Page 61 of Elizabeth and Caroline
“Barely,” said the colonel. “So, this is something you and Miss Bingley do together. She is a matchmaker as well?”
“We have different strengths,” said Elizabeth. “She sees the social connections of a match, for instance. She knew that Mr. Hurst had property and a baroness grandmother, but I got him to stop looking at his cards long enough to notice Louisa. My strength is to understand how to motivate people, I suppose.” She lifted a finger. “Oh, perhaps we can also claim my friend Charlotte and her new husband Mr. Collins, although I think Charlotte would have married positively anyone if it meant she could get out of her father’s house. She is eight and twenty, and rather desperate, to be honest.”
The colonel’s eyes were dancing. “This is all abundantly interesting, Mrs. Darcy.”
“Youaremaking fun of me.”
“I promise. I would never do such a thing.” But he was protesting too much.
“I really ought to go and find Miss Bingley,” she said, looking around to see if she could see her.
“Knowing how to motivate people. Yes, I suppose that is quite evident, isn’t it, or you would not have upset my mother so deeply? You do have a skill.”
She turned back to the colonel.
“Well, let’s see it, then,” said the colonel. “You say that if you saw the sort of man who would love your friend Miss Bingley, you would know it. Is that true?”
“I think so,” she said, a little confused by this turn in conversation.
“Come along, then,” he said. “I shall make some introductions. You likely wish Miss Bingley to be party to it all? So that you can see these men interact with her?”
“No, not necessarily,” she said. “I need to see what they want and what they fear and what elements of them can be…” She cleared her throat. “Manipulated,” she finished in chagrin.
“So, your skill is not to bring two people together who would truly choose each other but to trick them into being together?”
Her lips parted.
“And that works? Your matches are ever so successful?” He was teasing her, but there was a sharpness underneath. He didn’t wait for an answer. “There. The Viscount of Thrane and Mr. Gibbs are men who might be the sort of men Miss Bingley is looking for. Shall I introduce you?”
“Please,” she said.
For the next hour, the colonel was as good as his word, introducing her to this man and that man, and Elizabeth asked her questions and made her observations, and the colonel watched it all, drinking it in with a certain kind of awe and interest.
He made a few comments here and there, in between introductions, saying it was deftly done the way she had steered all the men towards talk of marriage without making them feel trapped or defensive. He said he could see that she was good at getting people to open up to her.
When there were no other men to be met that the colonel thought could fit the proper criteria, they stopped to drink some wine and they were joined by Caroline herself, who would not look at the colonel, and who said that she would have left hours ago but that Mr. Hurst could not be pried from the whist tables.
“I am sorry I abandoned you,” said Elizabeth.
“Yes, you must not hold it against your friend,” said the colonel, smug. “She has been toiling away on your behalfthis last hour, you see.”
“Now, now, Colonel Fitzwilliam, there is no need to discuss this now,” said Elizabeth.
“Is there not?” said the colonel, who was amused. “I thought the way of it was that you were a matchmaking team. Why, when you snared my cousin Mr. Darcy into your web in the first place, trying to match him to Miss Bingley, you discussed everything together, I’m sure.”
Caroline looked up at the colonel, her face going very red. “You… you have spoken of this.”
“I am ever so sorry,” said Elizabeth. “The colonel is rather easy to talk to. I didn’t mean to betray any confidences. Perhaps I ought to have kept my counsel.”
“Oh, please,” said the colonel. “I find it all rather impressive, I must say. It’s perhaps almost Machiavellian, but then I should have expected nothing less from the woman who has ruffled my mother’s feathers.” He winked at Caroline. “When people say that females are the fairer and milder sex, I always say that no one who had ever observed my mother as much as I had would ever conclude such a thing.”
Caroline stiffened.
Elizabeth furrowed her brow.
The colonel went on, airily. “Now, I think I understand the way the scheming works between the two of you, and I have observed Mrs. Darcy at work for the past hour, and so let me summarize what I think might be your best options, Miss Bingley. The first is the Viscount of Thane, who I introduced you to first, if you’ll remember, Mrs. Darcy. He’s not only got a title but he has two estates that produce reliable income. Mrs. Darcy prodded quite quickly into his discussion of what he looks for in a wife, and I rather imagine she thinks that she could use his worry that he would be saddled with a spendthrift to nudge him towards Miss Bingley. He would be satisfied with someone proper and demure, someone who would not draw too much attention to herself?”
Elizabeth blinked. “Well, yes, sir, I thought somethingquite like that.”
