Page 3 of Elizabeth and Caroline
“So, you’re foisting him off on your sister?”
“I don’t see it as foisting him off, no. Louisa could not secure him on her own, and she will be materially better offafter the marriage takes place,” said Caroline. “Mr. Hurst can well afford to be as indolent as he is and to spend all his time at playing cards and going about as he pleases. He has income from an estate he inherited from his maternal grandmother, who was, in fact, a baroness, and he is actually rather skilled at investments, probably something that is related to his skill at cards. He is financially sound, well-connected, and he has a house in Mayfair. He’s perfect.”
Elizabeth eyed Caroline, and she realized she had never heard Caroline speak with such precise knowledge. She sounded quite sure of herself, and her eyes were bright. There was something about it that made Elizabeth feel a sort of respect for the other girl.
This was what Caroline excelled at, wasn’t it? This sort of social minutia, understanding what made someone well connected or not. Elizabeth realized that it was something that had never been taught to her. Her own mother had little concern for such things, being brash and brazen, elbowing her way into whatever conversation she pleased, no matter the way anyone reacted to her behavior. Elizabeth had never been taught how to do it or how to navigate society in that way.
She would have liked to say that she simply didn’t care, at least not that much. She knew how to be polite, and she was respectable enough, and she certainly didn’t need to know the pedigree of every single person she came across.
But she also had to admit that she had her pride. If she could improve herself in this way, she would not shun the idea. Caroline could teach her things, perhaps.
“How do you know all that?” Elizabeth asked.
“It’s down to asking the right questions, mostly,” said Caroline. “But I have been doing that for some time, so I have an idea of who people are and how they’re connected already.”
“I see,” said Elizabeth.
“Anyway, I have a plan,” said Caroline. “Louisa married to Mr. Hurst means that she will get better invitations to better balls, especially in London, and that I can come along.And then I can use this to find my own match.”
“Well, then,” said Charlotte. “It sounds like you’ve got it all figured out, haven’t you?”
“No, I need Elizabeth,” said Caroline, turning to her. “You’re much better at talking to people than I am.”
Elizabeth liked the praise.
“You too, Charlotte,” said Caroline. “You must help, too. We can all do it together. We shall be a matchmaking trio!” She grinned at them both.
“I don’t know if Iamgood at talking to people,” said Elizabeth, thinking this through.
“You are,” said Caroline. “People find you interesting. You’re witty. You’re funny. You have something, Elizabeth, something that we must use to bring Mr. Hurst in.”
Did she have something?
Elizabeth gave Caroline a small smile.
Caroline smiled back.
And that was, perhaps, the true beginning of their friendship. It wasn’t exactly about mutually liking the other, Elizabeth supposed. It was that both of the girls were shrewd enough to see that the other had something they lacked.
It was an alliance, a joining of forces.
Elizabeth and Caroline against the world.
Who could prevail against them when they were aligned?
CHAPTER TWO
THE MATCH WITHLouisa and Mr. Hurst was when Elizabeth really honed her matchmaking technique. Her part of it was always the human part of it, she supposed, the deep and personal part of it.
Caroline’s part of it was the big picture. She would look at how each person was connected, their financial and social advantages and weaknesses, and she would craft a match that allowed each person to feel as if they were gaining something and that took into account each person’s deficits. She was smart in that way. Elizabeth would see it after Caroline had explained, but she could not do it herself, not really.
Elizabeth suspected Caroline simply had some natural talent in that way, that things simply appeared to her, emerging when she looked at the situation. Things did not emerge that way to Elizabeth.
However, Elizabeth was good at determining other things.
For instance, she was the only person who seemed to note that Mr. Hurst loved cards, it turned out. Both Caroline and Charlotte admitted that after Elizabeth had pointed it out, they realized, “Oh, yes, he did talk of cards a great deal, didn’t he?”
But it had not stood out to them until she pointed it out.
