to Elinor, as if she would understand him better than anyone, ‘Mum wants me to go and work for an MP.’
‘Does she?’
‘Or do a law degree and read for the Bar. She wants me to do something – something …’
‘Showy,’ Elinor said.
He smiled at her again. ‘Exactly.’
‘When what you want to do,’ Belle said, picking up the slicer again and putting it back gently into his hand, ‘is really …?’
Edward selected another bean. ‘I want to do community work of some kind. I know it sounds a bit wet, but I don’t want houses and cars and money and all the stuff my family seems so keen on. My brother Robert seems to be able to get away with anything just because he isn’t the eldest. My mother – well, it’s weird. Robert’s a kind of upmarket party planner, huge rich parties in London, the sort of thing I hate, and my mother turns a completely blind eye to that hardly being a career of distinction. But when it comes to me, she goes on and on about visibility and money and power. She doesn’t even seem to look at the kind of person I am. I just want to do something quiet and sort of – sort of …’
‘Helpful?’ Elinor said.
Edward got off the table and turned so that he could look at her with pure undiluted appreciation. ‘Yes,’ he said with emphasis.
Later that night, jostling in front of the bathroom mirror with their toothbrushes and dental floss, Marianne said to Elinor, ‘He likes you.’
Elinor spat a mouthful of toothpaste foam into the basin. ‘No, he doesn’t. He just likes being around us all, because Ma’s cosy with him and we don’t pick on him and tell him to smarten up and sharpen up all the time, like Fanny does.’
Marianne took a length of floss out of her mouth. ‘Ellie, he likes us all. But he likes you in particular.’
Elinor didn’t reply. She began to brush her hair vigorously, upside down, to forestall further conversation.
Marianne reangled the floss across her lower jaw. Round it she said indistinctly, ‘D’you like him?’
‘Can’t hear you.’
‘Yes, you can. Do you, Elinor Dashwood, picky spinster of this parish for whom no man so far seems to be remotely good enough, fancy this very appealing basket case called Edward Ferrars?’
Elinor stood upright and pushed the hair off her face. ‘No.’
‘Liar.’
There was a pause.
‘Well, a bit,’ Elinor said.
Marianne leaned forward and peered into the mirror. ‘He’s perfect for you, Ellie. You’re such a missionary, you’d have to have someone to rescue. Ed is ripe for rescue. And he’s the sweetest guy.’
‘I’m not interested. The last thing I want right now is anyone else who needs sorting.’
‘Bollocks,’ Marianne said.
‘It’s not—’
‘He couldn’t take his eyes off you tonight. You only had to say the dullest thing and he was all over you, like a Labrador puppy.’
‘Stop it.’
‘But it’s lovely, Ellie! It’s lovely, in the midst of everything that’s so awful, to have Edward thinking you’re wonderful.’
Elinor began to smooth her hair back into a ponytail, severely. ‘It’s all wrong, M. It’s all wrong at the moment with all this uncertainty and worrying about money, and where we’ll go and everything. It’s all wrong to be thinking about whether I like Edward.’
Marianne turned to her sister, suddenly grinning. ‘Tell you what …’
‘What?’
‘Wouldn’t it just completely piss off Fanny if you and Ed got together?’
The next day, Edward borrowed Fanny’s car and asked Elinor to go to Brighton with him.
‘Does she know?’ Elinor said.
He smiled at her. He had beautiful teeth, she noticed, even if nobody could exactly call him handsome. ‘Does who know what?’
‘Does – does Fanny know you are going to Brighton?’
‘Oh yes,’ Edward said easily, ‘I’ve got a huge list of things to pick up for her: bath taps and theatre tickets and wallpaper samples from—’
‘I didn’t mean that,’ Elinor said. ‘I meant, does Fanny know you were going to ask me to go with you?’
‘No,’ Edward said. ‘And she needn’t. I have her great bus for the day, I have her shopping list, and nothing else is any of her business.’
Elinor looked doubtful.
‘He’s absolutely right,’ Belle said. ‘She’ll never know and it won’t affect her, knowing or not knowing.’
‘But—’
‘Get in, darling.’
‘Yes, get in.’
‘Come on,’ Edward said, opening the passenger door and smiling again. ‘Come on. Please. Please. We’ll have fish and chips on the beach. Don’t make me go alone.’
‘I should be working …’ Elinor said faintly.
She glanced at Edward. He bent slightly and, with the hand not holding the door, gave her a small, decisive shove into the passenger seat. Then he closed the door firmly behind her. He was beaming broadly, and went back round to the driver’s side at a run.
‘Look at that,’ Marianne said approvingly. ‘Who’s the dog with two tails?’
‘Both wagging.’
The car lurched off at speed, in a spray of gravel.
‘He’s a dear,’ Belle said.
‘You’d like anyone who liked Ellie.’
‘I would. Of course I would. But he’s a dear in his own right.’
‘And rich. The Ferrarses are stinking—’
‘I don’t’, Belle said, putting her arm round Marianne, ‘give a stuff about that. Any more than you do. If he’s a dear boy and he likes Ellie and she likes him, that is more than good enough for me. And for you too, I bet.’
Marianne said seriously, watching the car speeding down the faraway sweep of the drive, ‘He wouldn’t be good enough for me.’
‘Darling!’
Marianne leaned into
