Is the Law of Our Side?: Part Eight

"To suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms?"

November 23rd

“I don’t feel good…”

“No, don’t fall behind, Hermia. Come along, quickly.”

“Where are Father and Tybalt? And Nurse? Why aren’t they here?”

“Don’t worry, sweetheart, I will find them all. Now, be a good girl and take my hand. It’s only a little further.”

"What if the bad people coming looking for us?"

"If it isn't safe to stay here, then you two must go to the manor house as quickly as you can."

"But how do I know if we should stay or go? We didn't practice that, Mother, and I feel so strange..."

"You'll feel better soon, I promise. Just be brave until I come back."

"We have to go, right now."

"Tybalt? You're all... your hair! And w-why do you have that axe?"

"I want Father and Mother to come!"

"Shh! We have to leave now, before someone finds us. Come on."

Unless Thou Tell Me How

"I pray you, bear me hence from forth the noise and rumor of the field."

Content Warning: Click here for content warnings. (Potential spoilers)

October 31st

"Oh, my poor little man," Georgiana tutted. Her nephew had fussed since they had arrived at Darcy House that morning for a day's visit with her mother. For the inmates of Capulet Manor, it was their first day at liberty. The other adults had moved from one type of confinement to another: meeting their adversaries in Lady Iden's chambers to negotiate the terms of the trial. Rather than go to sit silently in a stuffy room, Georgiana had offered to bring Will to see his grandmother. "You're too little to remember, aren't you?" To her relief, he started to quiet down. "You've been away these three months, and that's a long time at your age, isn't it? This is your home, though you don't remember it just yet."

Ladies of Esteem: Part Two

"Put thyself into the trick of singularity."

September 16th 

Juliette approached the great hall with her head held high. Inside her, trepidation sparked and ate away at her confidence, one crumb at a time. Beyond the doors, the war council awaited her arrival. It was comprised of good, trustworthy people: her husband, her siblings and their spouses, her aunt and uncle Gale. These were people she loved. Their opinions and good counsel, offered in earnest, proved that they loved her as well. She didn't want any of them to be disappointed; after this meeting, some could be.

The Gray-Eyed Morn

"We mean to build... and when we see the figure of the house, then must we rate the cost of the erection."

July 28th

Knock. 

Juliette ignored the interruption, and a brief stoke of her hand ensured her husband did as well. Who knew how many quiet mornings were left to her? Her birthday, and the trouble that came with it, was only three days away. And she was not so full of recent indulgences that she cared to forgo one, either. After Will's birth, she had struggled with the idea of intimacy. She had felt a failure when her newborn son's appetite outstripped her body's capability, and her expectations for regaining her figure had grown to cover up that wound. Frank words from a few mothers in her life - her sister, her Aunt Eleanor, her mother-in-law - had recently given her courage to overlook perceived imperfections and try.

Not Yet Enjoyed

"One half of me is yours, the other half yours - Mine own, I would say. But if mine, then yours,

And so all yours."

June 22nd

"M'lady?" The servant inched closer. "M'lady?"

Georgiana started out of her reverie. "I'm sorry." She hesitated, feeling a bit guilty that she couldn't remember the woman's name. The unfamiliar servants had come as part of the rental of the house. "What do you need?"

Heaven and Yourself Had Part

March 6th

"Sire and child and happy mother who all in one, one pleasing note do sing."

"I told you, it's a girl!"

"An' I told you it's a boy! Looks just like him!"

Puck threw up his hands, disturbing his currently precarious sense of balance. "What does that have t'do with anything, idiot?"

"A daughter would have my sister's eyes. They always do!" Tybalt slurred. "That one's a boy."

I Would Adventure: Part Two

Content Warning: Click here for warnings (possible spoilers)

"What fates impose, that men must needs abide."

September 2nd

The night had been unbearably quiet.

I Would Adventure: Part One

"All days are nights to see till I see thee."

September 1st

Georgiana felt a sense of relief as she stepped outside. No-one in the world had a more comfortable hiding spot than her mother, surely. The warm, comfortable rooms belied the stony exterior. The Fae couple who would adopt the baby had sent a hard-working staff to look after the ladies. The foreign servants occasionally ruffled Lady Constance's feathers, but everyone was grateful for them.

I Desire Some Confidence With You: Part Two

"Upon thy side against myself I'll fight."

May 24th

For someone who felt he had done right, Fitzwilliam felt exceptionally low. His mind had been made up the minute he saw the tall, fire-headed man poking out of the sea of brown bodices and colored gowns. Juliette tried to slow and calm him on the way over, and it had worked to a certain degree. After the initial outburst, he had reduced his ire to no greater than the general din of the tent field outside. No violence had erupted from him as he thought it might. Tybalt was dressed-down and warned off, sparing any bloody threats that would roll off that scarred face like water off a duck. He took the lashing with a suspicious calm. That might have warranted Fitzwilliam's consideration if Georgiana's reaction had not dominated his thoughts. Since the time he ignored her insistence that Tybalt had done no wrong, Fitzwilliam had not had a word from his sister.

I Desire Some Confidence With You: Part One

"So is my love still telling what is told."

May 22nd

Juliette was enjoying a great sense of relief. Today, it felt like the sun was truly shining on her and her family again. The last few weeks had been trying, certainly the worst of her married life. Lady Anne's pregnancy had turned the house on its head. Fitzwilliam and Georgiana were both still reeling, despite what they insisted when asked. An ill-timed visit from Lady Catherine had nearly cost them the entire secret. Lady Anne was now set up in a house on the western coast with her mother, but her shadow was guiding her children's behavior.

