Prologue through Ch. 2: Their Wedding Night Begins Fitfully

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“Love is a Choice”, Prologue - Ch. 2 (PG-13):  Their Wedding Night  Begins Fitfully, zr_zf  March 15, 2013 Gratiana Lovelace (Post #379 and Wattpad)

(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, 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 Scheduling Note:  “Love is a Choice” will have a semi-weekly posting schedule on Mondays and  Fridays--my muse permitting.  I have about 40 pages written so far with some plot twists involved.   So much for this being a short story.  Ha!  As usual, I will be concurrently publishing  my “Love is a Choice” story on my Wattpad site for those who prefer to read it there:  http://www.wattpad.com/user/GratianaLovelace

“Love is a Choice”, Prologue

In the early 1800’s England, women rarely if ever had the luxury of choosing their own husband.  Marriage was about establishing and expanding wealth and position, forging alliances, maintaining tradition, and insuring familial lines of inheritance.  While men had the freedom to seek out romantic love--usually outside of marriage--women did not.  Strict codes of virtue were applied to women--even to the point of insisting that married women should not be eager to engage in lustful unions with their husbands.   Conjugal relations--were for the getting of children as heirs--having a loving romance with one’s spouse was rare.  Even liking one’s spouse was rarer still due to arranged marriages among the nobility not necessarily taking into account the feelings or wishes of the parties involved. [(2)]

Lord Ralph (pronounced Rafe) Wingate [(3) right] of Warwick, England is titled and long past the age at 28 when he should have been getting down to the business of producing heirs--from his father’s point of view.  Even his few years younger sister Louisa and her husband Sir John have two children already, 5 year old Henry and 3 year old Charlotte.  Lord Rafe is a doting Uncle for his delightful niece and nephew.  So he has gradually come around to the position that he is not averse to the idea of marriage--not one bit.  His parents’ marriage is a happy one--as is his sister’s marriage and a good friend’s, too.  And Lord Rafe has sown his wild oats romantically for twelve years now.  So it is time he selected a wife and he settled down.  

As luck would have it, the London marriage market--also known as the season--had a lovely array of ladies whom Lord Rafe and his parents felt would do credit to the name of Wingate.  One lady in particular caught Lord Rafe’s attention immediately.  Lady Katharine Southwick  of Suffolk was lovely, vivacious, and from a good family [(4) right].  Since Lord Rafe was favorably disposed to marriage and this lady caught his fancy, the deed was accomplished in a mere two weeks time--before any other eligible bachelors could even present their cards to her for an interview.  That is the way of Lord Rafe--decisive, and a very good judge of character.  And he was instantly smitten with Lady Katharine.

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