1800s White Evening Dress. Long train on the dress, gold sash, evening hair style, and carrying a fan. via The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Definition Empire Style Dress: Named after the First Empire in France. Empire dresses had a low neckline and skirts started directly under the bust and flowed into the classical relaxed wide styles of Greece and Rome. This style of dress is associated with Jane Austen and her contemporaries as a high-waisted dress was worn most days. Cotton, silk or taffeta were the popular fabrics. Only the very wealthy could afford white dress in this style as the cottons were imported from India and had to be carefully cleaned, usually by a lady’s maid.
Kelly’s Justice. I lived in Vanuatu, South Pacific, for 9 years and loved setting my book there.
Blurb: Kelly normally needs no help solving international security problems, but when someone from her past damages her reputation and threatens her life, she needs assistance. Joining forces with her old friend from the Australian army, now an expert on South Pacific politics, they destroy an island drug cartel and rescue kidnapped teenagers. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveKellysJustice
Excerpt
“Why didn’t you leave the army, but stay around?” Grant asked Kelly. “Australia or Vanuatu. Always plenty of private security jobs up for grabs.”
“No, I couldn’t. The brass made it clear I needed to resign, or I would be legally charged. And if I lost my case, I might be jailed as well as dishonorably discharged.” She huffed. “So I was forced out of the career I loved on an unproven drug charge while Ronnie invented the cheating story to make himself look like the injured party. He wanted me out of the army and away from my friends, yet he insisted I stay around. Take a desk job with a friend of his, a business partner, so he could keep doing whatever he wanted while I was kept close and still under his control.”
“So, you ran away?” His face screwed up with pain “I’m sorry. I should have tried harder to help you sort out that mess. Done more to keep you in Australia. You could have taken a private security job. Kept fighting crime.”
That made her laugh. Between their army friends, there was a long standing joke about Kelly’s drive to fight crime and get justice for victims. They frequently teased her about being the female Aussie version of Superman. Fighting for justice on all fronts.
She shook her head. “No. Staying around was too dangerous because Ronnie discovered that I’d been digging through his paperwork to find something incriminating on he and his business mate. Whatever I uncovered would always make me a threat to Ronnie and anyone working with him. My only option was to get out of the country before his associates became aware that I had uncovered some of their secrets. I didn’t have enough evidence to expose them at that time, though Ronnie sensed I was about to go public with what I knew. I needed to leave Vanuatu quickly before things went from bad to worse. I didn’t know how far Ronnie would go to ensure my silence.”
“Briefing in five in the common room,” Jacky called to her.
Kelly was grateful that her partner had subtly nudged the other two men towards the building and allowed she and Grant a few minutes privacy. She acknowledged her friend with a nod. “Be right there.”
She turned to Grant. “Water under the bridge now. I always knew Ronnie could track me down, same as you could have found me with a bit of sleuthing. Hiding from anyone ex-military isn’t foolproof so I covered my tracks enough that old friends or distant family members couldn’t trace me, although I knew that one day my past would reappear.” She waved a hand towards Jacky. “But I’m living in a safer place now and working with people who’d protect me with their dying breath.”
1802 Pianoforte By John Broadwood. Square form, pale mahogany case with ebony wood stringing throughout. Inscribed ‘1802 John Broadwood and Sons, Makers to his Majesty and the Princesses, Great Pulteney Street, Golden Square, London.’ via Sotheby’s Auctions. ~ sothebys.com
Definition Piano- Forte: Well-known stringed and keyed instrument of German origin, so called from its equal command both of softness and strength. Its principal advantage over the harpsichord is its capacity of obeying the touch so the performer can vary the expressions and strike lights and shades. Jane Austen and her contemporaries played the pianoforte to entertain family and guests.
D2D_RetailerBuyLink_HN_7 Piano
books2read.com/suziloveMusicPiano
1811 Typical Regency Era Man’s Overcoat or Driving Coat. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien. Overcoats were called many names: Greatcoat, Carrick or Garrick Coat, Coachman’s or Driving Or Box Coat. With many shoulder capes, or pelerines, to keep rain and snow off the body.
1830s Man’s Double-Breasted Frock Coat, English. Double-breasted frock coat with a nipped-in waist. The broad lapels are faced with silk velvet. This gentleman’s frock coat has a crescent-shaped breast pocket and two larger curved pockets on the front of the skirts. Woolen beaver cloth trimmed with silken velvet.
The waisted frock coat came into fashion in about 1816 and became an enduring style. Typically it had a narrow waist and full skirts hanging vertically in front. The frock coat was worn for everyday purposes such as morning dress, usually with a top hat, cane and trousers. By 1830 frock coats were made in a variety of designs according to taste, fashion or type of activity. This example has an out-breast pocket, a feature which appeared on coats during the 1830s. This coat was given by Messrs Harrods Ltd. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. collections.vam.ac.uk.
