I don't have many notes for this chapter because, once again, it's pretty self-explanatory (and this is a rather short chapter to begin with, being just 6,688 words long).
I think Oscar is very much susceptible to the "I talked about this thing happening so much I convinced myself it would happen" sequence of events, so she is of course disappointed in a way that surprises her.
Ultimately, what I wanted to portray in this chapter is Oscar's...not mixed feelings, exactly, but that inner conflict. If she wants a child she does have to start trying Right Now (basically); she's had years to think about it, but never really let herself think about if she wanted it for her own sake because the timing was so bad she couldn't let herself imagine it.
THAT SAID, having children is obviously a very permanent choice, and I wanted to give that the weight it deserves. The idea is nice, the concept is nice, but is the reality? Oscar at least knows it will not be easy and makes the effort in this chapter to consider whether it's really what she wants or just some romanticized fantasy that exists in her head.
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Newspaper articles will come up a lot in this story (as I'm sure you can imagine; they are OA's primary source of information), and one of the most important things to note about newspapers in this time period is that they did not have headlines in the modern sense. A "headline" is really just the "stand-out" text, often the first sentence. Newspaper articles were only separated by lines and while they did seek to catch attention/eyes with that first sentence, sometimes, there was often not much to separate one article from another, save a line.
Due to this, you kind of have to read everything to make sure you don't miss anything important!
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Now that a decision has been made, we will have to see how it turns out for our favorite characters. đ„ș Of course, I know the answer to that (I'm 530,000 words into the story, now), but you don't. đ
So I'll see you again next week! đ
We're also looking at a total of probably 60 chapters, but I don't want to update the story until I have that final count. But you will see that number go up since I'm 2/3 of the way done writing Ch57.
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This is basically Oscar Is Impatient: The Chapter. đ Of course, this should surprise no one. Sheâs exactly that kind of person where sheâs not going to try to prevent pregnancy, but then tries at every opportunity to get pregnantâand despairs when it doesnât happen right away!
I do feel really bad for her, though, to be honest. She wants this more than she can articulate and is scared to hopeâbecause ultimately, she does struggle with vulnerability, and what is hope but letting yourself be vulnerable?
She tells herself to chill and we know already that sheâs not very good at that, but the effort matters. Getting pregnant can take a long time, and the cycle of extreme highs and lows is exhausting, so letting herself try to enjoy the process for what it is, at least for now, removes some of the pressure.
And while itâs true that the only person putting that pressure on her is her, itâs not as if she can help herself.
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Here's a cheval mirror, by the way (this one is French, from around 1790):
Notes and behind-the-scenes stuff under the readmore:
Riverhill House is an interesting place. Being a country estate, theyâre not nearly as beholden to the social rules they would be if they were in, say, London. They do things rather differently, here. In fact, it could be argued that they break the rules.
I think, if you wanted to consider Mr. Campbellâs role in Sevenoaks, those familiar with Jane Austenâs Emma might look at him as something of a Mr. Knightley-like character. Though he does not walk everywhere to save his servants the trouble of readying and driving the carriage, he and his wife have a vested interest in being part of, and serving, their community.
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The fact about the âriverâ in Riverhill House being âritherâ -> Hill Hill House is actually found on their website.
It doesnât truly matter for the sake of this story, but it is a fun nod, so I felt like it was a sign that Sevenoaks was the perfect backdrop for OAâs country estate adventures.
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Iâm a certified Horse Girlâą but hear me out: the horses have names to contrast with the fact that Mr. Meadâs horses did not. Just saying.
And so here we have more original characters in the horses (sort of): Miss Star, of course, Gideon (the greedy draft horse palomino), Clover (pretty bay), and Jack (blue roan pony). Nobody asked for pictures (and I doubt anyone needs them), but too bad. HORSE IMAGES BE UPON YE!
Mr. Campbell is kind of a Wife Guy, but in his defense, his wifeâs quilts are very well done and something he is most certainly proud of. This is a small way they are involved in their community.
The Mowatt children were a lot of fun to write. I wish I had more to say than that. Just know I was having a good time.
No notes for this chapter because 1) I don't really have anything to say as it is a shorter chapter and everything in it is self-explanatory, but also 2) now that I am over 500,000 words into the story, and just a few chapters away from the end, I would prefer to spend those extra hours working on the story itself rather than unnecessary notes.
Notes and behind-the-scenes stuff under the readmore:
HORSE CHAPTER!
This is for all my horse girls and guys. And all the sentimental readers, too, while Iâm at it.
