“Encouragement”, Ch. 8 (PG): Lady Madeline’s Suitors Pay Morning Calls, October 05, 2016 Gratiana Lovelace (Post #978)

(An original Regency romance  copyrighted by Gratiana Lovelace; all rights reserved)  [(1) story cover, left]

[From time to time, I will illustrate my story characters with:  Emma Lady Hamilton and later Kate Winslet as Lady Madeline Sinclair, Richard Armitage as Lord Christian Blount Earl of Sussex, Emma Lady Hamilton as Lady Madeline Lucretia  Sinclair, Dame Maggie Smith as Lady Lucretia Beckham Knott, Polly Mabrey as Lady Elizabeth Blount, Crispin Bonham-Carter as Lord Harold Blount, Dame Judi Dench as Lady Catherine Blount the Dowager Countess of Sussex, 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 Lady Madeline takes a surreptitious tour of Lord Christian the Earl of Sussex’ bed chamber in Sussex House courtesy of his sister Lady Lizzie, she contrives to remind him of his promised waltz.  That dance gives Lord Christian time to make his sincere apologies for being drunk at her presentation ball, and behaving appallingly rude to her.  She accepts graciously by acknowledging that her own conduct—her uncensored utterings of her opinions—were also to blame.  Then in watching Lord Christian dance with his sister while she plays for them, Lady Madeline muses more upon herself, Lord Christian, and her other suitors that her Grandmama predicts will descend upon her. And Lord Christian worries that he has let Lady Madeline slip through his fingers, when he now finds her to be a taking little thing.

 

“Encouragement”, Ch. 8 (PG):  Lady Madeline’s Suitors Pay Morning Calls

Lady Madeline Sinclair should have guessed after receiving several cards and posies on February 3, 1816—the Saturday after her Friday night presentation ball hosted by her Grandmama Lady Lucretia Beckham Knott at their London townhouse—that her grandmother’s prediction of suitors paying calls upon her this week would prove correct.  It so happens that Lady Madeline not quite finishes her breakfast Monday morning when the first such callers arrive at half past eight on Monday, February 5^th when their Butler Mr. Stokes announces them.

Butler Stokes: “Pardon My Lady, but two gentlemen have arrived and seek an audience with you.  They are Bernard Lord Quincy and Richard Lord Tottenham.  I have shown them to the front Drawing Room.”  It is the biggest and most lavish drawing room for receiving callers in.  And Butler Mr. Stokes surmises that Lady Madeline will need a large room for prospective suitor callers this week due to the twenty or so gentlemen she danced with at her presentation ball.  She was a hit!

Lady Madeline nearly chokes on her tea and strawberry jam scones—her boiled egg as yet is left untouched.  Her Grandmama Lady Lucretia Beckam Knott had chosen to have her breakfast brought up on a tray to her bed chamber this morning–due to her still feeling tired from her granddaughter’s ball three days ago, and despite having promised Lady Madeline that she would take her and Lady Elizabeth Blount to her favorite ladies gloves emporium.

So Lady Madeline is all alone in receiving callers—except for her ladies maid Anne Trask who is sitting off to the side of the room playing with her baby sister after eating their own breakfast earlier.  Lady Madeline exchanges glances with Anne—who snatches up her baby sister to her breast—as she seeks further reinforcements.

Lady Madeline: “Has her Ladyship been informed of the callers?”  She asks a bit nervously. Lady Madeline has not entertained callers by herself before.

Butler Mr. Stokes: “She has Lady Madeline.”  He smiles encouragingly.  Then his face frowns.  “But Lady Knott regrets that she will not be able to join you yet for half an hour.”

Lady Madeline looks uncertainly at the butler.

Lady Madeline: “What should I do, Mr. Stokes?  Wait until Grandmama may join us, or greet the gentlemen now?”  She frets.

Unaccustomed to having questions of etiquette proposed to him by his noble employers, the Butler Mr. Stokes replies gently to the young miss.

Butler Mr. Stokes:  “My Lady Madeline, it is rather impertinently early for the gentlemen to call upon you.”  He gestures toward her not quite completed breakfast and Lady Madeline glances at the clock’s half past eight o’clock time on the mantel clock.   She wonders if maybe the gentlemen will wait for her Grandmama to join them.  Then their butler continues.  “However, a welcome guest should rarely be kept waiting above five or ten minutes in the best of circumstances.”

