flared hot in Elizabeth’s breast at the suggestion that she had been the antagonist in any of that day’s encounters—but remorse quickly doused it.

Jane had always been blind to Miss Bingley’s crueller instincts and, by Elizabeth’s own design, had no inkling of her mother’s aberrant behaviour.

To her, it must have seemed that her younger sister was being inexplicably disobliging.

“I was only angry on your behalf. I know how little you wished to hear what either of them had to say.”

Jane grimaced ruefully. “It was not pleasant, but I needed to hear it. They were both, in their own way, trying to tell me what I have not been brave enough to accept myself. Whatever Mr Bingley felt for me last year, he evidently feels it no longer. I must endeavour to forget him.”

“I wish I could say you were wrong, but for your sake, I think it may be for the best. We could begin to think about visiting some sights. It would do you good to take your mind off it.”

“You mean I should cease pining in the window seat and go out?” Jane chuckled lightly. “Now that Miss Bingley has been, I shall not worry about missing her call. You and Aunt Gardiner may take me wherever you wish.”

Elizabeth grinned happily. “What I should like most of all is to take you to Arneaux’s shoe repair shop.” She wondered fleetingly whether Mr Darcy had felt the same satisfaction upon seeing her identical bewilderment when he suggested the same to her. “Trust me, it will cheer you no end.”