Mrs Jennings heaved herself to her feet. She said, cheerfully, ‘It’s quite a story, don’t you think?’

‘Yes,’ they both said politely, not moving.

She stepped clumsily over them. ‘I know she’s your sister-in-law, dears, but really, what a reaction! Poor Lucy. Sweet girl. It’s such a lovely story, especially in this day and age, don’t you think? Now, I’m going across to Charlotte’s, to see what I can do to help. Will you girls just help yourselves to breakfast? Croissants in the cupboard.’

‘Thank you.’

Mrs Jennings paused in the doorway. ‘You know,’ she said, ‘they might make a go of it. They really might. Love on a shoestring and all that. I’m sure I could help with some furniture.’ She glanced back at the Dashwood girls, still crouched on the floor. ‘I wonder what will happen when Ed’s mother knows! Fireworks won’t be in it and, I’m telling you, I don’t want to miss a moment!’

Elinor looked up at her. She managed a tired smile. ‘Give Charlotte our love,’ she said.

When her footsteps had retreated, Marianne said hoarsely to her sister, ‘You have known all along, Elinor Dashwood, that Ed and Lucy were engaged, all the time I’ve been like I’ve been?’

Elinor nodded reluctantly.

‘So,’ Marianne said, leaning forward to grip Elinor’s nearest wrist, ‘Ed is as much of a complete scumbag as Wills is?’

‘No,’ Elinor said, with vehemence. ‘No.’

‘Two-timing, choosing a complete little cow like—’

‘It’s different,’ Elinor said. ‘He’s different. He was neglected and bullied when he was little, and then all those people in Plymouth were kind to him, and Lucy was in the mix, and he felt this obligation …’

‘Huh,’ Marianne said.

‘She’s not a bad person.’

‘She’s a witch.’

‘And he’, Elinor said with an effort, ‘isn’t bad either.’

‘He’s pathetic.’

Elinor gave a little gasp, as if she was choking down a sob.

‘Ellie?’

‘What?’

‘Did you love him?’

Elinor writhed a little, on the floor. ‘I don’t know. Yes. No. I – I love quite a lot of people.’

‘Not men.’

‘Even some men.’

‘But not Ed!’

Elinor looked at her. She said seriously, ‘M, I don’t believe in a one and only love, like you do. But yes, I do have feelings for Ed, I do. And before you rubbish him any more, I just want to say that he’s never promised me anything, he’s never made me hope or believe in anything he couldn’t deliver. In fact, I think he likes me. I’ll go further. I know he likes me. But he’s trapped. By his mother and now by all these circumstances, and he’s got to assert his independence and he’s got trapped in how he does that, too. I don’t know if he wants to be with Lucy or not, but he’s not going to let her down because he’s been let down himself by so many people all his life that he can’t bring himself to do it to someone else, whatever the cost to him is. Don’t you see?’

There was a long silence. Then Marianne got slowly to her feet. Looking down at her sister, she said quietly,

‘You love him. Don’t you.’

Elinor sighed. She gave an imperceptible nod.

Marianne said fiercely, ‘All this time while I’ve been banging on about Wills and weeping and wailing and being a general diva pain to everyone, you knew about Lucy and Ed, and you never said a word to me.’

Elinor got to her knees, and then awkwardly to her feet. She didn’t look at Marianne. She shook her head. ‘No.’

‘I feel awful.’

‘Please—’

‘Ellie,’ Marianne said, her voice breaking, ‘I’ve been such a bitch. So selfish. I got so obsessed that I never even looked to see if you might be suffering.’ She reached out and took Elinor’s nearest hand. ‘I’m so sorry. Ellie, I really am. I’m so, so sorry.’

Elinor gave a little bark of half-laughter. ‘Doesn’t matter.’

‘It does. It does.’ Marianne dropped Elinor’s hand and put her arms round her instead. ‘God, Ellie. I feel terrible about how I’ve been to you, I could kill myself!’