Lady Madeline  ponders this thought—about her callers being welcome or unwelcome guests.  And she has yet to make that determination.  So there is nothing for it, but to attempt to ascertain into which pool of callers she will assign them to.

Lady Madeline:  “Very well, I will see them now.”  She rises resolutely from her breakfast table.

Ladies Maid Anne:  “MiLady, should I see if I can get my sister put down to her nap and then join you?”

Butler Stokes looks stricken.  Lady Madeline cannot receive the gentlemen without a chaperone present.  And her ladies maid Anne Trask usually performs that office.  Lady Madeline notices the glare that the butler gives her ladies maid.

Lady Madeline: “No, let us bring little Ellen along with us.  May hap she will nap with you in a quiet corner.  And if the gentlemen object to a babe in their presence, then that will be a certain reason for me to reject their suits outright.”  She thinks logically about her criterion for husbands—one quality of which is social tolerance, with a heavy dose of flexibility.

Butler Stokes: “Very good, Milady.”  He holds the breakfast room door open and Lady Madeline and then her ladies maid Anne–with her carrying her 18 month old sister Ellen–trails behind her.

***

Upon entering the large Knott London Townhouse Drawing Room—with several chairs and settees sitting areas near each of the windows and both of the fireplaces in the large elegantly decorated room in tones of palest green with fading gold accents—Lady Madeline nods to where her ladies maid Anne Trask is to sit as sentinel with baby Ellen, then smiles at her guests.

Lady Madeline: Outstretching her hand as she greets them., they each kiss it in turn.  “Lord Quincy and Lord Tottenham.  How delightful to see you both this morning. I thank you again for the pretty nosegays that you each sent me.”  She had previously sent along a thank you note to each of them via a footman as etiquette requires.  “However, I did not realize that gentlemen in London were such early risers.”  She crooks her left eye brow upward in a smiling scolding to them.  And they fall over themselves to apologize.

Lord Quincy: “Lady Madeline, I apologize.  My excuse must be my eagerness to see you again.”  He smiles bashfully hopefully.

Then Lady Madeline turns to her other would be suitor.

Lady Madeline:  “And Lord Tottenham.  Is that also your excuse?  Eagerness?”  She asks teasingly.

Lord Tottenham:  “Indeed it is, My Lady.”  He says with more reserve.  Then he raises a solitary digit.  “However, if I might add a codicil, in that I have a meeting with my solicitor at nine o’clock, for which I fear cannot be delayed.”

Lady Madeline: “How … original.”  She looks at him skeptically.  Then she smiles minxishly.  “And here I presumed that the auction of new horse flesh–also at nine o’clock–might have been your reasoning for interrupting my breakfast.”

Lord Tottenham: Knowing that he is caught, he smiles broadly. “You have found me out, My Lady. But my solicitor will be with me, to finalize the purchases.  So I was not wholly wrong.”

Lady Madeline: “I appreciate honesty in all matters, gentlemen—even your attempting to squeeze in a quick visit to me  before your morning horse auction.”  She banters and flirts as if a woman fully grown, not a young slip of a girl of seventeen.  She has brothers with similar interests.  So she knows a little of men and their pursuits.

Lord Quincy: “Well, I am not going to the horse auction.”  He spouts a blatant untruth in the hope of winning Lady Madeline’s attention away from Lord Tottenham—with his seeming devotion to her.

Lord Tottenham: “Of course you are not.” Lord Tottenham replies snidely.  To which Lord Quincy pouts further.

Lady Madeline smiles at such a characteristically masculine game of one upmanship.  Her brothers are like that often.

Lady Madeline: “Gentleman.  I care not that you have other engagements—as do I. But I will encourage you to not put your social engagements in conflict with one another.  You could have merely waited to call upon me on the morrow—at a more decent hour of nine o’clock.”  She emphasizes in the hope that their future visits will allow her to finish her breakfast in a more leisurely manner.  Of course, she is presuming a bit smugly—though correctly–that they will visit her again.

At this suggestion of delay, the two young men in their mid-twenties—muscularly fit and striking in their riding attire, since both came to visit her on the hoof—protest most vociferously.

Lord Tottenham:  “No No!  I could not wait!  I simply had to see you again as soon as possible.”  He states fervently now.  Though he still is restrained, Lady Madeline is quite astonished at his seeming outburst.

