#mannafics

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.

While they're not in an ideal position to have children, that is mostly due to the length of André's employment; in many other respects, this is a great time and place to have children: they have the space and privacy, André is employed and has relatively easy work and will be home at night, and Oscar isn't busy. If they're going to do it, it is more or less a "now or never" sort of situation.

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. 🥺 Of course, I know the answer to that (I'm 530,000 words into the story, now), but you don't. 😆

So I'll see you again next week! 💕

This is basically Oscar Is Impatient: The Chapter. 😂 Of course, this should surprise no one. She’s exactly that kind of person where she’s not going to try to prevent pregnancy, but then tries at every opportunity to get pregnant—and despairs when it doesn’t 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 hope—because 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 she’s 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 it’s true that the only person putting that pressure on her is her, it’s 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):

Riverhill House is an interesting place. Being a country estate, they’re 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. Campbell’s role in Sevenoaks, those familiar with Jane Austen’s 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 “river” in Riverhill House being “rither” -> Hill Hill House is actually found on their website.

Knole House is incredible. It is in the top five of England’s largest houses, which I thought was cool, but what really sold me on Sevenoaks as the place André and Oscar should go is the fact that the owner of Knole House at this time was John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset—who happened to be the British Ambassador to France from 1784 until the French Revolution brought him back in August of 1789.

It doesn’t 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 OA’s country estate adventures.

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I’m a certified Horse Girl™ but hear me out: the horses have names to contrast with the fact that Mr. Mead’s 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!

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The Andrew + André combo was very amusing to Sara and I when we were writing our RP, but I have to admit that I did not foresee the specific irritation of writing both of those names in tandem with any regularity. I cannot tell you how many times I wrote “André” instead of “Andrew” by mistake.

Anyway, the important part is that André has help with caring for the horses!

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Mr. Campbell is kind of a Wife Guy, but in his defense, his wife’s 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.

“I am not a sir,” was a line stolen straight from the live-action. If you recognized it, give yourself a pat on the back. Or a smile. (SORRY, THAT AWFUL FILM LIVES RENT FREE IN MY BRAIN. 😂) More seriously, I did like that tiny blip of an interaction in the live-action between André and Rosalie, and while it didn’t for a moment feel believable there, it does feel like a reasonable possibility in this story that André would be called “sir” and that he might respond to it in this way.

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HORSE CHAPTER!

This is for all my horse girls and guys. And all the sentimental readers, too, while I’m at it.

When am I not referencing Black Beauty (the book, but also the 1994 film, starring Docs Keepin’ 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, it’s his former groom, Joe Green, that recognizes him and buys him—but in the book, it’s Farmer Thoroughgood and his grandson that buy him to “make him young again.” 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.

Originally, Scarlet was not meant to be seen again, as she was a means to an end, primarily ensuring that André run into Mr. Campbell in London, but I had a stroke of genius on 18 January 2026 and decided to bring her back. This added another chapter to the story and forced me to adjust several later events, but now that the story is over 450,000 words long (from my end), I can say with complete certainty that I feel it was a wonderful choice.

I grappled with the idea of bringing Ebony back with her, but decided against it. This story is, ultimately, very self-indulgent, but I have to draw a line somewhere, and André running into both horses together just felt far too convenient, especially this many months later.

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They end up buying another fine carriage because they don’t 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 don’t tend to indulge in such things, and when Mr. Campbell is going somewhere, it’s for the purpose of business.

A plain carriage for the staff to use would be nice, but it’s not really that necessary and it’s quite a bit more work for him without really benefitting Mr. Campbell. Jack and the pony-cart will typically suffice. And in an emergency, if someone needs to go for a doctor while André is out with the carriage, the special carriage can still be hooked up and used without a problem.

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Oscar does pretty well without André, but I think it helps that there’s nothing pressing happening at home—and that she can distract herself pretty easily with work. If either of those things were different, she would have struggled far more.

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Of course Oscar isn’t 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. I’m 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. 🥺

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I think, for Oscar, one of the worst things she can be is bored. She just has a personality type that isn’t suited to it: she likes to be occupied and have a purpose. An aimless Oscar will be depressed. That said, even though André worries about her, she can’t help but think about the fact that this place is leagues better than any of their previously-held positions. Boredom sucks, and waiting sucks, but it could be way worse—and has been.

