Day 16 (Team July)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

My heartfelt thanks to elmey for taking over the duties while I was enjoying the beauties of North Germany.

Here's today's prompt for your writing updates and for any extracts, thoughts, or comments you might have.

Keep the fires burning! :))

Comments

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

I keep getting sidetracked by interesting things on the internet, and real life, and all that sort of thing. This is almost all that I have written today:

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I changed the subject. 'Tell me, then. What news? I rely on you, Theresa.'

'Well -' She sat up, and fidgeted with the book on her lap. 'Have you heard about the little Countess of Andersheim?'

'Baby Luise? What about her?'

'Scarlet fever,' Theresa said gravely, crossing herself. 'She is not expected to live.'

'Oh! -' I stopped, torn between two conflicting feelings – concern for the poor child, who, after all, could not help her parentage or her protector, and a guilty relief.

Theresa was looking at me with an understanding that surprised me, though I suppose it ought not have done. 'I know. One doesn't like a child to suffer – and yet, Alexander von Winterstadt!'

'If he's red, he's right,' I quoted with some irony. 'Well, at this juncture it ought not to matter – from the point of view of the succession, I mean – but still...'

And, because there was no safe way to continue the conversation, and because Theresa evidently wanted to return to her book, I made an excuse, and left.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh this is courtly gossip - courtly and downright vicious.

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

Let us be fair: Alexander von Winterstadt is a deeply unpleasant character (so unpleasant that I ought to find a way to let him appear, I suppose, but I don't think I can manage it).

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Great conversation - the gossipy tone is nicely done, and the politics conflicting with concern is very believable.

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

Thank you! These two have an... interesting relationship.

[saki101.livejournal.com]

...concern for the poor child, who, after all, could not help her parentage or her protector, and a guilty relief.

Oh, what a milieu in which to try to survive! You've conveyed the feeling of being caught in its snarled web very effectivly.

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

More intrigue. Excellent.

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

One can never have enough intrigue! Well, probably one can, but I do want to make this a really tangled web before I start unravelling it again.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

What does 'If he's red, he's right' mean? Presumably nothing to do with socialism.

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

In canon, it's a proverb referring to the monarch's hair. Alexander von Winterstadt is an original character, popularly known as 'Red Alex' because of his short temper and his very red face.

[elmey.livejournal.com]

I like the way this gives us backgrouind and also gives us a better sense of the relationship between Elisabeth and Theresa.

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

Thank you! These two make a complicated pair.