Lord Quincy: “As did I—had to see you again soon, I mean.”

Neither man seems entirely original in their reasons to Lady Madeline.  And then she notices them glancing at the chiming mantel clock, and the time being a quarter to nine o’clock.

Lady Madeline: “Lord Tottenham, Lord Quincy, I do not wish to seem ungracious in suggesting that you leave now.  But if you hope to get to your horse auction in time, you had best get a move on.”  She encourages with a smile.

Both men smile broadly, bow graciously, and then they hie themselves out of her presence to dash to the horse auction.   They will come again in a day or two to visit her again—deeming her a most understanding lady, about the horse auction.

***

Ladies Maid Anne:  “Milady?  My sister Ellen has finally fallen asleep, so I will take her upstairs for her nap.  Then I will go below stairs to fetch your walking gown that I ironed for your outing with Lady Elizabeth today.”

Lady Madeline: “Thank you Anne, but that will mean you have two trips up the stairs.  Here, let me take Ellen to her crib in your room next to mine, and await you to join me in my bedchamber, whilst you fetch my gown.”

Ladies Maid Anne: “If you are certain, Milady?”  She asks uncertainly.  She does not want to impose upon her mistress—nor incur the wrath of the Butler Mr. Stokes for seeming to act above her station as a Ladies Maid.

Lady Madeline: “I am certain.”

Lady Madeline holds out her hands for baby Ellen with an eager smile.  She never had sisters nor babies about when she was growing up—for she was the baby of the family.  Though she delighted in those babies whom she did interact with.  So Lady Madeline very much looks forward to the day when she has her own children.  And little baby Ellen is a favorite of Lady Madeline’s.

After Ladies Maid Anne Trask walks briskly out of the Drawing Room where she had been chaperoning her mistress Lady Madeline with her first two callers of the day, Lady Madeline cradles the sleeping baby Ellen to her breast before taking the child upstairs to her Ladies Maid Anne’s crib for Ellen in her small bedchamber next to Lady Madeline.

Lady Madeline:  Whispering, Lady Madeline says in a musical voice.  “You are so sweet, Little Ellen!  And your sister Anne loves you so.  I also love you.  We will keep you safe and give you a happy childhood full of fun and laughter.”  Then she kisses the sleeping baby Ellen’s forehead and the baby sighs—further endearing her to Lady Madeline.  Then Lady Madeline leaves the Drawing Room and walks across the black and white checked marble floor in the large foyer toward the grand central staircase.

Meanwhile, a few moments ago, two enclosed carriages pulled up to the Knott London Townhouse with a man exiting the forward carriage, and a man and woman exiting the other carriage behind it.  The nobles nod cordially at each other and proceed up the Townhouse front stone steps.

As Lady Madeline finishes traversing the spacious foyer holding the sleeping baby in her arms, the front door knocker to Lady Knott’s London Townhouse home receives three strident taps.  So Lady Madeline turns back to the front door to see who is visiting her next, even as their butler Mr. Stokes opens it.

The first to enter is Sebastian Dunne, His Grace the Duke of Lincoln wearing a deep green velvet jacket with a matching winter overcoat to keep away the February chill.  Lord Christian always wears black or brown or deep navy blue—so the green is an interesting alternative for Lady Madeline  The butler announces His Grace and  he walks into the foyer.  He bows to Lady Madeline–with a querying brow as to the baby on his bow’s down stroke, such that she does not see it as she curtsies to him.

Then Lord Christian Blount, the Earl of Sussex and his sister Lady Lizzie enter and are announced–and the bowing and curtsying is repeated—this time with Lady Lizzie joining in.

At this point, there are two ladies and two noble gentlemen in the foyer—and a sleeping baby, not to mention one butler and two footmen. And Lady Madeline addresses her visitors in order of rank as social etiquette requires.

Lady Madeline: “Good Morning, Your Grace, Lord Sussex, Lady Elizabeth.  I am delighted to see you.”  She smiles sweetly at them, showing her small but even teeth.

And His Grace Duke Sebastian thinks that teeth are a good sign of health for ladies—just as they are for horses.    He is rather horse mad himself, but elected to forgo this morning’s auction personally—but he sent representatives to scope out the horse flesh for him  One might say that he has his priorities in order—him choosing to call upon Lady Madeline at her leisure, and at the more appropriate hour of nine o’clock in the morning.

Duke Sebastian:  “My Lady.  And I am delighted to see you.”

