Heiress of Austenland

Chapter 2

They spend the day unpacking and talking about what will happen. The wardrobes are already pre-stuffed with regency gowns but there is still room for their things. Ella takes a short nap, realizing how insanely tired she is. Miraculously she doesn't mess up her hair one bit. Jess settles in and reads by the window until the grandfather clock tells them it's six thirty. So they walk around the house for a few minutes before they head to the drawing room, their stomachs nervous about meeting other clients and... the men. They don't know what to expect.

Jess walks around the mansion marveling at the artwork on the walls. She passes a few butlers and maids but none of them say anything, which is fine with her.

She lingers at one painting, dreading going to dinner. She just isn't feeling up to meeting everyone and pretending like she knows what to do. She isn't Ella. She hardly knows anything about this era when compared to her.

Finally she hears a clock strike 7, so she starts to look for the drawing room. 'I wonder what their opinion of being fashionably late is,' she thinks to herself.

When Ella enters the drawing room with Misses Wattlesbrook the gentleman in the back stands to his feet, still reading the book in his hand. Ella assumes from this that he has been so used to standing when a woman enters the room—as is he polite thing to do in this era—that he now does it without thought. As the other two men in the room just look in their direction. But soon all including the clients—two women—stand to greet her. "Ladies and gentlemen may I present to you our new guest Miss Elizabeth Civil, heir to the Civil fortune and eldest daughter of Abraham Civil." Ella curtsies politely but keeps her face stern and proper. And she does a splendid job. Ella never thought it'd be so easy for her.

When Jess hears voices she knows she has found the drawing room. She stops before walking in and breathes, looking into the mirror beside her. She does not look like herself one bit. With frustration she pulls out the pins that lock her two curls in place, fixing half of the locks back with her bun, leaving a few curly locks out around her face and most of her thin bangs left on her forehead. 'Okay you can do this. You're the owner of this place so act like it,' she tries to make herself less nervous, afraid only of embarrassing herself in there. 'You are the queen.' She breathes in again, trying to make her face look elegant in an expression. She practices it and gets it down before fixing her skirt and walking into the brightly lit room.