Tag: Lady Matlock

Music Monday: Foreigner, I Don’t Want to Live Without You

“Foreigner – I Don’t Want to Live without You (sub Español) ~ Orgullo & Prejuicio.” YouTube. Video created for and uploaded to YouTube by Carmen De Rivera. 29 June 2012.

 

THE LINK BETWEEN MUSIC AND STORY:

Yes, this is a Darcy and Elizabeth video, and no, my current work in progress is not a Darcy and Elizabeth story, since I am, of course, working on His Inconvenient Choice, the next book in the Choices Series.  However, this song goes very well with the story. In fact, it really could be Colonel Fitzwilliam’s theme, which I hope is evident in the excerpt below.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

 

Colonel Fitzwilliam has always known his father would try to force him into a marriage of convenience, but after Kitty Bennet captures his heart as she shivered in the cold on the streets of Meryton, he realizes his only chance at happiness lies in making an inconvenient choice. However, it is a choice that will not go unchallenged, and as family secrets are revealed, it is a choice that, in creating happiness for the colonel, could destroy his family.

AN EXCERPT FROM His Inconvenient Choice:

Richard drew his coat more tightly about his neck as he hurried along the street.  He had chosen to leave his horse and travel as most did, on foot.  “Pardon, me,” he said as he quickly stepped to the side, narrowly avoiding a collision with a footman, who was assisting a lady to a carriage.

“Richard?” said the lady.

He stopped and turned back.  “Lady Matlock,” he greeted her with a proper bow.  “A pleasure to see you.”

Her eyebrows rose.  “Is it?  I had thought you had forgotten about me completely seeing as I have heard naught of you for four days.”

He gave her a sad smile.  “I apologize, but is that not that to which we must grow accustomed?”

She motioned toward the carriage.  “Sit with me.  Just for a moment.  I shall not try to force you to return home with me, but the wind is biting, and it would be far more pleasant to speak if we were out of it.”

He saw her shiver and knew he could not refuse her.  “I shall not tell you where I am staying or precisely how I have been keeping myself,” he warned.

“Very well.  Then you shall just have to listen to me complain about your aunt.  That woman is truly lacking in social grace!”  She continued on for a few moments about the demands made on her staff by Lady Catherine and how Anne has spend the whole of her stay so far in her chambers.  “I am certain she is not as ill as she pretends, but I cannot blame her for using the only means available to escape that woman.  For that reason alone, I would like to see you marry her.”

“I should marry her to save her from her mother?”  He shook his head. “She deserves to marry, but it shall not be to me, Mother.”  He drew a deep breath and took her hand. “I wish I could marry her just so that I could remain your son, but I cannot.”

Lady Matlock  placed a hand on his cheek.  The war of what she thought should be and what she wished for him played on her features.  “You are certain?”

He nodded and turned his head to place a kiss on her gloved palm.  “I am, and though I shall regret leaving you, I cannot bear to face the regret I would have if I stayed.  I love her, Mother.”

“More than me?” she asked softly.

He shrugged.

“Oh, my son,” she stroked his cheek.

“I am sorry, Mother.”

“As am I.”  She leaned forward and placed a kiss on his cheek.  “Perhaps your father will relent,” she said hopefully.

“You know as well as I that he never relents.”

“I must hope.”  Her lips trembled slightly as she attempted to smile at him.

ONE MORE NOTE:

The full first chapter of this story (part of which was included at the end of the last book) can be read (in its first draft state) here.


Elizabeth’s Gift to Lady Matlock

In For Peace of Mind, the Gardiner and Bennet families have a tradition of giving gifts at the end of each year.  As Elizabeth explained to Georgiana,

“The gifts must show thankfulness for and give blessing to the receiver.  Uncle says that is the most important part of the tradition.”(For Peace of Mind, Chapter 9)

I wanted Elizabeth to give  a gift of homemade sweets to Lady Matlock.  This sent me wandering around the internet in search of information about sweets in Regency England.  Happily, I stumbled across the third edition of a cookbook published in London, England in 1827 which contained a recipe for chocolates!  Below is that recipe.

Conserve of Chocolate—Conserve de Chocolat.

Boil-down two ounces of chocolate de santé or of vanille, in a quarter of a glass of water; have ready half a pound of sugar on perlé; mix it with the sugar, and work as the other: or all sorts of wet conserves, follow the directions given for cherries, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, oranges, lemons, &c. &c.

Of course, my research could not stop there. I had to try it. I needed to know how hard it might be for Lizzy to make her gift.  So, I read the recipes for the other types of conserves as listed and gathered my tools.  The results were edible, but not very good.

After a bit of thought, I decided perhaps I could find a similar recipe in my grandmother’s cookbook (printed in 1934)and use those instructions.  This is the recipe I found.

Cocoa Fudge

1/2 cup cocoa

2/3 cup cold water

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup milk

3 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

nut meats

 Place the cocoa and cold water in a sauce pan.  Stir over low fire until chocolate is melted.  Remove from fire and stir until smooth.  Stir in sugar gradually and add milk.  Then stir over fire until sugar is dissolved.  Boil over medium flame until it reaches 226 degrees F. or until a soft ball will form when a teaspoonful of syrup is dropped in cold water.  When test is obtained place pan in cold water to cool for a few minutes.  Add butter and vanilla.  Remove pan.  Beat until it begins to thicken and lose its shine.  Add nut meats.  Pour at once onto a damp cake pan (greasing is unnecessary). 

Marjorie M. Nelson

I gathered my tools again and began my second attempt.  In this second attempt, I used 1/4 cup of cocoa, 1 cup of sugar, 1/3 cup of cold water, and a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.  I followed Marjorie’s directions as written omitting the information about the milk, butter and nut meats; making sure not to stir while the mixture boiled; and pouring it not into a damp pan but into a pan lined with wax paper. The results were not only edible but declared good by my teenage son!

Next time, I think I might try adding dried fruit or nut meats, or perhaps I will pour the chocolate into some pretty moulds, or….

 

Sources:
The Art of French Cookery by A.B. Beauvilliers, Restauranteur, Paris, Third Edition, printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, Paternoster-Row.
Friendship League’s Book of Tested Recipes (Swedish Tabernacle Church, Minneapolis, MN published by Independent Press.