a swallow, Charlotte then cleared her throat. “If you and your husband would come to dine with my family on Thursday, we would be much obliged.”
Elinor’s brows rose slowly. “What?”
Charlotte nodded, the idea taking on more merit and a greater hold the longer it lingered in her mind. “Yes. Please, if you like.” She continued to nod, the speed of her thought picking up. “Hugh would likely detest having to endure supper without any perceived allies. I must be the devil in petticoats.” She immediately turned to Georgie, smiling. “Would you and Tony come? I’ll invite Francis, Janet, and Alice, too. What about Hensh? Do you think Hensh would make Hugh comfortable?”
“Can I interrupt this sudden excursion into invitation generosity?” Grace interjected, laughing once. “When did we start calling him Hensh? I missed that announcement, and it sounds like the noise one makes on a sneeze.”
Snickers rippled around the room, and Charlotte, feeling slightly lighter at seeing Elinor join in, scowled playfully at Grace. “It is a sign of affection, Grace, which I think Lieutenant Henshaw deserves, and if I could shorten Aubrey’s name without seeming unfashionably intimate, I daresay I would.”
Grace made a face and put a hand to her cheek. “Please don’t say ‘unfashionably intimate’ when talking about my husband ever again.”
The snickers turned to full blown laughter, and Charlotte was relieved to be able to join in. She hadn’t felt much like laughing of late, though laughter tended to be a habitual reaction even when there was no amusement to be found. She could laugh about anything and everything, had made a practice of doing so for the benefit of those around her for years, but to actually feel the desire to laugh… That hadn’t been with her in some time.
“Shortening names can be very sweet,” Izzy reminded them when the laughter faded. “Molly Hastings, Edith’s lovely new ward, calls her uncle, Lord Radcliffe, ‘Gray’ rather than his given name of Graham, which I find charming.”
Charlotte nodded, then cocked her head. “Is it odd, though, that he is not Uncle Radcliffe? Or Uncle Graham, at least. I wouldn’t dream of addressing any of my aunts or uncle without their formal family connection. It’s so peculiar.”
“But your Uncle Herbert did not bring you up from the time you could barely speak a full sentence,” Grace reminded her, smiling fondly. “Radcliffe is raising that sweet girl, and no doubt, he will be the only father she remembers. She could hardly call him ‘Papa’, so why not a fond name of equal affection?”
“I’m not judging them, Grace,” Charlotte insisted with a wave of her hands. “Heavens, you forget that I called my grandfather Pumpernickel before he died, much to the chagrin of my parents. And Uncle Herbert, come to think.”
Grace simpered, clasping her hands before her heart. “Did you? That’s precious.”
Charlotte only snorted before returning her attention to Elinor. “I do mean the invitation, Elinor. And everything it says that we aren’t saying in so many words.”
Elinor smiled in response, her cheeks coloring as a testament that she was more pleased than she would admit.
And just like that, the friendships were as pristine as ever.
Fortunate, as Charlotte had a very great need for them just now.
She cleared her throat again, sitting up and barely avoiding the temptation to bite her lip. “Elinor, do you still have your records of the eligible bachelors in Society?”
Elinor lowered her teacup, swallowing as her brow furrowed. “Of course I do. Your column on London’s best bachelors was our most popular issue, so I’ve continued on for when you start to run it annually. Perhaps at the start of the Season, say?”
“What a brilliant thought!” Izzy exclaimed, clapping her hands in delight. “It would be such a lovely tradition of sorts, don’t you think, Charlotte?”
Charlotte smiled with a thrill of satisfaction, not for the idea of an annual review of preferable bachelors, though the idea had more than enough merit to dwell upon later, but for the availability of the resources.
Most capital.
“I will need the collection of them as soon as possible,” Charlotte said without directly answering Izzy.
“Whatever for?” asked Elinor with a laugh. “The Season is practically over now, and it would undoubtedly do nothing for anyone.”
Charlotte lifted a brow, her smile curving further still. “It would do a great deal for me, seeing as I’m obtaining a husband.”
The room stilled with the power of a thunderclap and the somberness of a funeral. Every eye was fixed upon her, and every eye was round