Beginnings Beyond Endings (A Sanditon Fanfiction)

A Lady's Humour

Georgiana and Charity Entworth arrived to take tea the following afternoon and were quite overtaken with the humour of the gossip being spread about town. It would seem the someone who had spied their swimming earlier that week had thought fit to share it with all and sundry.

Charlotte was mortified, George was torn between amusement and horror, the combination of which resulted in a rather constipated expression, and Georgiana delighted in increasing their discomfort, declaring that not even she would dare to take to the seas entirely unclothed.

"We were not naked! Please stop speaking as though we were!" Charlotte begged of her friend several times before Georgiana was satisfied with the extent of her needling.

"Oh, all right! All right, Charlotte, I'll stop." she ceded. "For now." Charlotte groaned and knew it would be a long time before her friend would forget the incident. She could only hope some other terribly scandalising tidbit made itself known soon that would overshadow her own.

George choked on his tea as he sipped it when the girl turned to him and boldly declared that the general consensus was that Charlotte was very lucky to have such a well-proportioned husband, and that she had overheard one of the more lewd of her acquaintances, who had been the very one to spy them, remark most favourably on... well she would not repeat what was said for it was not for the ears of innocents such as her two friends.

The expanse of Charlotte's vision grew and she felt her jaw drop. "Georgiana!"

Miss Entworth discreetly covered a snicker at Lady Morpeth's outcry but thought it prudent to persuade Georgiana to find another topic to speak of and whispered in her ear something to that effect. Georgiana capitulated and diverged into the safer pastures of the plans for that summer's Regatta.

"There has never been quite the same flood of people as there was that first summer, but the event itself grows larger and more spectacular with every year that passes." she said. "The boat race has become quite the tamest of all the activities."

"Oh, I'm so looking forward to it, my Lady! I've never seen a boat race before and it sounds very thrilling. It is not often we get to see our local gentleman in only their shirtsleeves and trousers. Was is not very shocking the first time?" Charity's word overflowed in a rapid tumble and Charlotte had a little trouble making sense of them.

"I... I can't say that it was, no. The only shocking thing, I think, was Mr Crowe's awful skills at the rudder. But then he was... imbibing while Lord Babington and Mr Parker were rowing and caused them to drive themselves and the other boat into the riverbank!" Charlotte laughed as she remembered the man's inebriation.

The rest of the party laughed as Georgiana recounted other instances of Mr Crowe's drunkenness and its results. Given the gentleman's appearance for the Regatta every summer since, the young woman had built a wealth of tales that were varyingly alarming and ridiculous.

George, having little experience of Sanditon, was not able to truly appreciate the stories told for a lack of understanding of the reactions of the individuals involved. However, being acquainted with Mr Crowe's younger brother and they both having been in their first year at Eton as he was in his last, he could relate some of his misadventures in Town and during his schooling. The women had laughed uproariously at hearing of his numerous escapades and quite struggled to breathe during the telling of a time when Mr Crowe had been so lost to sobriety and his brothers had persuaded him that a goat was actually a girl who wanted to kiss him. Lout that the man was, he had been all too happy to comply and enjoyed a rather rude awakening to the animal's bleating the next morning.

Conversation eventually returned to the topic of the Regatta and the events to be had that year. The cricket match now always occurred the day before and was considered as the beginning of the event which now spanned a full week. The boat race and sandcastle competition continued to be held on the first full day of activities while a large garden party on the last day marked its end. The Midsummer ball always occurred on the last evening. Other attractions had come to include treasure hunts and picnics and other little competitions for the children and card parties, musicales and readings for the men and women.