I’m attempting to get a lot of word count done on my Regency romance novel this week. My goal is 20,000 words, which would bring it up to 30,500.
200 words into my writing this morning, and I have this little exchange:
Anna smiled, looking over at Emily. “Remember the trip to Dover?” She turned to Del as Emily blushed harder and buried her nose in her tea cup, her shoulders shaking with laughter. “We took a summer holiday to Dover. I was maybe six, so Emily must have been seven or eight. She wandered off and stowed away on a packet to Calais! Can you imagine?” She laughed. “We laugh now, but I thought Lady Devonshire would die of heart attack when she couldn’t find her little ‘pillow angel’!”
Emily choked down some tea, and tried to compose herself. “I’d hidden behind a barrel and fell asleep. I didn’t wake up until we were already under sail for an hour. But the captain was very kind to me. He flagged down a ship and sent me home on a returning vessel.”
Anna grinned. “Emily!”
Emily’s face turned an almost crimson shade, and the flush colored her neck. Del noticed even her arms seemed pink above her gloves.
“There is more to this story, I suspect,” Del murmured. “Do tell.”
“The returning vessel belonged to Jack Mortenson.”
“No!” Del grinned. “You bandied with pirates at such a young age?”
“Oh, but it’s even more scandalous, Lord Delaval,” Anna prodded.
Emily, still blushing, said, “In transferring me over to the ship, I fell in the water. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking– perhaps I hoped to swim to France after all!”
“So, then… you were rescued by pirates?”
“Oh, nothing like that. I’m an excellent swimmer. But my dress was rather ruined. Fortunately, one of the younger crewmembers was of a size…”
“She came back to shore dressed in breeches and a blouson, with her hair tied up under a scarf made of the remains of her skirts!” Anna laughed heartily, and Emily giggled along with her. “She looked a complete hoyden! I thought her mother was going to expire on the spot!”
Del laughed, wincing. His ribs still hurt from the accident.
I’ve determined that, in essence, my herione’s family is utterly mad and a bit wonderful that way. Except her mother, who is just mad.
And, I have to grin because when I set out to write this, I never once intended to have pirates show up. Not once, not even a little bit.