{"id":2445,"date":"2018-05-10T06:59:35","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T10:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elizabethannwest.com\/author\/?p=2445"},"modified":"2021-12-17T12:26:54","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T17:26:54","slug":"chapter-5-a-summer-shame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elizabethannwest.com\/author\/readingroom\/chapter-5-a-summer-shame\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 5 A Summer Shame"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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I spit out my tea rereading this during the Mary and Aunt Madeline scene. BWAHAHAH Let me know if you do too!\u00a0<\/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 5 - 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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Playing a triumphant nine, Elizabeth Darcy laughed. “Fifteen for two!” She pegged her points, desperately trying to catch up to Lydia’s pegs on the cribbage board.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Lydia played a seven. “Twenty-two,” she said flatly.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“Thirty for a run of four!” Elizabeth wiggled in her seat after playing her eight, marching her pegs four more spaces.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“Go.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Elizabeth frowned. “Are you even attending the game? You are winning you know.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Lydia pushed back from the table and stood, her round belly weighing her thin frame down. She rubbed her midsection and paced. “I so wish to go out of doors, to shop, to do anything but sit inside and read or play cards with my sister!”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Elizabeth frowned and picked up the cribbage board and playing cards annoyed that her efforts to cheer her sister met with failure. “There is nothing I can do to undo your tragic decisions. Do not be mistaken in thinking I enjoy spending my wedding trip fulfilling the whims of a mad woman heavy with child.” <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

For two months now, Elizabeth had endured the rants and ravings of her youngest sister who still refused to accept even an ounce of responsibility for her condition. There was no remorse, no contrition, only constant whining, and complaints. Elizabeth Darcy had reached her limit.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Mr. Darcy stood outside the door, listening to the latest sisterly spat and chose an opportune moment to enter. Elizabeth rose to greet her husband, inquiring if his work was finished for the day.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“Yes, madam, though we’ve had a delivery and I wondered if you might assist me?”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Elizabeth glanced at Lydia who made a face and crossed her arms before asking the maid for more refreshments. Resisting the urge to remind Lydia she had eaten luncheon recently, Elizabeth pressed her lips together and accepted her husband’s arm. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

She began to giggle as he escorted her upstairs, but her expectations came to a halt when he led them to her bedroom, not his. Laid out upon the bed was a riding habit of the latest fashion, a long coat in a military style with matching slit skirt.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“I know horseback riding is not your preferred mode of transportation, but I had hoped, that perhaps if you would try a few lessons, you might ride out with me on occasion?”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“Yes!”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

“Now, I know lessons are daunting . . . wait, did you say yes?”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Elizabeth spun around with a broad smile for her husband. “Yes! Anything, everything to remove me from the company of that spoiled child!”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Darcy chuckled and accepted his wife’s embrace, looking over her head at the handsome riding habit he selected from a fashion print of his sister’s back in London. “Would now be too soon?”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Elizabeth shooed her husband out and called for Becky. It was not until she wore the full outfit, complete with a beaver hat matching the fine fur lining the jacket, that the weight of her decision rested on her shoulders. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

The woman in the mirror stood fearless, regal, and commanding, but the Mrs. Darcy staring at the reflection trembled at the thought of mounting a massive beast and relying on its good sense for her safety. Elizabeth’s thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of another in the mirror, a tall, handsome man in the tightest of breeches that left little to the imagination. For him, she would be strong.<\/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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