"Love is a Choice" by Gratiana Lovelace, 3/15/13 (Completed)

Ch. 11-12: Breakfast with Grandmama; and Fanny's Letters

 “Love is a Choice”, Ch. 11-12:  Breakfast with Grandmama; and Fanny’s Letters,   April 05, 2013 Gratiana Lovelace

(An original story by Gratiana Lovelace; All Rights Reserved)

[From time to time, I will illustrate my story with my dream cast of:  Richard Armitage as Lord Rafe Wingate, Carla Gugino as Lady Katharine Wingate, Lesley Nicol as Mrs. Plunkett, Emilie Francois as Anna, Mark Strong as Sir Collin MacGregor, Alan Bates as Lord Charles Wingate, and Christian Bale as Stuart MacGregor, and others, etc.]     [Story Logo 1abcd]

Author’s Mature Content Note:  “Love is a Choice” is a story of love and romance set in the early to mid 1800’s.  I like Regency sensibilities with regard to comedy of manners, but Romantic period modes of dress.   Ha!  As such there will be some passages in this story involving heartfelt love scenes (perhaps some R rated) and some passages involving highly dramatic moments.  I will label the maturity rating of those chapters accordingly.  Otherwise, the general rating for this story is PG or PG-13 due to some mature situations and topics.  If you are unable or unwilling to attend a movie with the ratings that I provide, then please do not read the chapters with those labels.  This is my disclaimer.

Author’s Recap from the previous installment:   Lord Rafe offered to annul his marriage to Lady Katharine out of his sense of honor--due to his now being found to have an illegitimate daughter who will complicate his life.  At first, Lady Katharine thought that her husband was tired of her previous refusals to make love with him due to a baseless fear that her Mama had instilled in her.  But she revealed to him that she loved him and no other--and he declared the same to her.  They realized that their love can sustain them through any difficulties they and his daughter, Anna, might face--and they lovingly consummated their marriage that night, in the early morning hours, and then again after dawn. Lord Rafe was tender, loving, and patient with his wife when they first made love.  And Lady Katharine was pleasantly and pleasurably surprised to find that being a passionately loved wife is a very good thing.  So Lord Rafe and Lady Katharine are now a well and truly marriedas a loving husband and wife.

“Love is a Choice”, Ch. 11:  Breakfast with Grandmama

Though Anna slept somewhat fitfully her first night under her Grandmama’s roof, she was calmed by the presence of their Irish Setter dog Kelly lying next to her on her bed.  Anna had been accustomed to sleeping in her mother’s arms before Fanny became ill and died.  So being bereft of the physical closeness of her mother’s embrace since Fanny died has been a stark and lonely reminder of her new motherless reality.   But in the morning before Anna awakens, Kelly slips out of Anna’s bed chamber and pads to her master’s temporary bed chamber--due to them having guests under their roof.  Lord Wingate is awake and dressed as he greets Kelly.  Then he walks with Kelly downstairs and out beyond the back garden as is their usual habit in the early morning hours.  After 30 minutes of playing fetch with a stick, they return to the manor by way of the kitchen--acquiring a mug of tea and a pastry for Lord Wingate--and some bread crusts for Kelly. Lord Wingate and Kelly return upstairs and he deposits the dog in his still sleeping grandchildren’s nursery bed chamber before heading to his wife Lady Wingate’s bed  chamber for their usual morning chat.   Though when guests are not in residence, Lord Wingate merely turns his head on his pillow to wish his wife good morning.

The much loved family dog Kelly walks to and fro between five year old Henry’s and three year old Charlotte’s small beds in the nursery--watching over them as a mother would--whilst head Nanny Shaw sleeps nearby.  Eventually, the toddlers arise and with help from their nannies put on their play clothes--since they will have a picnic this day, though they have not heard the reason why they are to have a picnic.  But then, children like fun things like picnics whether or not there is a reason for them.