Page 27 of Elizabeth and Caroline
Elizabeth sat up straight, not giggling. “What? No.” She shook her head. “That’s preposterous.”
“There are ways to make money, Eliza, and getting it from tenants is not the best of them. No, trade is the future. Product is the future. Mr. Darcy and his way of being, the way of the peerage entirely, it’s the past.”
Elizabeth considered this.
“What he and men like him do have, of course, is a tie to tradition and to the structure of power,” said Caroline, who was still smiling, but not laughing anymore.
“I suppose,” said Elizabeth. But being concerned withpower was, well, sinful, was it not?
“And you, my darling, you have the key to power right in that beautiful brain of yours.” Caroline reached across and tapped Elizabeth’s temple. “You understand people, you see. You see what they want, what they hate, and you know just how to use it in order to get them to act.”
“Perhaps,” said Elizabeth, but her voice was hesitant. “It’s only that I don’t know if it’s a good thing, exactly, Caroline. I’m not sure if I should.”
“Of course you should,” said Caroline. “Listen to me, men don’t wish women to have access to power, but that is only because they see how very powerful we already are, and they seek to limit it. They seek to pit us against each other, to have us fight over them for our very existence. They keep property and wealth and all of that from us. They are our only path to it, and they wish us to squabble amongst ourselves to fight over them.”
“I don’t know if theywishit,” said Elizabeth, spreading her hands. “I think maybe that does happen, however, what you’re saying, women fighting with each other.”
“You and I could have fought over Mr. Darcy, certainly,” said Caroline. “I could have gotten in a snit over his wanting you and not me, and I could have sulked and schemed against you. But I decided immediately not to do that, not to play that game. You see, we are stronger if we’re united, are we not? It’s a sort of sisterhood. The things we can accomplish together, Eliza, are much more impressive than the things we could accomplish apart.”
Elizabeth tapped her bottom lip. “You can simply turn that off, then?”
Caroline looked away.
Neither of them were laughing anymore.
“Men aren’t going to want me in that way,” said Caroline, shrugging. “I see that already. I know. The way men interact with you and the way they interact with me… it’s nothing the same.”
“Men don’t want me either,” said Elizabeth.
“Mr. Darcy does indeed want you!”
“No, he doesn’t even know who I am. He wants a woman I created and presented to him, one that doesn’t actually exist,” muttered Elizabeth.
Caroline lifted her gaze and met Elizabeth’s. “Ah, yes, I see what you’re saying. But I don’t think anyone really has that, you know.”
Elizabeth turned to look at her sister Jane, spread out on the bed, lightly snoring. “Our siblings do.”
Caroline looked at her as well. “Perhaps,” she allowed. Then she turned back to Elizabeth. “Anyway, it’s rare. And it fades. I mean, look at your own parents’ marriage. At one time, there must have been true regard between them, but now—”
“Yes, now, they simply tolerate each other,” said Elizabeth, nodding. “I did not want that for my own marriage, but look what I’ve done to myself. I don’t even know why I did it.”
“We have it,” said Caroline, quite serious. “You and me. We have true regard for each other. We see each other exactly as the other really is. We see each other’s faults, and we value each other for all that we are.”
Elizabeth hesitated, because she did, well, judge Caroline and think badly of her more than she might like. But she supposed that it was true, in the end. Whatever Caroline’s flaws, she was loyal and true to Elizabeth. And they did have an alliance, and they did look out for each other. They made sacrifices for the other, too. Caroline had given up her dream of Mr. Darcy for Elizabeth, and Elizabeth had acquiesced to this marriage for Caroline, and it was all… madness, perhaps, but sort of a tribute to their friendship as well. She nodded, finally. “We do value each other.”
“A vow, then,” said Caroline, offering Elizabeth her hand. “A vow between us, a solemn vow, a vow of sisterhood.”
Elizabeth let out a giggle. “Oh, truly?”
“Truly!” Caroline waggled her hand insistently.
Elizabeth took her hand. “What are we vowing, then?”
“Loyalty to each other, first and foremost, come what may,” said Caroline.
Elizabeth squeezed her hand. “Loyalty,” she agreed.
“We vow that we will protect each other and help each other,” said Caroline.
