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Caroline was gratified to have some use in this enterprise. She pointed out a group of women, older women, most of them dowager duchesses. A few of their daughters were there as well.

This time, Caroline did not lose her voice, and smoothly cut in to the conversation. “May I present to you my closest friend, Mrs. Darcy? She was ever so looking forward to meeting you all, and I said I could provide an introduction.”

The duchesses were all horrified, but concealing it well.

One of them, likely in her eighties, looked at Caroline in confusion and disguised disgust. “Oh, yes, thank you, er…”

“Miss Bingley,” Caroline supplied. “You remember that we met at the charity dinner last summer at Brakeness.”

“Ah,” said the duchess, no recognition in her eyes. “Ah, yes, of course.”

Caroline went about the group, giving Elizabeth each of their names. They all simply gazed at Elizabeth coolly.

“But Mrs. Darcy, we have heard about you,” said one of the younger women, not a duchess, but an honorable miss.

“Yes, I am all astonishment,” said Elizabeth. “Apparently, my fame precedes me, and I am quite the talk of the town. Can you imagine such a thing? Me? Being spoken of?” She touched her chest, her expression astonished and honored.

It was good. A person ought to react with embarrassment and shame. Elizabeth, however, acted like she was the Queen of England. It was hard not to think that perhaps she was.

“Anyway,” continued Elizabeth, “I’ve been told that you’ve heard things about me, and if you wish to confirm anything, anything at all, please do. I am quite willing to answer any questions you may have. Do not worry that they may be invasive. I am entirely an open book.”

The duchesses all gaped at her. One coughed.

Then, one of the elderly ones curved her mouth into a little, nasty smile. “We heard that you have seven sisters, all between the ages of twenty and fifteen, and that they are all out at once.”

“As to that, yes, we are all out,” said Elizabeth. “But there are only five of us total. My eldest sister, Mrs. Bingley is married to Miss Bingley’s brother, you see.” She smiled at Caroline.

“Seven sisters in a five-year age range?” said Caroline blandly. “That would mean, what? Two sets of twins?”

The duchess glared at her.

Caroline smiled, feeling triumphant. She might like this game, actually. She’d never given herself permission to feel anything other than awful when these people in society were dismissive of her. This behavior, however, preserved her own dignity in a way that she liked.

“All out at once, truly?” said another of the duchesses.

“Truly,” said Elizabeth brightly, as if this were nothing to be ashamed of.

“That’s not done,” said the first elderly duchess with a touch of smugness.

“Well, I hate to contradict you, Your Grace,” said Elizabeth, “but it must be done if it is, in fact, happening with my sisters.”

The younger honorable miss smirked, and two of the other duchesses smiled.

“Not done in the best families,” qualified the duchess with more than a touch of smugness.

“I see,” said Elizabeth. “As to that, I would be happy to admit the families of the peerage must be quite above my own. But I wonder about it, I must say, for I think it must cause a bit of friction between sisters. It seems unfair for one girl to be allowed to socialize when she is sixteen and another to have to wait until her elder sisters are married, even if that means she cannot be out until she is nineteen or twenty. I don’t know if I understand the thinking behind it, truly.

But I have been told, often, of course, that it is not my place to think.

” She chuckled. “I can’t seem to help it, however.

What can I say? It might be easier to have a brain that didn’t function and just accepted whatever I was told, I own that.

But is it ease we truly crave in the end? ”

The duchesses now looked a bit puzzled and a bit confused.

“We are just flitting about!” cried Elizabeth. “Please excuse Miss Bingley and I. It was lovely to make your acquaintance.”

They went on in this manner for over an hour, Caroline making introductions, and Elizabeth chattering away without guile or shame, acting as if all insults were compliments, acting as if she were impervious, in fact, to insult, and then, finally, Elizabeth took her to the tea room, where they collapsed into chairs at a small table together and sipped at the warm liquid.

Elizabeth looked incredibly exhausted.

Caroline felt rather energized, however. She’d never had such fun at a ball. “How do you manage it?” she asked her friend. “How do you keep from crumbling out there when they say such things?”

“I shall need an entire day to recharge,” said Elizabeth. “I hope no one comes to call tomorrow, for I shall have to receive them, of course, but I should like an entire day in bed, really.”

Caroline reached across the table and took Elizabeth’s hand in hers for a moment. She squeezed it. “Thank you, then. I see how much effort you are expending. ”

“You’re welcome,” said Elizabeth. “Lest you think I am only being selfless, though, you must see this will benefit me.”

“Will it?” said Caroline. “How does it benefit me, anyway? How does this lead to a match? I own that it’s just, well, fun to interact with these women in this way. But mightn’t it make them all hate us?”

“They have all seen how little it ruffles us to be hated,” said Elizabeth. “So, they will be envious of that quality within us. They will covet it. They will wish to know what our secret is. They will come to us.”

“What is our secret?”

“We haven’t one. We are, of course, just as hurt by being hated as anyone is. It’s a ruse.”

Caroline nodded, then. She understood. It was a ruse for Elizabeth, but it had given Caroline the feeling of it in truth. She could see why it was exhausting for her friend, though. She was even more grateful.

“As to how it leads to a match, that part is a bit more convoluted,” said Elizabeth.

“So, there are two ways to be desired amongst men in a group. One way is more direct—it’s simply being the sort of woman men want.

However, women like that are rarely accepted into female society, because they are a threat.

If a woman can come in and bypass all the rules of society to rise simply because she can charm a man, she’s usually shunned by the other women. ”

“I suppose I see what you’re saying,” said Caroline. “Because women have their own rules and they wish for women to rise their way, by following what they think is important for a woman to have in society.”

“Yes, and it’s not the same thing as what charms a man,” said Elizabeth.

“What we are attempting to do is to thrust ourselves high enough into the esteem of the women who mind the gates of society that we get them to recommend you to the right sort of men. It’s a more difficult task and it’s more risky but the results, if we achieve it, will be more profound. ”

“No one is going to accept me,” said Caroline, sighing. “ You, certainly, but not me.”

“It’s a process, Caroline,” said Elizabeth. “We must start somewhere.”

“Well,” said Caroline, “I am ever so grateful to have you in my corner, then. I could not ask for a better friend.”

“We have a vow,” said Elizabeth, smiling at her.

“Yes, we do,” said Caroline.