Juliette herself wasn't suffering from it - she had no complaints against her husband wanting to be within arm's reach at all hours. Her sister-in-law would never complain about her own treatment, but Juliette would have if Georgiana's lot was her own. Today was the first day that Juliette had seen Fitzwilliam relaxed with Georgiana out of his sight away from home. Very much enjoying it, she decided to try to keep the mood light and pleasant. "Will you explain the tournament to me, dearest? I think I've picked up the rules of the regular matches by now, but I've never been here."

One Too Much

"The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together."

April 27th

Georgiana let her fingers fall to rest so she could heard the patter of the rain. The rain was the reason she was indoors, pretending to be a musician. Aunt Maria had named her captain of their archery team for the duration of her confinement. Georgiana knew it was family favoritism, but she had tried to take the position as seriously as possible. In daylight, she organized practices and coached up the younger ladies. At night, she worked on the sketches for the painted scenes she would give to Juliette for her birthday. When it rained, she squeezed in music lessons with her mother.

You Do Protest

"They breathe truth that breathe their words in pain."

December 27th

The purging was progressing well, or so Georgiana had been told. While her mother and Juliette were always at the bedside, Georgiana was anywhere else, constantly in search of a few minutes of quiet. Capulet Manor had grown into the largest house in the duchy over the generations, but it felt impossibly cramped to her. Arguments popped up almost hourly. The house guards were on patrol in the corridors at all hours, the Ducal Guards were coming in and out frequently to consult with the family. Occasionally, some peace was to be found in the chapel, but her last visit had nearly dumped Georgiana into a womanly discussion between Lady Capulet and her sister. She was grateful to have bumped into Hermia during her retreat. 

An Old Accustomed Feast: Part Two

"What revels are in hand?"

December 25th

In the calm before the party, the great hall at Capulet Manor was little more than a grand extension of the family's well-worn sitting room. Miranda was entertaining Ariel with unusual patience. Juliette and Fitzwilliam were off to one side, deep in conversation. At the center of attention, as always, were Hermia and Puck's twins, Eleanor and Lysander.

Marry is the Very Theme

"I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright."

December 18th

All was not right in Fitzwilliam Darcy's world. He ought to be in Juliette's company; instead, he was waiting on his aunt's pleasure at his uncle's table without her. Her family had been invited to last week's gathering, but they were quite conspicuously absent this time. The table was less crowded without the Capulets but so much less enjoyable. The only thing her absence offered him was freedom. It wasn't freedom from Juliette, and it wasn't freedom to enjoy himself, though.

It was the freedom to glower while he decided who he despised the most.

To Sort Such Needful Ornaments

"But small to greater matters must give way."

Disclaimer: All opinions are the characters' and not mine. I love all of my CC!

October 19th

Mistress Starveling was overseeing the evacuation of her dominion: the seamstress' workroom at Capulet Manor. She was a fastidious but nervous woman. Lady Juliette had asked for use of the room to debate styles of gown with her friends in secrecy, and the seamstress was fretting over the works-in-progress and the general condition of the wardrobe.  Almost every piece was to go out, even the lowliest scrap of fabric. Likewise were to go the many needles and bobbins and other tools of the craft. What couldn't be carried out would be pushed aside and carefully stacked.

"I hear there are ten gowns so far," one of the needlewomen whispered to another. "Ten, can you imagine, when anything she wears on one day is better than any of our church best?"

Untalked Of and Unseen: Part Three

"I, your glass, will modestly discover to yourself that of yourself which you yet know not of."

September 20th

Georgiana loved the autumn, and she could feel it coming. The yellowing leaves had meant little as long as the air still spoke of summer. This morning, the air was fresh and sharp with the first chill of the season. She took it in deeply and was happy. The summer had been hot and strange, and she wouldn't miss it. The parties would be cooler now, and perhaps that would make her less anxious during them. Of course, autumn also meant her brother's wedding, which she anticipated with great joy, was only one season away. And beside all that, autumn meant the first season for archery was upon them.

Untalked Of and Unseen: Part Two

"Be great in act, as you have been in thought."

September 20th

Morning had come too soon. Fitzwilliam had slept poorly on the too-small sofa and had been too sullen to move when Juliette left. He dreaded the confrontation with his uncle, and sleeplessness only magnified it. As well as dread, he felt shame for not noticing this trickery sooner, for not thoroughly investigating his ledgers the moment they became his in the spring. Atop it all, he was humming with so much anger that he feared losing his temper entirely. 

After the struggle to don a calm countenance, he was rather late leaving his room. Yet, he was greeted by a good stroke of luck. His uncle's wife was in the windowless corridor just outside his borrowed room. "Good morning, Aunt Maria." 

Like Fire and Powder

"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."

July 28th

The heat had abated in Verona; the violence had not. The Mob Laws were now being enforced, making public assemblies of more than ten people a crime. The Ducal Guards, now supported by reinforcements from nearby districts, established nightly barricades on the major carriage roads. Drunkenness, insulting gestures, and drawn weapons were now also now criminal offenses worthy of arrest and fines. Further elevation of temporary restrictions was being debated by the Council.

This Bud of Love: Part Three

"Only my blood speaks to you"

May 4th
Continued from Part Two

If he had noticed the lonely book in the grass, Tybalt would have chosen another tree. He had wanted a place to sort his thoughts. Instead, he was stuck with a view that only scrambled them further.

This Bud of Love: Part One

"There is such confusion in my powers."

May 4th

Valeria Jacobs, consort to Frederick I, created a large, public garden in Outer Verona, as it was then called, to compliment the Grand Garden at the Duke's castle. As the wealthy and noble built up Outer Verona, each of Valeria's successors felt the importance of the Gardens. It was an extension of the Court, where people of consequence could see and be seen in the midst of the flowering benevolence and care of their duchess. The Gardens were still a place of pride and assembly for Verona's elite many generations following the death of the last duchess, Alice Fitzwilliam.