Charlotte murmured something about Lady Catherine’s advice being always helpful, and was answered with another snort: ‘Mrs Collins, this is not a matter to canvass with my mother. Believe me, beneath her officiousness lies real shrewdness, and genuine awareness of and compunction for the lot of women in our society, both high- and low-born. After the death of her sons and my birth, she moved heaven, earth, a tribe of lawyers, and my father in her attempts to safeguard Rosings for herself and me. She spent the first two decades of my life not so much determined – as decided – that I would marry my cousin Darcy, deliberately, almost wilfully blind to the lack of any mutual interest or affection beyond familial connection between us.

‘Yet she is no fool. Disappointed in her first goal, she is well aware of Colonel Fitzwilliam’s ambitions in my direction. The very fact that she has never spoken of the matter to me – she who never ceases to advise and browbeat all and sundry – means that she is prepared to leave this decision to my judgement. And I must use that poor judgement as best I can, and take the consequences.

‘One last thing; might I depend on your discretion in this matter? I have not had you as neighbour these years without observing that you are a close-mouthed woman, not given to gossip or tattle, or even idle rattling on. Having already abused your kind nature, I must now ask you to betray the rule of marital candour; please discuss none of this with Mr Collins. He is a well-meaning sort of man, but I cannot believe he would have any advice of value to vouchsafe, and indeed, I do not seek advice. I must make my own decisions here. I have spoken to you for entirely selfish reasons: I wished the relief of speaking aloud.’

Charlotte gave her companion all the assurances she could wish for; in any case, she could not imagine explaining any part of the strange tale to her husband in a form that would not baffle or alarm him.

Back home, she was nevertheless absorbed by the account she had heard, so much so that her husband had to rebuke her for inattention as she sat stitching by the fire. Who would have thought that Miss de Bourgh faced a dilemma both so different and yet similar to the one that had faced Charlotte in her spinster days? One thing was clear: it was poverty only that made celibacy contemptible in the eyes of the public; with her wealth, Anne would always be respectable.

CHAPTER VI