They really should just talk about it more, and in a deeply honest way, but this is the sort of thing they may always disagree on. André will hate that she isn’t happy, and struggle to separate “not feeling happy” from “unhappy” even though they are two different things. Pedantic, sure, but words have meanings, and being unhappy isn’t the same as not being happy: unhappiness is an active feeling, but “not being happy” is the absence of happiness (more neutral).

(The word ‘happy’ looks fake to me after I wrote it out so much.)

To be fair, André has a point, but no matter what he says, there’s little to be done about it until they find their footing, here. Being new, they’re not going to want to cause problems or make waves.

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Mr. Campbell doesn’t have a valet or a steward. The latter isn’t 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.

Oscar and André are also right about Mr. Drake (the butler) doing some valet-like duties.

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 shouldn’t 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 (he’s clearly not), but, despite his somewhat informal way of doing things, he is largely practical.

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Oscar didn’t tell André about her time with Andrew because she wants him to be able to surprise André in the morning. And I did not include Andrew telling André “bonjour” in the morning because I felt the scene wasn’t necessary to include (as it would have just been a few lines, anyway).

I’m also pretty sure it gets referenced, later.

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 don’t 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 weren’t a love match, and Mrs. Campbell is the daughter of a viscount, with the unmarried name Seymour. This doesn’t really go anywhere in particular but is just meant to set up for their backstory a bit better.

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The future-past has to feel so strange to both Oscar and André, now. But there’s nothing like a dream about it to remind them that it was real and that it happened.

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Oscar makes an effort to be social, and we get a little of Nanette’s 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 wasn’t 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? It’s 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 it’s 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 won’t feel heavy-handed, but will also give Oscar some small sense of community that she wouldn’t otherwise get.

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André’s suggestion of an ‘or’ clause is truly just a product of him understanding how close some people are to poverty—something I think many modern-day readers can relate to. Mr. Campbell can stipulate anything he wants in a contract, but more flexibility ensures he will always get something, even in a bad year.

This feels especially valid for a big all-purpose farm like the Talbots. While it would be easy to say, “oh we get hay from Farm A and chickens from Farm B, and so all we need from the Talbots is pork”—what 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 won’t 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 can’t be, which prevents the contract from being broken.

Additionally, the Talbots don’t 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.

It’s obviously more complex than I can really dump into the story, here (especially because it is an extended family running this very large farm), but the basic idea being presented here is that André is saying, “The Talbot Farm is the biggest tenant farm you have and I think it is worth complicating the new contract to ensure they have some bad luck protection while also ensuring that you continue to benefit from leasing to them.”

Hopefully that came across all right in the story.

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OA finally receive their first letter. 🥺 Now the epistolary part can begin! I won’t 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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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!

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Baby François! In the Napoléon sequel, François seems to mostly take after Rosalie in terms of hair/eye color. Babies usually start with blue eyes and then over the course of around six months to a year (and sometimes up to three years), they change into what will end up being their final color.

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 It’s 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, it’s not about “community” 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. It’s 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 you’d 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 don’t participate which is what makes it fun.

Scything to keep the grass short is of course how people “mowed” 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 it’s okay if it doesn’t look the best. It’s 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, here’s a video of someone scything. It’s very satisfying to watch.

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André’s déjà vu is from the end of Chapter 6 of Say It’s Possible. I thought it would be fun to kind of show (much, much later, of course) some of his perspective for that.

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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 isn’t likely to really impress them.

Some of the details about Soho Square are real and documented, including the statue(s) and the area having been established with the intention of being a place to attract the wealthy. However, by the time Oscar and André arrive in town, that concept has been given up on, and many old mansions were torn down already or repurposed as public dance halls or gathering places.

Oscar and André get the short end of the stick in terms of living situations, this time, but someone has to rent the worst room in the house, and it’s oftentimes cheaper.

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The button factory. Soho was a craftsman district at this time, so there weren’t any mills in operation, here. There also weren’t necessarily button factories, but let’s 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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Oscar’s violin…and 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 wasn’t 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 wasn’t very consistent (felt very much like the person writing the list may have been going on vibes, but it’s 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 isn’t just money.

I also went with Del Gesù as the maker because of the way his violins were described as having this very rich, warm tone to them. I thought that suited Oscar as the “light” and fell in line with her fiery, passionate nature that André is so drawn to. (The year it was made—1740—was also later in the artists’ life.)

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 wouldn’t have been a terrible deal! However, she’s not going to part with the violin her father bought for her without very good reason.

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