THE NEXT DAY, LAURA ASKED her mother if they could visit the ‘piano man’ and watch him as he worked. Sarah was occupied with a book of martyrs she had ferreted from the housekeeper’s parlour (and which would no doubt be productive of nightmares), but Laura hung about Charlotte, presenting her request with a combination of sweetness and steeliness her parent knew only too well.

Eventually, after extracting promises that they would visit briefly only if Herr Rosenstein permitted it, Charlotte took her daughter up to the schoolroom, and knocked with diffidence. Upon receiving the instruction to enter, she led Laura in, and presented her daughter’s request – to witness him at work – with many apologies.

‘We understand that we may not disturb you, that your labour takes all your powers of concentration and focus,’ she explained. ‘But Laura would not rest until she could see you at work, I fear.’

Herr Rosenstein smiled at her daughter and explained that their timing was perfect: he was almost finished with the schoolroom piano, and was about to embark on the infinitely more painstaking and time-consuming task of repairing Georgiana Darcy’s harpsichord.

‘But surely you will not want to be disturbed while undertaking such delicate work,’ Charlotte said.

‘Ah, this task involves long periods of waiting,’ Herr Rosenstein replied. ‘I have to glue the wood where it has cracked, in very small sections. Only once it is dry, can I risk first sanding the belly of the instrument with the finest of papers, then sealing with varnish, repainting, and then at last correcting the pitch of the strings. It will take great patience, and company will be much appreciated. I fear, though, that it will be too tedious for you and your daughter.’

Charlotte demurred, as did Laura, who was overcome with excitement at the prospect of exploring new quarters of Pemberley.

The trio repaired from the modest upper reaches of the house to the grander corridors that led to the family’s private apartments. The damaged harpsichord stood in Georgiana’s personal parlour, a sunny room with pale, fresh colours and modern furnishings, the emphasis on lightness and comfort. The vista from the windows stretched up the slope to the hanging woods above the house, the greenery outside echoed in the Chinese wallpaper with its repeating pattern of birds and foliage.