Spinster Ever After (The Spinster Chronicles #7) - Rebecca Connolly Page 0,20
all the rest did so.
All except Charlotte, of course.
Grace sighed, still laughing, and looked at the door. “Is Kitty coming today? I thought she might, it has been a bit.”
“She’s out with Alice Sterling,” Izzy told her, now setting about her own tea. “Alice is keen to become better friends, and I think it would be good for Kitty to have her. Better than being with us constantly, at any rate.”
“Because spinsterdom is contagious; everyone knows that.” Charlotte made a face and turned her attention to Elinor. “Have you brought everything?”
Elinor straightened up, clearing her throat. “I have, yes. More than that, I’ve spent the last week making the necessary adjustments. I have no doubt we’ll make quick work of this.” She pushed out of her chair and fetched a parcel from the hall. Pulling pages out of the parcel, she began to spread them out across the floor in some order she had previously arranged.
“Oh my,” Charlotte murmured, turning towards her with some interest. “So finding my one and only love should be quick work, then?”
Pausing, Elinor looked up at her in shock. “Erm… Charlotte, I don’t believe we will find the identity of your would-be husband in five minutes. This is not that.”
Charlotte blinked at the girl, not comprehending. “What do you mean? Why else are we doing this?”
“Oh, darling,” Georgie murmured softly. “It’s not as easy as that. You cannot will yourself to love anyone just for the sake of it. It’s not an emotion that can be commanded.”
“I don’t see why not,” Charlotte protested, looking around at them all. “I can maintain control of my emotions in every other respect, why not this?”
Grace frowned at her in exasperation. “Charlotte! This was never going to be simple, surely you had to know that.”
“I did not,” Charlotte protested. “Why should I know that? It seemed fairly straightforward for all of you.”
The married spinsters looked around at each other, expressions somewhat mirroring. “I think you will find, Charlotte,” Izzy said slowly, “that nothing, absolutely nothing, about any of our courtships was in any way straightforward.”
No, that could not be right. Charlotte remembered the course of each and every one of them, having been present for a great portion of all of them. There were bumps and bruises, naturally, but it had always been perfectly clear that they belonged together. Why should it not be so easily arranged for her, simply because she got a head start by finding her match ahead of any actual courtship? Shouldn’t it be as obvious to her when the right man came along, now that she would be looking for him?
But their expressions were so settled, so in agreement, that everything Charlotte thought she knew, everything she had planned for this excursion, was in question.
“Then what are we doing?” she cried as she slumped back in her chair. “What is the point of going through the entire scheme?”
“Because I’ve spent years gathering this information for the exact purpose of guiding young ladies to look for their potential match in a more informed manner, and with candidates actually worth considering,” Elinor snapped, pressing her palms against the pages, her brow creasing with many lines.
Charlotte stared at her, eyes beginning to ache with stretching so wide.
Elinor lifted a daring brow. “And unless I am quite mistaken, that is precisely what we intend to do here. So kindly stop trying to dictate the entire process and allow our years of experience to actually do some matchmaking for you. We’ll create a grouping, and you can see which of the chaps you get on best with, all right?”
Blinking, Charlotte exhaled roughly. “Well. I see no need for you to take on that tone with me, but if you must have your own way, so be it.” She lifted her hands in a show of surrender, feeling more bewildered than irritable.
“Quite right,” Grace chimed in, rubbing her hands together. “Who have we got lined up, Elinor?”
Elinor sighed as she finished with the papers, tilting her head in thought. “Well, our first option is Tyrone Demaris. Breeding, looks, five thousand a year, but no real holdings that I’m aware of. He’s very thick with Lord Radcliffe, though, so one must allow for that. He ranked one of the best bachelors, and anyone can buy a proper estate with the right fortune.” She looked up at Charlotte through narrowed eyes. “Do you want to be tied to the Sterlings, though? He is Lady Sterling’s cousin, after all.”