The London To Louth Royal Mail, England, U.K. Print by Charles Cooper Henderson. (1803-1877)
How did Jane Austen and her family? Did they go by stagecoach? The dreadful condition of British roads caused great apprehension to all classes of travelers. Making a journey anywhere in the country was a big undertaking and often a gentleman composed his last will and testament before his departure. Traveling in vehicles was only possible during the day or on the nights with very bright moonlight with few vehicles attempting road travel in winter and any travel on a Sunday was frowned upon. books2read.com/SuziLoveTravel
Description of Stage Coach Travel in England. via 1815 Journal Tour of Great Britain. “The gentlemen coachmen, with half-a dozen great coats about them, immense capes, a large nosegay at the button-hole, high mounted on an elevated seat, with squared elbows, a prodigious whip, beautiful horses, four in hand, drive in a file to Salthill, a place about twenty miles from London, and return, stopping in the way at the several public-houses and gin-shops where stage-coachmen are in the habit of stopping for a dram, and for parcels and passengers on the top of the others as many as seventeen persons. These carriages are not suspended, but rest on steel springs, of a flattened oval shape, less easy than the old mode of leathern braces on springs. Some of these stage coaches carry their baggage below the level of the axletree.”
The London To Louth Royal Mail, England, U.K. Print by Charles Cooper Henderson. (1803-1877)HN_10_D2D_RetailerBuyLink_Travel and Luggage By Suzi Love History Notes Book 10 #History #travel How did people travel in past centuries? What did they take with them to make their long journeys easier? books2read.com/SuziLoveTravel
1812 June Couple In Fashionable Jane Austen style Walking Dress, English. Lady wears a green cape and hat over a high-waisted, or Empire style, white dress with a pink parasol. Man wears a tailcoat over fawn breeches, yellow gloves, black shoes and hat and a walking stick. Fashion Plate via The Lady’s Magazine Or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex.
By the end of the 18th century, tailored garments for both men and women were replaced by styles made for ease and comfort, resulting in the neoclassical style of the 1780s. Inspired in part by the statuary of ancient Greece and Rome, the new fashion was epitomized by light cotton gowns falling around the body in an unstructured way, held around the high waist with a simple sash and accompanied by a soft shawl draped around exposed shoulders. This style was ideal for the Indian imports like Kashmiri shawls and Bengali muslin, as used in this embroidered gown.
1815-1820 ca. Blue Wool Tailcoat As Worn By Bridgerton Gentlemen and the Men In Jane Austen’s Life.
1815-1820 ca. Man’s Blue Wool Tailcoat, English. Chest View. Blue wool, lined with wool, brass buttons, and hand sewn. Double-breasted coat of blue wool, cut away in the front. With a fairly deep roll collar, a double row of five brass buttons, and four further brass buttons at the back. The wrists fasten with two cloth-covered buttons. With oblique false pocket flaps, one on each side, with deep pockets below them entered vertically, and another deep pocket inside entered horizontally. Lined with wool. Hand-sewn. Marks and Inscriptions: ‘Hammond Turner & Sons, Extra Superfine’ (Stamped behind the brass buttons) The cut-away coat remained formal daywear for men until the 1850s. This example has long tight sleeves, puffed at the shoulder, a style typical of the period 1815-1820. The roll collar has an M-shape notch, introduced about 1803, and a waist seam. via Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. Given by Lady Osborn.
Kelly’s Justice. I lived in Vanuatu, South Pacific, for 9 years and loved setting my book there.
Blurb: Kelly normally needs no help solving international security problems, but when someone from her past damages her reputation and threatens her life, she needs assistance. Joining forces with her old friend from the Australian army, now an expert on South Pacific politics, they destroy an island drug cartel and rescue kidnapped teenagers. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveKellysJustice
Excerpt
Grant stared at Kelly, disbelief written all over his face. “I can’t believe it’s really you. I tried to find you when I came back from Afghanistan, but it was if you disappeared off the face of the earth.” He winced. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure you’d want to see me. According to Ronnie, you hated all of us. Blamed us all for your problems with the higher ups.”
“What?” She groaned. “Damn! I might have known Ronnie would blame everyone but himself.”
“We all had our suspicions,” Grant said with a sigh. “But when your Lieutenant tells you something, you’re expected to believe it. No questions asked. Especially when that Lieutenant warned us that the brass had been so disgusted with your behavior, they’d spoken of taking legal action. We were ordered to have no interaction with you while they debated legal action, despite none of us believing those trumped up charges. We knew you’d never steal from the army and given how much you loathed drugs, we also knew you’d never get into bed with traffickers.”
“I tried to give my side of the story about all of that, but no one believed me. And despite the army being unable to produce enough legitimate evidence to instigate legal proceedings against me, they decided to force me out. Sweep it all under the carpet.”
Kelly looked her old friend in the eyes. “Did you believe I cheated on Ronnie? And with a commanding officer?”
“No! Hell no! I never believed that rubbish.” He met her eyes, his gaze open and honest, willing her to accept his words as the truth. “We had that conversation, remember? You and I agreed to ignore whatever attraction we felt between us, despite how much I wanted to do exactly the opposite. You’ve no idea how many times I wanted to drag you as far away from that bastard as possible. Get you completely out of that situation.”
She nodded. “But there was no point stirring Ronnie up. Everyone suspected that Ronnie was doing something illegal, so if I’d publicly split from him at that stage, I would have been involved. Our time with the army was coming to an end anyway and I’d already planned on getting away from him.”
She remembered very well that neither of them would take that step towards each other when she was already supposedly in a relationship with Ronnie. And Grant was far too honorable to ever come between two people who, to the outside world, appeared to be a perfect couple. In public, Ronnie claimed her as his girlfriend. In private, she saw very little of him, which was why she had suspected that he was doing more than simply cheating on her.
What did the lady of the house use to pen notes in Bridgerton and Jane Austen’s years? What sat on the desk of Jane Austen’s male contemporaries when they managed household and estate accounts? books2read.com/SuziLoveWritingTools. Writing Tools, History Notes Book 13.