‘Don’t do that. Please, don’t …’

‘What can I do? Ellie, what can I do to try and make it up to you in even the most minuscule degree?’

Elinor gently disengaged herself. She put her hands on her sister’s shoulders and regarded her gravely. ‘There is something.’

‘What? Anything, anything!’

‘M,’ Elinor said, ‘I want you to behave as if neither of us gives a stuff about any of this.’

‘What?’

‘I mean it. I want you to be nice to Lucy and like you always are to Ed. I want no one ever, ever, to suspect that I have any axe to grind. Lucy and Ed are just another happy couple we happen to be vaguely connected to, and no more. OK?’

Marianne said sadly, ‘But I want to murder her.’

‘It’s not about you. It’s not about her. It’s about me. I want you to promise to help save my face. I want you to do this for me. Me, Elinor. Do you get it?’

Marianne sighed. Then she smiled wanly.

‘I get it. Promise.’

In Elinor’s cardigan pocket, her phone began to ring. She pulled it out and peered at the screen. ‘Gosh,’ she said, ‘it’s John!’

‘Answer it,’ Marianne said. ‘Quick.’

Elinor put the phone to her ear. ‘Hello?’ she said. ‘John?’

‘Elinor?’ he said. ‘Elinor. Do you have a moment?’

‘Of course.’

She motioned to Marianne to resume sitting on the floor beside her, their backs against the panels of the bathtub.

‘Something very – grave has happened,’ John said. ‘Fanny is really upset, terribly hurt, you know how trusting she is—’

Elinor said quickly, ‘John, we do know, if you mean—’

‘It’s appalling,’ he said, interrupting, his voice high with indignation. ‘It’s like wildfire these days. There’s a private family upset and the world knows about it in seconds. Fanny feels completely betrayed, of course, and who wouldn’t, after all she’s done for those worthless girls.’

‘Yes.’

‘Elinor, she took them in because she felt that her family owed their family for looking after Edward during his teens. She was behaving beautifully, and generously, as she always does, and then she finds that Lucy has got her claws into Edward and plans to marry him and when confronted with this – honestly, Elinor, you would not believe his sheer brazenness to his sister and mother – Edward has the utter nerve to say it’s all quite true and that they are going to marry.’

‘Oh,’ Elinor said. She was staring straight ahead. Marianne had taken the hand not holding the phone and was gripping it. ‘So – so Ed’s mother knows?’

‘She was distraught,’ John said. ‘Absolutely distraught. And you know what a wonderful woman she is – you met her. She only wants what is best for her children, that’s all she’s interested in, but when she pointed out to Edward what a lovely match Tassy Morton would be for him, and how happy she’d be to give them the family house in Norfolk, he just laughed. Can you believe it? He simply laughed.’

‘Good for him!’ Marianne called.

‘Who was that?’ John demanded.

‘It’s Marianne, John. She’s next to me.’

‘What did she say?’

‘She said, “Good heavens”,’ Elinor said, not looking at her sister. Marianne put her face into Elinor’s nearest shoulder, shaking with giggles.

‘I should say so,’ John said. ‘It’s appalling conduct. Disgraceful. I’m not surprised that she reacted as she did. Not another penny his way, ever. Not one. He’s burnt every boat.’

Elinor said quietly, ‘What did he say?’

‘Nothing much, actually. Odd really, but I suppose silence is part of his defiance. Even when Fanny’s mother said – perfectly understandably, in my view – that she would do everything to stand in his way in the future, he didn’t really react. He just said he’d promised.’

‘He probably did.’

‘But come on, now. Promises to a girl like that?’

Elinor took a breath. ‘Mrs J. is very fond of Lucy, John. And Mrs J. has been really kind to us.’

