Rebecca smiles.

"MY unca," Catherine says to Karen, pointing at Theodore.

Karen giggles.

"You've got a bunch of them. And we've all only got the one niece, at least until somebody who is definitely not going to be me settles down -"

"I don't actually remember you dating in school but maybe you just provoked less gossip than some people."

"It'd be hard to top him for gossip but no, I didn't - I sort of figured I was going to drop out, and also, people suck -"

"If you don't find anybody I might just assign you someone for nefarious reasons."

"That is practically guaranteed to be a disaster but it is conceivable you could thread a non-disaster needle somehow and I bet you know what a disaster'd look like so I bet you wouldn't do it unless you were very sure of your threading."

"I do try to be."

"I don't see why people don't just publish detailed lists of spousal desiderata and then check who is the closest match."

"Lots of them are things you want plausible deniability about wanting."

"And that's very unromantic."

"And you can't really put 'doesn't smell weird', even if everybody would be honest about whether they smelled weird, because people don't agree on what weird smells like and you can't write down how you smell."

"And, like, the 'smells weird' thing for all sexual chemistry-related stuff. Which is pretty important."

"It seems like if there's someone who is the perfect partner and co-parent and political match but you don't have chemistry that is exactly the thing love potions are for."

"People like their partners having non-chemically-induced chemistry with them, and there are drawbacks to being on potions in the long run. Some people certainly do it but I don't know that on the margin more should."

This satisfies Aaron.

"But you in particular should probably publish a list like that anyway because whoever ought to marry you would probably be into it," Miranda opines to Aaron.

"I will but not yet, I don't want to get married for another few years, it's expensive."

Giggle.

And at some point the subsequent day when there's an opening Timothy asks Karen into his office and casts six different privacy spells.

"I can't think of any reason a nefarious plot would call for quietly murdering me but wow that's nerve-wracking do you do this to people all the time."

"No. Maybe I should, for plausible deniability on the occasions when I might need the privacy. I wanted to ask if you'd want to be introduced to marriagable men with the same problem, some of whom I am acquainted with, and if so if you have a sense yet of what you might be looking for in one."

"Oh - um - did Miranda tell you or did Minor -"

"Miranda did. She thought I might know some people and she was right. She very much wants you to be happy. A marriage seems not especially likely to achieve that on its own but - some people find it helpful to know that if they do meet someone like them they can pursue it without betraying their spouse, that they can have a family should they want one -"

"It sort of feels like there will never ever be anyone who isn't her but that's probably stupid."

"That part I can't really help with at all. I'm sorry."