I'm as surprised as Edward was that Barnabas asked about Edward's wife. Why didn't Barnabas ask Sandor and Magda?
I'm trying to work up some interest in Angelique's persecution of Rachel, but I just can't. I'm more interested in what Edward must have thought of Barnabas, who gave a Collins family antique to a governess whom he had just barely met. Together with the question about Edward's wife, that has to have damaged Edward's impression of Barnabas, and yet when Dirk suggested that he might want to make his report to Edward in private, Edward said no, no, Barnabas had his full confidence, or something. I guess that once Edward forms an opinion, it's tough for him to move very far from it.