“Ah.” Grace sighed heavily and shook her head. “There we are. I wondered if you might have found yourself in a muddle with that.”
“A muddle with what?” Georgie asked as she appeared in the doorway, Izzy behind her.
Charlotte winced, hissing loudly. “Finding candidates for my matrimonial prospects. The list is quite depressing.”
“Surely not,” Izzy protested in her kind way. “There are some lovely men about.”
“Lovely men?” Charlotte repeated, indignation raging high. “Where was that opinion just a few years ago? Or has your darling husband influenced your tastes?”
“I know mine has,” Elinor chimed in as she entered, smiling with some inner superiority. “Good day, all.”
Charlotte groaned with all the necessary dramatics. “Ugh, I cannot bear another blissful bride when my prospects are so dismal. Will one of you please say something truthfully foul about your husband?”
Georgie hummed quickly, then brightened. “Tony bites his fork when he eats. Not all the time, but enough that I feel a chill race up my spine that renders my appetite miniscule.”
The other married women in the room shuddered together, and Charlotte frowned at them all as tea was brought in. “There is an air of understanding between the lot of you, and I feel quite left out.”
Grace chuckled darkly, reaching forward to pour her tea. “Aubrey snores. Dreadful sound, I could barely sleep when we first wed.”
Elinor settled into her seat, grinning to herself. “I am well aware of my husband’s faults, thank you. Or his previous ones, at any rate, and I must say it is a vastly amusing time to be married to a reformed man.”
Charlotte scowled at her. “Elinor, I’ve only just got your husband down from his former perch as the devil’s representative on earth, I’m not at all prepared to give him a place with the angels in heaven.”
“Oh, but he doesn’t belong up there, either,” Elinor insisted, still smirking in a secret way. “Else he would not deign to marry me.”
“On that, we can certainly agree.” Charlotte gave her a playful sneer that made the others laugh. Then she turned her gaze to Izzy. “And you, Mrs. Morton? How does your husband irk you?”
Izzy stared back at her, eyes wide, cheeks flushing. Then, after a moment, she smiled sheepishly. “Well…”
When she didn’t go on, Charlotte threw up her hands. “Oh, for pity’s sake, you can’t find a single flaw, can you?”
“He’s not perfect,” Izzy assured them hastily as laughter made the rounds again. “I don’t want any of you to believe he is, it’s just that…”
“It’s just that nothing he does upsets you,” Charlotte finished, rolling her eyes. “You’re too good, Izzy, even for Sebastian, and I never thought I’d say that.”
Izzy blushed prettily, and looked down at her lap, her fingers wringing together.
Something about the action gave Charlotte pause, and she continued to watch her friend as though she could see into her mind and body with enough effort. Would she, too, have a pleasant announcement to make soon? With two of their group joining the ranks of motherhood, it could not be long before all the rest did so.
All except Charlotte, of course.
Grace sighed, still laughing, and looked at the door. “Is Kitty coming today? I thought she might, it has been a bit.”
“She’s out with Alice Sterling,” Izzy told her, now setting about her own tea. “Alice is keen to become better friends, and I think it would be good for Kitty to have her. Better than being with us constantly, at any rate.”
“Because spinsterdom is contagious; everyone knows that.” Charlotte made a face and turned her attention to Elinor. “Have you brought everything?”
Elinor straightened up, clearing her throat. “I have, yes. More than that, I’ve spent the last week making the necessary adjustments. I have no doubt we’ll make quick work of this.” She pushed out of her chair and fetched a parcel from the hall. Pulling pages out of the parcel, she began to spread them out across the floor in some order she had previously arranged.
“Oh my,” Charlotte murmured, turning towards her with some interest. “So finding my one and only love should be quick work, then?”
Pausing, Elinor looked up at her in shock. “Erm… Charlotte, I don’t believe we will find the identity of your would-be husband in five minutes. This is not that.”
Charlotte blinked at the girl, not comprehending. “What do you mean? Why else are we doing this?”
“Oh, darling,” Georgie murmured softly. “It’s not as easy as that. You cannot will yourself to love anyone just for the sake of it. It’s not an emotion that can be commanded.”
“I don’t see why not,” Charlotte protested, looking around at them all. “I can maintain control of my emotions in every other respect, why not this?”
Grace frowned at her in exasperation. “Charlotte! This was never going to be simple, surely you had to know that.”
“I did not,” Charlotte protested. “Why should I know that? It seemed fairly straightforward for all of you.”
The married spinsters looked around at each other, expressions somewhat mirroring. “I think you will find, Charlotte,” Izzy said slowly, “that nothing, absolutely nothing, about any of our courtships was in any way straightforward.”
No, that could not be right. Charlotte remembered the course of each and every one of them, having been present for a great portion of all of them. There were bumps and bruises, naturally, but it had always been perfectly clear that they belonged together. Why should it not be so easily arranged for her, simply because she got a head start by finding her match ahead of any actual courtship? Shouldn’t it be as obvious to her when the right man came along, now that she would be looking for him?
But their expressions were so settled, so in agreement, that everything Charlotte thought she knew, everything she had planned for this excursion, was in question.
“Then what are we doing?” she cried as she slumped back in her chair. “What is the point of going
