The Trouble to Check Her
In which the author attempts an utterly new sort of story.
I confess, I’ve never like the character of Lydia. I didn’t want to write a story about her because of the amount of time I’d need to spend with her, in the head of someone I didn’t really want to hang out with.
And yet I did.
Somehow I got the bug in my craw to write a redemption story for her where she transformed into a proper young lady. But I gave myself certain rules. The biggest of which was that no one in the story could lecture her on what she should do or be different to what she was. That had to be discovered entirely on her own.
It made for a challenging experience on my end. But I think it worked and I’m actually pretty with the way it came out.
I give you …
The Trouble to Check Her
Lydia Bennet faces the music…
Running off with Mr. Wickham was a great joke—until everything turned arsey-varsey. That spoilsport Mr. Darcy caught them and packed Lydia off to a hideous boarding school for girls who had lost their virtue.
It would improve her character, he said.
Ridiculous, she said.
Mrs. Drummond, the school’s headmistress, has shocking expectations for the girls. They must share rooms, do chores, attend lessons, and engage in charitable work, no matter how well born they might be. She even forces them to wear mobcaps! Refusal could lead to finding themselves at the receiving end of Mrs. Drummond’s cane—if they were lucky. The unlucky ones could be dismissed and found a position … as a menial servant.
Everything and everyone at the school is uniformly horrid. Lydia hates them all, except possibly the music master, Mr. Amberson, who seems to have the oddest ideas about her. He might just understand her better than she understands herself.
Can she find a way to live up to his strange expectations, or will she spend the rest of her life as a scullery maid?
Yes, this was an interesting book! People like Lydia get in trouble because of a like of direction and not being encouraged to develop themselves, which is exactly what the music instructor did. For the first time in her life, Lydia met someone who expected her to work at developing a talent instead of fulfilling her selfish desires.
I do not like stories about Lydia. However, this one worked. OMG! What a poignant story… such powerful emotional writing. I wanted to cry at times. Oh, what a wonderful story. I am so glad I bit the bullet and read it. I was so impressed. Whew! That was one powerful redemption story and I thank you for writing it. This lookback was fun.