Felicity: Revolutionary Romance

Chapter 3

A month later, on December 16th, 1773, the day of the early Christmas party came. Felicity had woken up to the snow that refused to rival with her pure white sleeping gown and as she sprinted out of her bed, her exposed feet felt the cold floor which had been effected by the small pockets of cold air that escaped the outside world and found refuge in the warm houses, expanding upon touch. Despite this, she ran over to the window and her mind was tempted to lift it up, knowing very well that she shouldn't open it in the event of catching a cold.

But after a second, her mind gave in. It was just so easy to see her fingers, which she believed were made for work, lifting up the window frame without any ease. Sure enough the cold wind settled in and a handful of snowflakes pattered against her sleeping gown. Now realizing,the error of her mistake, she shut the window just as Rose came in with a breakfast tray of poached eggs.

"Here's your breakfast, Felicity. As soon as you are finished, I'll start work on your corset."

A corset was the least of many fashions Felicity wanted to wear, they were so tight on her that she could hardly breathe. It was one of those fashions that she disagreed with completely. But at the very least, she ate her breakfast in slow lumps, not in ladylike fashioning, but at the pace of a person whose body was in utter disappointment.

By the time Rose came back, it was ten o'clock in the morning. The golden sunlight was streaming brilliantly past the overcast clouds into Felicity's room through the blue curtains of the windows. The peach-colored walls glowed with light and the depths of the mahogany furniture gleamed deep red like wine, while the floor glistened as if it were glass, except where the rag rugs covered it and they were spots of gay color.

She stood in front of the bedpost, both arms holding onto it as she sucked in and allowed Rose to tie the laces together. This was the part that Felicity hated most: the squeezing of the corset seemed to restrain some part of her body, and if she ate too much, there was only one conclusive suggestion that her corset would explode from the filling of her stomach. The amount of oxygen in her lungs were being released with each pull and any part of it that returned to her body was only a little, very little and if dying from lack of oxygen was what women had to go through to make themselves look attractive, this was not the way she wanted to go.

After sucking in her stomach as far as she could go, the painful process was done and Felicity was given a chance to breathe, in and out...in and out, at least four times over. Rose seemed proud at this accomplishment as she placed her hands on her hips.

"So, what are you going to wear?"

Felicity, trying to adjust herself from the laces being sewed on too tightly, searched her bottom drawer to find the first dress she saw: a dark blue ballgown that her mother had bought for her last Christmas. She took it out, holding it by the laces on the shoulders and said.

"This."

"What about green? Green is definitely the right color for Christmastime."

"Green is definitely NOT my color. Blue goes so much better with the winter."

Rose sighed resignedly, beholding herself outguessed. Maybe blue seemed like a good color for wintertime after all, especially since it matched with the deep blue ice of the frozen waters. Felicity threw the dress down and entered into the mouth of the skirt. When her head came out, Rose adjusted the front part of the dress, helping her to put her arms through the sleeves.

"At least wear a shawl around your shoulders," she commanded. "I wouldn't want you to catch a cold and neither would your mother."

Felicity obediently grabbed the red laced shawl lying on the dresser and wrapped it around her thin neck. The color of the shawl clashed with the blue, but it gave the dress a more vibrant appearance. Grabbing the sides of the dress as she twirled around, watching her reflection doing the same in the oval mirror, she flashed a grin of her white teeth and took her parasol, then she was out of the room. By the time she got downstairs, Edward, Martha and Grandfather were already in the carriage while Marcus stood nearby with Nan and William, watching them leave as Felicity dragged her gown into the carriage, sitting down next to her mother and waved her brother and sister goodbye.