Upon arrival, she was surprised to be ushered into the presence of Miss de Bourgh only. Lady Catherine was at the same parish meeting as Mr Collins, no doubt advising men of the cloth on how best to write sermons and administer relief to the poor, and Mrs Jenkinson, Miss de Bourgh’s regular companion and chaperone, was laid low with a megrim.

After handing over the parcel, which contained embroidery threads from London, Charlotte folded herself onto a chair and made the necessary conversational gambits. Miss de Bourgh drove her phaeton and ponies past their gate whenever the weather allowed, and she regularly stopped to exchange a few civil words with Mr or Mrs Collins, but she usually declined invitations to come indoors. In fact, Charlotte could count on the fingers of one hand the occasions on which the Rosings heiress had entered the Parsonage, and did not believe she had ever been tête-à-tête with her before. As she cast about for topics beyond the weather, her hostess asked: ‘Do you ride, Mrs Collins?’

‘Not since I married, Miss de Bourgh. But as a girl growing up, I had my share of stumbling around on a faithful dappled mare.’

‘Do you miss it?’

Charlotte stared at her interlocutor, surprised by the turn the conversation was taking. ‘I miss the exercise it afforded, and the opportunity to travel further abroad than my own two feet might carry me,’ she replied.

‘We have in our stable at present a very quiet gelding no longer fit for carriage work. If you wish, I shall instruct Walter that you should have the use of him when your time permits you to ride.’

Charlotte did not know how to respond. Her shoulders loosened at the thought of an innocent avenue of temporary – not escape, exactly, but reprieve – as winter tightened its hold on the countryside and made walking less and less pleasant. But how was this to be managed? And what would Lady Catherine make of this unprecedented offer?

As if reading her thoughts, Miss de Bourgh followed with, ‘Do not concern yourself with my mother, Mrs Collins. I shall settle it with her, and she shall settle it in turn with your husband, if need be. You would be doing Dobbin a kindness; I am sure the fellow grows bored standing around idle. I know I do.’