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

Ch. 16 (PG-13): Visiting Lady Katharine's Family in London, Part 2

“Love is a Choice”, Ch. 16  (PG-13):  Visiting Lady Katharine’s Family in London, Part 2, April 19, 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, Daniel Day-Lewis as Sir Antony Southwick, Michelle Pfeiffer as Lady Charmaine Southwick, Catherine Deneuve as Lady Esmѐ Sinclair, and others, etc.]    

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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 and Katharine Wingate travelled to London the Thursday after they wed to visit her parents, Sir Antony and Lady Charmaine Southwick.  The Southwick parents are a bitterly divided couple due to his supposed infidelity 18 years ago that she only found out about eight years ago--when Lady Katharine was ten years old--and they have been estranged since then.  Lady Charmaine is unhappy and vindictive--and Sir Antony has had it.  Their shouting from their final marital argument is overheard by Lord Rafe and Lady Katharine while waiting to greet them in the parlor before dinner. Lord Rafe views Sir Antony sympathetically--but his wife Lady Katharine more so. However, Lady Charmaine apologizes to her daughter about misleading her with regard to the marriage bed and they have a reconciliation of sorts before Lady Charmaine heads to bed--after letting Lord Rafe join her daughter in Lady Katharine’s bed chamber for the night.  Then Sir Antony--an unwelcome guest in his own home--almost goes to his wife’s bed chamber to try to plead with her again to believe him about his innocence, but he loses his nerve.  Lady Charmaine has been nursing a severe headache all evening, and fatigue has made it worse as she only fitfully falls asleep.  In the early Friday morning hours after dawn, Lady Charmaine has a stroke--with none to come to her aid since she sleeps alone due to her estrangement with her husband, Sir Antony.  The Southwick family will wake up to a very different reality on Friday morning once Lady Charmaine’s condition is discovered.

“Love is a Choice”, Ch.16 (PG-13):Visiting Lady Katharine’s Family in London, Part 2

Friday morning, Lady Katharine and Lord Rafe wake up lying naked together in each others’ loving arms in her bed chamber at her parents’ home in London as they continue their wedding trip. And they delight in a lovely morning romantic tryst. Their shared closeness of bodies and hearts strengthens the bond of love they are nurturing together.   Though married not quite one week, Lord Rafe and Lady Katharine are loving and supportive of one another--and they both need support and encouragement for their pasts, their present, and their futures together. 

After kissing and cuddling for as long as they can--or at least until Lord Rafe’s stomach demands attention with a most ungentlemanly noise that collapses them both into giggles-- they put on their underclothes to receive Lady Katharine’s ladies maid bearing their morning breakfast tray.  Once the ladies maid has left, they remove the tray from the table in front of the sette and take it to their sanctuary from life’s cares as they enjoy breakfast in bed together a deux--a welcome indulgence for an adored wife and her loving husband--as they feed each other morsels of cinnamon rolls and fruit.