Lord Christian scowls at the back of the Duke’s head–which Lady Madeline notices and tries to hide her smile.  However Lady Elizabeth takes note and smiles secretly at her elder brother’s obvious chagrin to not be Lady Madeline’s only suitor.  She loves her brother dearly, but realizes that he might need to have a little challenge where romance and love are concerned.

And Lady Lizzie is so sheltered by her brothers that she is wholly unaware of their precarious financial predicament.  So Lady Lizzie does not realize that her eldest brother Lord Christian now the Earl of Sussex began his pursuit of Lady Madeline with less than romantic intentions, that have blossomed into feelings of such a tender nature that even Lord Christian might not be fully aware of them.

Lady Madeline:  Then she gestures to her other visitors.  “You know each other of course.” She smiles sincerely to her three guests.  Duke Richard and Lord Christian give each other slight nods—neither behaving obsequiously.  “Mr. Stokes will show you to the Drawing Room and order refreshments while you await my return.  I must put Ellen down for her nap.  Then I will rejoin you.”

Of course with them not knowing the parentage of the baby in Lady Madeline’s arms—whether she is a relative, ward, or a foundling–Duke Sebastian, Lord Christian, and Lady Lizzie, look at Lady Madeline curiously.  For a young lady in her first season to be seemingly conversant with a baby in her arms would naturally invoke curiosity.  But ever the kind minded soul she is, Lady Lizzie smiles warmly at her friend.

Lady Lizzie: “May I help you, Lady Madeline?”  She asks timidly.  She has seen the grandly handsome Duke of Lincoln before on carriage outings with her brothers.    His sleek black hair and brows shading the bluest eyes she has ever seen rather unsettles her.  And she would not begin to know how to make small talk with him until Lady Madeline returns.

Lady Madeline: “If you like, Lady Elizabeth.”  Lady Madeline smiles at her friend–using Lady Elizabeth’s full name in the Duke’s presence since he is not a close intimate of theirs—such is the nature of Lady Madeline’s and the Blount family’s cordial relationship.

As Lady Madeline begins to step onto the stairs with one arm cradling the not tiny eighteen month old baby, and one hand lifting up her skirt, she realizes that she is ill equipped to mount the stairs without her having a third arm and hand to steady her in using the banister. The folly of women’s dresses, she thinks.  And she surmises that her Ladies Mail Anne Trask can do so easily because Anne’s dress is not so full, nor long—and less likely to cause her to trip up the stairs.

Guessing her dilemma, Lord Christian strides forward from behind his sister Lady Lizzie.

Lord Christian: “Lady Madeline, please allow me to carry the baby to the top of the stairs for you.  I have no skirts requiring me to hold them out of the way.”  He smiles bemusedly  [(2) right].  That the child Ellen looks well fed and healthy, is covered in not expensive but still clothing and blankets of quality, bespeaks Lady Madeline’s cosseting of the child—whatever the child’s relationship to her is.

Duke Sebastian quizzically stares at the three people mounting the stairs to the private quarters of Lady Madeline and her Grandmama Lady Knott—feeling slightly left out.  But he is certainly not eager to become involved with any baby doings.   Duke Sebastian knows that he will marry at some point—and beget an heir.  But he hopes that is a long way off.  He merely enjoys the social dance of paying calls and such that provide amusement to him now and again.  Happily, the Butler Mr. Stokes graciously shows the Duke to the large and elegant Drawing Room to await for his hostess’ return.  And refreshments of tea and scones soon arrive, which serve to mollify him while he waits.

***

When Lord Christian reaches the top of the stairs, he stands to the side—waiting to see where he may be lead next, or to hand off the baby to Lady Madeline and join Duke Sebastian in the Drawing Room.  It will be the former as Lady Madeline striding arm in arm with his little sister Lady Lizzie tilts her head toward Lord Christian to follow them down the hallway.

Lady Madeline:  “Follow me, if you please, Lord Christian.”  Then she adds nonchalantly.  “We will access my Ladies’ Maid’s bed chamber where little Ellen sleeps, through my bed chamber suite’s sitting room.”

Lord Christian follows them down the airy hallway with a querying expression upon his face.  It is unusual for Ladies to have their Ladies Maid sleep in an adjoining room.  His own Sussex House servants sleeping rooms—not bed chambers–are located on the upper fourth floor of Sussex House.    Nor is he accustomed to being invited into a ladies bed chamber with his sister and while he is carrying an unknown child.  This is most irregular, he thinks.  But he gamely follows them.

