The room was silent, waiting for the continuation of what had started out as a quiet conversation between sisters, but was now a full family discussion.

And not a pleasant one at that.

“It’s quite simple, dear,” Joan began, her pitying smile spreading into outright condescension. “Barbara is exceptionally intelligent. She has a brilliant mind and is well educated. A bit plain, perhaps, but so are we all.”

Elinor glanced at Barbara again, and her poor cousin had lowered her eyes to the floor, her ears the color of holly berries.

Mr. John Winthrop didn’t look much better, his eyes on the window, his arms stiff by his side.

“But Barbara is not to be faulted for that,” Joan went on, her tone becoming almost sing-song in nature. “The right sort of man will find her educated mind charming. Elinor, on the other hand…”

Joan broke off to give Elinor a despairing look.

Elinor wanted to glare back. She ought to have. She was used to fighting for herself and being bold in doing so. She had no qualms about expressing her opinions, letting her face express every emotion she felt, polite or not. Her entire relationship with the Spinsters had been built on such a thing, and her family had dealt with her much longer.

But she could do nothing. Say nothing. Show nothing.

Shame filled her, followed quickly by embarrassment. She did not want Hugh to hear this. He’d spent so long railing against the Spinsters and actively working against them in any respect; what if bringing them up again in this context forced him to reveal some of those same feelings? She would lose the image of him that had been building the last few days. An image she had come to grow especially fond of.

She swallowed hard and forced herself to be as composed as possible in the face of her cousin’s accusations.

“Elinor,” Joan said again, “has thrown away her reputation and chances at a good match by her association with the Spinsters. A group of unmarried women, who maintained such a status for their own ends, who flaunted their opinions and precarious positions as though it were some flag of misguided independence.”

She looked around the room for support, and found several nodding heads, mostly of the ladies, though a few obedient husbands did the same.