{"id":2209,"date":"2018-01-23T14:12:40","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T19:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elizabethannwest.com\/author\/?p=2209"},"modified":"2018-11-15T09:26:23","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T14:26:23","slug":"chapter-1-a-summer-shame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elizabethannwest.com\/author\/readingroom\/chapter-1-a-summer-shame\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 1 A Summer Shame"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Read this story with a box of tissues. I bawled when I wrote it. You have been fair warned.<\/p>

XOXOXO Elizabeth Ann West<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Chapter 1 - A Summer Shame, a Pride and Prejudice Variation<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Pitched over the rail of the Hermes Bounty, Elizabeth Darcy lost the contents of her stomach for the second time that day. It appeared neither breakfast nor luncheon was destined to fortify her. Her most stoic husband stood nearby, torn between showing his wife comfort and not embarrassing her further over a momentary lapse in ladylike behavior. Seasickness never cared much for the status of its victims, afflicting the gentle and the lay in equal measure.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“Is that a gull? Mr. Darcy, how far are we from Scotland? I’m sure I can see it now!” Lydia Bennet squinted at the horizon in the wrong direction towards the vessel’s stern.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Mr. Darcy cleared his throat and tugged his coat sleeve back into place.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“Lydia . . .” Elizabeth tested her stomach’s mettle before continuing. \u00a0She discretely accepted the handkerchief from her husband with the utmost decorum and used it to blot her mouth. The bitter taste mirrored her feelings. “We are days away from our arrival. You cannot see Scotland as yet, and not when you are looking southward.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Cheeks burning red, Lydia, despite being a few months gone with child, whipped around to face her older sister. The Darcys warned her about\u00a0the persistent leers from the crew directed at her\u00a0svelte figure, but Lydia remained adamant in her jolliness. Elizabeth tried to remember her sister was\u00a0a fifteen-year-old girl, still naive as the day she anticipated her vows with George Wickham. The same vows never to be taken as he ran off to the underbelly of London to escape debt collectors. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“You are merely cross because you cannot keep your meals down.” Lydia inhaled an audible breath of sea air. “I find travel by sea quite invigorating!”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“Should not she remain in the cabin?” Elizabeth suggested, sincerely wishing her husband to establish some rule over her younger sister. Lydia’s pregnancy and presence was ruining Elizabeth’s\u00a0honeymoon trip after an insufferable six months’ worth of pain and obstacles at every turn to marry her Mr. Darcy. From unruly relatives trying to break them apart to losing her father’s protection, running away from her wedding breakfast to conceal her sister’s growing belly had been the last straw for Elizabeth’s patience.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“It might be wise, Miss Lydia, for you to take a rest,” Darcy cleared his throat again, his face paling, “in your condition.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“But\u2014”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Darcy! How is this morning fairing for ye? Oh, I see you are a bit behind the blowfish there, Mrs. Darcy, but fear not, most find their sea legs by the third day.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“Thank you, Captain Tompkins. I do believe I am growing accustomed to the constant shifting beneath my feet.” Elizabeth managed a weak smile.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“There now, it’s as I said. \u00a0My, you look well, Miss Lydia! There’s no question, but the sea agrees with you.” The captain bowed with his hands clasped behind his back.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Lydia Bennet, guileless as a dove, altered her petulant pout to a flirtatious smile looking up through her eyelashes. “How kind of you to say, sir.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