Lady Madeline soon stops before an ecru white painted door and quickly opens it—her dashing inside to make certain that all is tidy.  She is generally tidy—as is her Ladies Maid Anne.  But with early callers this morning, neither of them had time to do anything.  But it looks like her Grandmama’s ever efficient maids have been in here already.  And for that, Lady Madeline is extremely grateful.

Lady Lizzie and Lord Christian walk into a small but cozy sitting room in shades of the palest light blue walls with similarly shaded patterned drapery hangings on the window.  A small sette faces two chairs across from a lovely Chippendale butler’s table in cherry tones in front of the fireplace.  Lady Madeline waits for their impression of her suite—or at least, of her sitting room.

Lady Lizzie:  “Oh Maddie!  This room is so charming!”  She sighs while plopping onto the comfortably cushioned sette.  “I would never want to leave this room were it mine!’

Lady Madeline: “Ha ha ha!  It is very comfortable.”  She nods with a smile.  “Grandmama was very kind to let me use this suite while I stay with her—it had been my mother’s apartment as a young lady before her marriage.”  Lady Madeline smiles sweetly, but also with a tinge of sorrow, at mentioning her late mother.

Lord Christian: Still carrying the baby—like he was born to it—Lord Christian appraises the sitting room.  “This is a very welcoming room.”  Then he startles for the implication he did not intend to make. “I mean …  that is, … not that you are welcoming me into your bedchamber.  Kkkhhh!”  He coughs uncharacteristically nervously.  “This is a sitting room.”

Lady Madeline: Feeling minxish, she teases.  “And yet, my Lord Christian.  My bed chamber is through that door.”  She gestures with a flirty smile, then lowers her eyes demurely [(3) right].  She is flirting with him madly, but she is still new at it and she feels a bit shy, despite—or perhaps, because of, her boldness.

And Lady Madeline’s loose tendril deep auburn curls are very alluring to Lord Christian—him standing on the threshold to her sitting room.  Yet Lord Christian looks hesitant, even prudish—if that can be believed of a man who is thirty, and with amours, plural, in his past.  If his sister Lizzie were not here, he is not certain that he would not proclaim his admiration for Lady Madeline on the spot.  However, his little sister bursts the tension of the moment.

Lady Lizzie:  “Oh go on and look, Christy!  Maddie saw your bed chamber.”

Lady Madeline freezes in embarrassment.  Then the two parties involved speak almost simultaneously.

Lady Madeline: “Lizzie!”

Lord Christian: “Lizzie!”

The baby in Lord Christian’s arms starts to stir.

Lady Madeline: “Let me have her so I can put her down for her nap.”  She welcomes the distraction and not having to answer Lord Christian’s inevitable question as to why she was in his bed chamber?

Lady Madeline holds out her arms for baby Ellen and Lord Christian obliges, staringly watching Lady Madeline seeming to sashay out of the sitting room and into her Ladies Maid’s bed chamber.    Meanwhile, Lady Lizzie swiftly walks to the bed chamber door that Lady Madeline indicated, opens it, and walks inside.

Lady Lizzie: “Ooh!  I also very much like your bed chamber, Maddie!”  She calls out.

Lord Christian’s head whips around to his right at the sound of his sister’s voice—painfully jerking his neck in the process.  Then he quickly strides over to the bed chamber door and stands at the threshold, his arms raised and hands bracing himself on the door frame.
Lord Christian: “Lizzie!  Come out of there.  You are invading Lady Madeline’s privacy.”

Lady Lizzie: “No, I am not.”

Lady Madeline: “No, she is not”.  Lady Madeline playfully intones while ducking underneath his arm and entering her bed chamber.

Then she turns back to see the now quite flummoxed Lord Christian put his hand up to his mouth and turn back toward the sitting room in mortification.  He is accustomed to entering ladies’ bed chamber–when invited.  In fact, the vagaries of ladies bed chambers are well known to him.  And his merest glimpse into Lady Madeline’s bed chamber confirmed that it is happily not overly pink nor overly frilly.

