"Encouragement" (Book 1), by Gratiana Lovelace, 2016 (Completed)

Ch. 23 (PG-13, H, D): A Marriage in Question

"Encouragement", Ch. 23 (PG-13, H, D): A Marriage in Question, December 28, 2016 Gratiana Lovelace (Post #1022) 

[From time to time, I will illustrate my story characters with: Richard Armitage as Lord Christian Blount Earl of Sussex, Kate Winslet and Emma Lady Hamilton as Lady Madeline Lucretia Sinclair, Dame Maggie Smith as Lady Lucretia Beckham Knott, Jessica Brown Findlay as Lady Elizabeth Blount, Crispin Bonham-Carter as Lord Harold Blount, Dame Judi Dench as Lady Catherine Blount the Dowager Countess of Sussex, Rupert Penry Jones as Lord Duncan the Viscount Lindsay, Corin Redgrave as Squire Sutton Sinclair, Amanda Root as Mrs. Russell, Hugh Griffith as Lord Christian's solicitor Mr. Rittenhouse, and others as noted.]

Authors Content Note: "Encouragement" is a frothy love story with sometimes humorous and sometimes dramatic themes of love and relationships. It will mostly be at the PG and PG-13 movie levels. Specific chapters or passages may have a further rating of: D for dramatic emotions, and LS for love scenes that are tenderly sensuous and not explicit. And I will rate the chapters accordingly. If you are unable or unwilling to attend a movie with the ratings that I provide for a chapter, then please do not read that chapter. This is my disclaimer. And as is my habit, I will summarize the previous chapter's events at the beginning of each chapter.

Author's recap from the previous chapter: After Lord Christian and others tend to the feverish Lady Madeline all night long on her wedding night, her fever finally breaks in the early hours before dawn on the next day. Then she naps most of that Saturday. Lord Christian is relieved beyond words, but she will need time to recover.

"Encouragement", Ch. 23 (PG-13, H, D): A Marriage in Question

Sunday is a day of rest. And Christian Blount, the Earl of Sussex is taking that meaning literally after the harrowing first night of marriage with his new Countess Lady Madeline's severe illness kept everyone up and tending to her fevers and chills. The blessing that her fever broke and they had a quiet—and a still maritally chaste—Saturday spent cuddling, sleeping, reading, and more sleeping, helped in restoring their spirits.

But Lady Madeline is still recovering her strength from her illness on the Sunday after their Friday, February 23, 1816 wedding. And her virile thirty year old husband Lord Christian vows to be patient and to wait a few days until his nearly eighteen year old wife Lady Madeline is fully recovered, before seeking to initiate their loving passions in their marriage.

And though the newlyweds had sent notes to each of the Blount and Sinclair London family homes, that Lady Madeline is recovering nicely, for some of their relatives, seeing is believing.

Their first visitor sailing forth at eleven o'clock in the morning is Lady Madeline's indomitable Grandmama Lady Lucretia Beckham Knott—who must have come directly from Sunday morning worship services, thinks Lord Christian as he notes the red wine [stain] upon her lips. He does not believe that the lady imbibes so early in the morning—not even for medicinal purposes. Ergo, Lady Knott must have been at Sunday Services and took communion.

After kissing her granddaughter Lady Madeline, Lady Knott assesses her new grandson-in-law sitting next to her granddaughter as they sit up in bed just after enjoying a late breakfast a deux. Lady Knott is a tad shocked at being received in so blithely unconventional a fashion—with them in their bed, though Lord Christian wears an open shirt and breeches as he sits above the covers—which excessively pleases the quite bemused Lord Christian. Yet the strains of two nights ago are still evident upon his countenance.

Lady Knott: "My boy? You look haggard."

Lady Madeline: "Grandmama! Be nice, please!" Lady Madeline cutely admonishes her Grandmama while wearing her lovely negligee and penoir set again that her Grandmama gave her as a special wedding present.