The captain laughed. “Aboard a vessel, madame, to call a captain ‘sir’ is a disgrace! You must call me by my first name.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Lydia straightened at such familiarity, seeing this as a sign the great man took an interest in her. “I should be delighted to do so, pray what is it?”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Tompkins leaned in close and looked Lydia right in the eye. “Captain.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Darcy laughed at the jest, as Lydia resumed her pouting and Elizabeth frowned. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“The joke is much too\u00a0old, yet still, I laugh every time.” Darcy proffered his hand to the captain. Turning to his wife, he began to explain. “I had not told you, dear, because you were so very ill yesterday, but John Tompkins here and I share a history.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“Aye, it was his bloody fault I became lost in Rome and almost killed by vagrants.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“He misrepresents the truth. I returned to our rooms after viewing the Coliseum. He chose to go back out with some locals. If I hadn’t gone in search of\u00a0him after I noticed he had not returned, indeed he might be dead.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“And you wouldn’t have a private crew to ferry you about.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Elizabeth shook her head and rubbed her temples with her eyes closed. “So this is how you were able to arrange our travel with such speed? You keep a ship’s crew in your employ at all times?”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“No, John is more of an independent merchant captain. This vessel is one your uncle has a majority stake in so we were able to leave without delay.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“Captain, would you show me how the ship is steered? I would dearly love to learn more about sailing.” Lydia jumped into the conversation as it had gone on far too long without her inclusion.\u00a0As Mr. Darcy made to divert the girl’s request, Captain Tompkins gave a slight motion with his hand that he did not mind.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“Of course, Miss Lydia. It is uncommon to meet a woman interested in the navigation of a vessel. Have you a mind to join His Majesty’s Navy?”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Lydia giggled as the captain guided her up towards the higher deck. Elizabeth watched with a wary eye.\u00a0“Is she quite safe with him?” she asked, reaching out to take William’s arm, uncaring who should see this public display.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“I believe so, my dear. The Captain is a gentleman, married with two children.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“However did he escape the Navy?” Elizabeth gazed up at her husband, learning to focus more on the objects and persons on the boat rather than the rise and fall of the sea and landscape behind them.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“He was injured in a riding accident. He and Richard were fierce competitors, and when they were sixteen, John fell. His leg was never right again. Being the second son himself, but with plans to join the cavalry like Richard, he was too late to be a midshipman, even if he wasn’t disqualified. The merchant fleet needed men as their best captains were conscripted.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Elizabeth allowed Darcy to begin leading her on a slow walk around the main deck. It wasn’t a large circuit, but the physical activity calmed her nerves and the ache in her head. She sighed against her husband’s arm, content that the man she had married was a most attentive partner, even after the wedding ceremony.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

After three rounds, the Darcys turned back towards the forward section of the vessel and the cabin they had rented for their little adventure. Traveling by boat, Darcy managed to avoid any prying eyes of the Ton seeking a glimpse of\u00a0Lydia’s waistline at inn after inn between London and Edinburgh.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“William, I believe I would care to rest for a while.” For two nights, Elizabeth’s sleep was scarce with the ship’s constant movement. She had always wished to see the world, but after this sea-faring adventure, she was finding her island country more and more appealing.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“As you wish.” Mr. Darcy bent down to give his wife a chaste kiss on the cheek. With Lydia in tow, Elizabeth’s illness, and a topsy-turvy ship, the new husband and wife were still a mystery to one another. “I shall attend to Miss Lydia and coax her back into the cabin.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“Thank you.” Elizabeth opened the door and slipped inside, gripping the bolted table as the ship moved with a violent lurch. She could hear shouts and Lydia’s giggles. Restoring her balance, she realized somehow her sister had talked Captain Tompkins into letting her try the wheel. Two more days and they would be on land again.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Elizabeth focused on that certainty as she steadied her breathing.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Pulling a worn quilt from her trunk, Elizabeth curled up on the bottom cot bunk she was sleeping in to give Mr. Darcy the larger bed on the far side of the cabin. Willing her anger to dissipate, she worked hard to not dwell on how ungrateful Lydia was for her rescue. Because of Lydia, she was unable to unite with her husband in every sense, and it should be her place as the first sister married to welcome a babe. Instead, with every angry thought, Elizabeth turned her turmoil over to God, praying for a safe journey, praying for patience, and most fervently, praying for time alone with her William in Scotland.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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