When am I not referencing Black Beauty (the book, but also the 1994 film, starring Docs Keepinâ Time, which is the only good film version ever made)? One of my favorite parts of the story is when Black Beauty is bought again at the end. In the film, itâs his former groom, Joe Green, that recognizes him and buys himâbut in the book, itâs Farmer Thoroughgood and his grandson that buy him to âmake him young again.â When he is healed, he is given to three ladies on a trial basis to see if they like him; his groom there is Joe Green, who recognizes him by his markings and thus he finds his happy ending.
They end up buying another fine carriage because they donât really have a good backup for the main carriage if something happens to it, and Mr. Campbell usually opts for a closed carriage rather than an open one, because he dresses well and does not wish to get dirty/covered with dust.
Open carriages are nice for like, a lazy Sunday drive, but the Campbells donât tend to indulge in such things, and when Mr. Campbell is going somewhere, itâs for the purpose of business.
Of course Oscar isnât going to assume that this horse who looks like Scarlet is Scarlet, but when she finds out, she mirrors the goodbye she gave her when she left Canterbury, but this time as a hello. <3
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Oscar unpacking the cats means that she has accepted this place as home. Iâm sure you all understood that, but just in case. <3
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Oscar finally gets to ride a horse and she looks beautiful doing it. đ„ș
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Thank you all for joining me on this horse-filled chapter journey! I hope to see you again next week. đ
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Mr. Campbell doesnât have a valet or a steward. The latter isnât such a surprise, as Riverhill House is his main estate, but he has the funds to hire someone to do a lot of that bookwork for him (accounting and the like) and chooses not to, instead being very hands on about managing his properties.
The arrangement here is mostly a product of being in the country and simply not needing the extra staff. Mr. Campbell has the money to hire a valet to go everywhere with him and to be a second set of eyes and ears, but because of where he is and the fact that he has to take a carriage literally everywhere, why shouldnât his driver fulfill that role? By the very nature of his job, he is already there, anyway.
That is one less servant he needs to pay a salary, feed, clothe, et cetera. Not that Mr. Campbell is stingy (heâs clearly not), but, despite his somewhat informal way of doing things, he is largely practical.
I think you all understand the importance of that scene with Oscar and Andrew, anyway; she is trying to find something with which to occupy herself.
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There are a lot of original characters in this story that will be referenced or mentioned again later (the Mowatts from last chapter, for example), but please donât feel as if you need to keep up with all of them.
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We learn two things, here, too, about the Campbells: they werenât a love match, and Mrs. Campbell is the daughter of a viscount, with the unmarried name Seymour. This doesnât really go anywhere in particular but is just meant to set up for their backstory a bit better.
Oscar makes an effort to be social, and we get a little of Nanetteâs character, here. You might have very easily guessed that Nanette and Michael are both OCs that were pulled from the Manna-Sara catalogue for the sake of this story. It wasnât my original intention to include them in Something Beautiful (indeed, like Henri and Lyne and Christophe, they were not in the original RP at all), but I needed a slew of new characters to fill the roles of servants at Riverhill House, and in particular needed these roles filled with strong characters.
The most difficult thing about adapting the RP to a full length novel (or series of novels, as the length of this story no doubt indicates) was in fleshing out the world and cast of characters in a way that felt rich enough to be believable, and interesting enough to (hopefully) warrant people continuing to read this story when so much of the old cast are relegated to the epistolary elements of the story (if that).
In other words, the original RP was very sparse on details and mostly featured just a few characters, so I have had to really build up this place and work hard to try to make it feel like a world, rather than just a painted set piece. There are times when writing something based on an RP is easier, but this is one of the ways in which it is often much harder. Our RPs focus a lot more on the main characters and their trials, emotional beats, and development, and not so much on the supporting cast or even the setting.
Because I am constantly building on this, the story continues to expand past its original outline, and that is why chapters keep getting added. What can I say? Itâs for the good of the storytelling. :P
In the original RP, there were no Sunday gatherings, but I decided at some point in this story that there should be, because itâs very unlikely that everyone in the house would go to service every Sunday, and I established earlier that there is some religious consideration/tension/confusion going on with Oscar (which was also not in the original RP). This gives me a chance to explore it in a way that I hope wonât feel heavy-handed, but will also give Oscar some small sense of community that she wouldnât otherwise get.
This feels especially valid for a big all-purpose farm like the Talbots. While it would be easy to say, âoh we get hay from Farm A and chickens from Farm B, and so all we need from the Talbots is porkââwhat if disease runs rampant through the hogs one year and there is no pork? Not only would Riverhill House get no pork, but the Talbots wonât be able to pay according to their contract.
However, if the contract states they are to give a set amount of everything OR a % in consideration of a very good or very bad year, Riverhill House gets what can reasonably be provided and none of what canât be, which prevents the contract from being broken.