But never would he have thought that a lady whom he is considering to offer marriage to, would  invite him to her bed chamber before they were married.  It is not what a well born lady should do, he ruminates.  Though technically, she only invited him into her sitting room.  And also in her defense—though Lady Madeline would not agree that she needs defending–Lady Madeline does not yet know that Lord Christian is pondering offering for her hand in marriage.  She thinks that he is quite beyond her touch.  Such that, she treats him as an old friend and family intimate—like a brother, he thinks.  Intimacy is a fine line between feeling comfortable with another person—like a brother—and wanting to spend your life with someone as husband and wife, with all the tenderness that such a close personal relationship entails.

Eventually, the friendly threesome–with a quite perturbed Lord Christian being one of them—return downstairs to the large and elegant Drawing Room for a half hour of refreshments and conversation with Duke Sebastian.  His Grace is quite animated and diverting, causing Lady Madeline’s and Lady Lizzie’s laughter to titter like tinkling bells several times.

Lord Christian sits and watches glumly—for not only has Lady Madeline Sinclair quite unnerved him as to what antics she will get up to next, but that the Duke seems to be creating a favorable impression in her.  And Lord Christian ponders whether his marital prospects for Lady Madeline—the little Sinclair chit is no more–are slipping away from him.

And yet, Lord Christian notices a few times when Lady Madeline steals a glance in his direction and she smiles most conspiratorially at him.  And he wonders in astonishment, what is she up to now?

***

The next few days of morning calls to Lady Madeline at her Grandmama Lady Knott’s London townhouse follow a similar format to the first.  Prospective suitors call—but without a horse auction looming, they stay longer.  And Lady Madeline’s elegant Drawing Room becomes a Salon with varying pleasing refreshments, bon mots, on dits, parlor games sometimes, and discussions of current events being offered by at least one member of Parliament.

Such that by Thursday morning, Lord Christian is firm in the belief that he has definite competition for Lady Madeline’s hand in marriage.  His sister Lady Lizzie is no help to Lord Christian—her siding with Lady Madeline’s approach of getting to know all of her gentlemen suitors better before she considers accepting one of their many courtship or marriage proposals.  Lady Madeline is pleasant and engaging to everyone—neither seeming to favor nor to dismiss a gentleman out of turn—she is a doyenne in training, if there ever was one.

And Lady Madeline seems to mature and gaining an inner confidence more and more each day in Lord Christian’s eyes, such that he has a difficult time remembering that she is the same tender seventeen year old age as his beloved younger sister Lady Lizzie.  He had been worried that his and Lady Madeline’s twelve year age gap would be a difficulty.  But now, he does not think it so.  And Lord Christian knows that if he is to have a serious chance with lady Madeline, that he has to somehow make her want him for her husband.

Lord Christian’s charm usually works on ladies—his past amours—and they capitulated rather eagerly.  But the stakes are higher now, and Lord Christian realizes that he does not wish to merely charm Lady Madeline into his bed for fleeting mutual pleasure.  Oh no.  Lord Christian wants something more satisfying, he wants marriage.

And if he must marry a richly dowered lady to save his family from financial ruin, then Lord Christian chooses her, Lady Madeline—because she has charmed and enchanted him.  So Lord Christian focuses upon finding a path to making Lady Madeline his bride, his wife.

To be continued with Chapter 9

 

“Encouragement”, Ch. 8 References by Gratiana Lovelace, October 05, 2016 (Post #978)

1) The “Encouragement” story cover is an image representing our young heroine Lady Madeline Sinclair is the young Emma Hart in a straw hat at 17 years old in painted by George Romney in 1782; she was later to marry Sir William Hamilton in 1791 and become Emma Lady Hamilton, was found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma,_Lady_Hamilton#/media/File:George_Romney_-_Emma_Hart_in_a_Straw_Hat.jpg ;  For more about Emma Lady Hamilton, nee Emma Hart/Amy Lyon please visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma,_Lady_Hamilton

2) Lord Christian Blount  is Richard Armitage in North &South 2004, epi4, pix 196 found at http://www.richardarmitagenet.com/images/gallery/nands/album/episode4/slides/ns4-196.html

3) Image of a pensive Lady Madeline is Kate Winslet in 1997’s Titanic found at http://hairdiy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Kate-Winslet-8.jpg

 

Previous  Blog Ch. 7 Story link with embedded illustrations:

https://gratianads90.wordpress.com/2016/09/28/encouragement-ch-7-pg-waltzing-apologia-september-28-2016-gratiana-lovelace-post-975/