So in the last episode your father made you his heir and gave you a London season! You and Miss Parsons traveled to London, you on your own horse,
Only to have Mr. Marcastle plot against you and try and keep you from arriving. You make it out okay and meet a Prince.
You confront Mr. Marcastle angry that he treated you that way, Miss Parsons agreeing with you in her anger. The two of you manage to scare the daylights out of him.
Miss Parsons leaves to go to her sister’s house, as they are expecting her, while you return to your father’s townhouse and spot your friend and ladies’ maid Briar canoodling with Mr. Marcastle.
Forget you!
Now Mr. Marcastle is your evil engaged (as in very not single) stepbrother trying to sully your reputation and Briar was your best friend from back home. But is she really your friend as she is trying to have a relationship with Mr. Marcastle, your enemy!
This is soooooooooooooooooooooo bad for you. Can you imagine the kind of reputation you will get when this comes out.
And Briar what are you thinking? He’s evil! He’s plotting against me!!!! You are suppose to distrust him not jump him!!!! You are a bad friend.
See Hook agrees with me.
Plus he is engaged!
C’mon Briar, you are smarter than that!
So I am going to Mr. Sinclaire’s tonight for a dinner party, so Miss Sutton and I go shopping. I decided to buy the dress as I want to impress Mr. Sinclaire.
And I have to say out of any clothing purchase I have made this one does affect the game. Mr. Sinclaire sees me in my red dress and can’t look away.
He compliments me in front of Miss Holloway.
What?
Ugh, Miss Holloway is just as bad as Caroline Bingley. She keeps trying to make fun of me and drag me down, but is struck down by Mr. Sinclaire’s compliments. Very reminiscent of a certain scene:
Boom, shut up Miss Holloway/Miss Bingley.
Miss Holloway tries to make you seem an illiterate buffoon, but Mr. Sinclaire comes to your aid. He also takes you to his extensive library…
Hold up- Stop right there.
He’s perfect I’ve decided-he’s the man for me. You know me:
He then pulls a book off the shelf and reads a page to me, it is William Shakespeare’s book of sonnets, Sonnet 18:
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
After he reads to you, he offers you the book. It costs 15 diamonds, but I don’t care, you know me:
It looks like I just have one thing left to get-Painting, maybe?
Miss Holloway makes a snide comment about your birth and then the Duke storms in-uninvited.
Ugh, I hate this dude. I hate people who do that-just show up uninvited and expect others to accommodate them. Such jerks.
Then not only does he do that but muscles his way next to me-no I don’t want him to like me-ugh!
This upsets the table with Mr. Chambers having to sit next to a man instead of a woman. Table settings are super important- remember A Change if Fortune.
“Custom, however, has lately introduced a new mode of seating. A gentleman and a lady fitting alternately round the table, and this, for the better convenience of a lady’s being attended to, and served by the gentleman next to her. But notwithstanding this promiscuous seating, the ladies, whether above or below, are to be served in order, according to their rank or age, and after them the gentlemen, in the same manner. – John Trusler, p 6 from Regency Manners: Seating at Table at janeaustensworld.wordpress.com
Mr. Chambers doesn’t really care as he’s gay and is next to a very interested member of the party.
After dinner, you all go off to the drawing room. Mr. Sinclaire and you meet up aside from the others and he warns you off Duke Richards. Why does he dislike him so? And why is he so interested in who you might marry?
Mr. Sinclaire becomes so furious with the Duke he takes off on an errand…you have the option to follow. What do you do?
I followed him outside even though that wasn’t really acceptable in Regency time. It turns out that Mr. Sinclaire had an unfaithful wife, one that became involved with Duke Richards. It is very Rebecca:
Oh my gosh! Duke Richards totally makes me think of Jack Favell
The two of you have a heart to heart, Mr. Sinclaire baring his soul to you. He worries that maybe I would have been better off in the village then the shark infested society. But we still enjoy our time together.
Afterwards we go inside and join the party. They ask me to play and I blow them all away, thanks to the lessons by Miss Parsons.
The party ends later, you saying a fond farewell to Mr. Sinclaire.
The next morning you are awoken by Miss Parsons and Briar. You’ve been invited to the Opera St. James. The Opera St James!!! That’s where your mother used to perform!!! Will the night be fun…or a flop?
For more Desire & Decorum, go to Desire & Decorum: Chapter 5, The Road to London
For more on Choices, go to Kissing the Blarney Stone: 7 More Irish Heroes
For more on William Shakespeare, go to Dangerous to Know: Jane Austen’s Rakes & Gentlemen Rogues
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