Additionally, the Talbots donât lose out if they produce a lot extra: in a very good year, Mr. Campbell still only gets a set % of the total production. So while they will be giving Mr. Campbell more hay if they produce extra, they will also be keeping more of it themselves (and/or selling it).
It requires more work in setting up the contract in terms of exact figures (to determine what exactly a very good or very bad year is) and bookkeeping in general, and does function a little on the honor system, but serves to protect both the interest of Riverhill House, which relies on the farm, and the farmer, who relies on having land to work.
Hopefully that came across all right in the story.
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OA finally receive their first letter. đ„ș Now the epistolary part can begin! I wonât write out every letter they send/receive, but you will find them occasionally sprinkled throughout the story and I hope they add to the vibe rather than detract from it.
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Thanks for reading; Iâll see you guys again next week!
Notes and behind-the-scenes stuff under the readmore:
Chocolate, especially for the purpose of making something like hot chocolate, usually came in a brick and you had to shave off bits of it and mix it in. No fancy powders in 1790!
Baby hair also mostly falls out and is replaced by more permanent hair and sometimes when this happens the color changes, too.
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If you remember from Say Itâs Possible (and the canon!), promotion in the military requiring your family to have held noble rank for x amount of years was something that had a lot of people very angry before the start of the French Revolution, and was, in fact, one of the reasons the French Guards were brought over so easily to the side of the people.
Reversing this change is a pretty big deal and would actually allow for Alain to get promoted, now.
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FESTIVAL TIME! Riverhill House does employ a good number of gardeners, and of course they have Mr. Shepherd as the groundskeeper/one leading them all, but it is a rather large estate and fairly constant work throughout the spring/summer/fall to maintain, especially in light of always adding to the gardens and redoing things.
One fun, cost-effective way is to employ the townsfolk and turn it into a party, where everyone comes together to handle the work with a barn-raising mentality. At Riverhill House, though, itâs not about âcommunityâ for the town so much as it is about partying and getting paid for very limited work.
Sending townsfolks through the gardens to pull out all the grass and other weeds and turning it into a contest may be genius. Itâs fun and kind of low-stakes, and come June, most of the weeds are a lot easier to spot (compared to earlier in the year where youâd probably have a lot more people pulling up plants by mistake). I like to imagine the gardeners are out and about kind of helping to keep an eye on things to prevent mistakes, but still.
Anyway, plenty of people donât participate which is what makes it fun.
Scything to keep the grass short is of course how people âmowedâ lawns before easier methods existed, and to be frank someone who is really good at scything can be quite quick and efficient at it. Obviously they leave this one lawn alone for the sake of the festival, and use the cleared space to then host the games for the children, so itâs okay if it doesnât look the best. Itâs also out of the way of the rest of the party; I was picturing it being in the area below on the property (in purple).
In teal is the "west" lawn where they eat lunch.
Also, hereâs a video of someone scything. Itâs very satisfying to watch.
I decided to skip the travel to London because I had no particular plans for anything to happen on the way, and the characters are from a large city area so seeing London for the first time isnât likely to really impress them.
The button factory. Soho was a craftsman district at this time, so there werenât any mills in operation, here. There also werenât necessarily button factories, but letâs just say including one was an artistic choice and not at all random. England was a big force in the button-making industry at this time, and some factories even partnered with Wedgwood to produce porcelain buttons. And as it just so happens, there was a Wedgwood showroom and shop in Portland House at 12 Greek Street in Soho.
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The chapel on Warwick Street was real. It was destroyed in the 1780 Gordon Riots but was rebuilt in 1790.
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Oscarâs violinâŠand that blasted G string. Once again I feel the need to state that I am not a historian and certainly not a musical historian. I did my best to find data about historic instruments and the cost of them (as well as their strings) but it was INCREDIBLY difficult to find and data wasnât exactly reliable. I did find quite a lot of modern data, though!
For example, I found a list of instruments seized during the French Revolution and the price that was kept in bookkeeping for them, but it wasnât very consistent (felt very much like the person writing the list may have been going on vibes, but itâs also hard to know for sure why the prices were selected in the first place; perhaps the condition of the instrument factored in but were not described).
I went with 15 shillings for the most expensive string. She could probably get a much cheaper G string, but considering the quality of her instrument and the other strings, it would be best to have one that matched. Unfortunately this is a price she simply cannot justify at this time, especially considering the cost isnât just money.
Her instrument is probably worth more than she was offered for it, but if she were in need of money, or even just that desperate to play, it wouldnât have been a terrible deal! However, sheâs not going to part with the violin her father bought for her without very good reason.
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As always, feedback is appreciated. Thanks so much for stopping by to read again. Iâll see yâall again next week. <3