‘Well,’ John said, beginning to bluster, ‘I know Lucy is some sort of connection of Mrs Jennings, and I’m sure she was never any trouble before, but it really isn’t on, is it, to make a boy you know is worth a fortune promise to marry you, when you don’t yourself come from much of a background. I mean, you can’t avoid thinking eye-to-the-main-chance, love-me-love-your-wallet kind of thing, can you? It’s no fault of Mrs Jennings that her late husband’s goddaughter or whatever behaves in a disappointing way, now, is it? I’d be the last person to think that. Just as I’m the last person to think Fanny’s mother has been other than exemplary – so fair, so generous. She offered him a six-bedroom house in Norfolk, Elinor, never mind the farm that goes with it! And he just threw it all back at her. Just like that. Well, he has made his bed, stupid boy, and he must lie on it.’

Marianne leaned closer to the phone. She called, ‘John, how did it end?’

‘How did what end?’

‘All this. This row.’

‘Well,’ John said, ‘Edward slammed out of the flat, and we have no idea where he is. Fanny just said to me, “Oh, John, get a taxi for those girls and get rid of them. Even put a cab on our account, anything to get them to go.” So I did. So generous of her, you know – and when you think of the circumstances! But where Lucy is now, I have no idea. I know she and her sister went straight round to the Palmers but I think Tommy threw them out again, sensible fellow. So we are just picking up the pieces here. Poor Fanny. She’s so cut up; you know how sensitive she is. She even said she wished she’d had you two to stay, not the Steele girls.’

‘Really …’

‘And, of course, Fanny’s mother is going straight to her lawyer in the morning. There’s no holding her, once she gets going; she’ll have her will changed by lunchtime. She’ll just stand over them till they’ve done it. Lucky old Robert. He’ll get Edward’s share now. And of course, there’ll be some for Fanny, not that she’s in the least interested in money.’ He paused, and then he said, ‘So Mrs Jennings knows all this?’

‘Yes,’ Elinor said. ‘She told us.’

‘And what do you think her reaction will be?’

Elinor smiled into the phone. ‘Oh, I expect she’ll be all for it, John. She’s very fond of Lucy, and she’ll hate to see someone like Edward thrown out of his family. She’s very family-minded, you know.’

There was a short pause. Then John said, stiffly, ‘I’m sure Fanny would love to speak to you, if she weren’t so upset.’

Elinor smiled more broadly.

‘Give her our love.’

‘She’s really so hurt. And of course you feel humiliated as well as hurt when someone you’ve been so kind to lets you down like this.’

Elinor suppressed a laugh. ‘Yes, you do, John,’ she said. ‘You really do. It’s so tough when people close to you turn out not to be what you thought they were,’ and then she clicked her phone off and turned to her sister.

‘You’re a star,’ Marianne said, laughing back. ‘You’re an absolute star.’

15

‘What are you doing?’ Margaret said.

She and Elinor were seated either side of the kitchen table in Barton Cottage with their laptops open. Margaret was supposed to be doing a biology project on hers – the digestive system, complete with diagrams and analyses of all the chemical interactions of the various digestive fluids, but was in fact having a Facebook conversation with a girl in her class who had a cool – and coolly remote – older brother.

Elinor said shortly, and without looking up, ‘My emails.’

‘Can I see?’

‘No.’

‘Why? Are they private?’

‘No.’

‘Are they from Ed?’

‘No.’

‘If they’re not private,’ Margaret said, ‘and they’re not from Ed, why can’t I see them?’

Elinor sighed. She turned her laptop round so that Margaret could see the screen.

‘They won’t interest you.’

Margaret lurched forward across the table, screwing up her eyes to see better. ‘Who’s Fancynancy?’

‘Nancy Steele.’

‘Yuck. Gross. Why’s she writing to you?’

‘To show off.’

‘She’s written pages. Is it all about the plastic surgeon?’

‘How do you know about him?’

‘I know’, Margaret said, ‘because she’s always on Twitter. She tweets about how he said this and how he said that and how he liked her pink handbag and all that gross stuff. Sad isn’t the word.’