Smokin' cheroots and drinkin' scotch... like a well-bred lady!
This is obviously the most inspirational blog title I've written to date, and I have Sarah MacLean's Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake to thank for it.
The other night I was going over my London (innit!) itinerary and I thought to myself... "Self, you just blew through your re-read of Shadow and Bone and you really shouldn't start book two, even though the fate of Ravka is on the line and the darkling is doing all the things. Perhaps you should take a turn through regency London for a bit. You know, start getting in the London headspace."
And I had to congratulate myself on providing wise council, because what better way is there to prepare for my London (innit!) birthday jaunt than to crack a potentially lascivious regency romance? Because surely my family vacation will bring me into contact with hopeless rakes of the first water and opportunities to expose myself to the censure of the ton. Oh, and I'm sure London town itself hasn't changed a bit since the reign of King George IV.
But even though I know this world doesn't exist, and maybe never did, I don't see why walking the streets of London's Mayfair in my "I'm touring a regency movie set" headspace shan't be a thing. I've already mapped out where Rotten Row is. I am prepared to gawk at buildings and squares. I have accomplices willing to suffer my nerdy sightseeing enthusiasm in exchange for promises that we'll drink champagne later. I'm going to transport myself for at least one afternoon of shameless regency novel sightseeing, and it's going to be fab.
But seriously, the purpose of this post is not to compare London through the ages or even to talk about my trip, but to point out that the list from this novel of nine things that regency ladies shouldn't do is fucking inspiring!
(And to have a WTF moment because Google searches for "regency ladies smoking and drinking" turned up zero results! I had to include a picture of the most scandalous thing I could find, a drawing of people playing naughty parlor games while stuck at a month-long house party. C'est la vie.)
But back to the list. For us, doing any of these things won't lead to being shunned in society, totally ruined, or being married to someone who sucks just because we were caught alone behind closed doors but not even doing anything remotely romantic that one time, and yet, it still reads like a laundry list of badass things that even the modern lady might find a touch taboo. It reeks of boundary crossing. Which, of course, means that it's a list of things I want to do badly. So much so that I may have just suggested to some of the ladies attending my upcoming "OMG Krissy Is Turning 40" Tahoe getaway that we do all of them. With minor adjustments, of course. No rake romancing will be required.
Sarah put it best this morning when she said, "And I don’t understand why you’d want to break those rules. Shouldn’t it be Nine Rules to Follow...?"
(In the context of the novel, the dusty spinster heroine knows these nine activities are verboten for her kind, and decides to get some pluck and have adventures. She makes this list of ways she's going to violate all of the conventions the daughter of an earl should follow to preserve a pristine reputation, and in doing so, also starts on a path where she ends up unintentionally romancing a rake. Happens all the time!)
Given that we have some measure of gender equality these days and won't be sent off to the country by an overbearing brother to wait out any scandal that might come from engaging in any of these regency scandalous activities, I agree with Sarah. These are definitely rules to follow. And so, gentle readers, I'd like to share with you a list of the nine rules you should follow when trying to be a properly profligate regency lady...
- Kiss someone--passionately. We're gonna skip this one because most of us are going away for the weekend with the intention of a) not kissing our girlfriends because that violates wedding vows, invites drama, and/or because we're not into kissing chicks and b) because we're not spinsters and we've been there and done that. But it's a solid goal for any other time, and so it stays.
- Smoke cheroots and drink scotch. HELL YES we can do this. I'd do it right now if I weren't eating cream of wheat in the company atrium.
- Ride astride. Yep. All about this. Although maybe it'd be more risqué to find a sidesaddle? How times have changed...
- Fence. I used to take lessons, which meant that I also used to regularly spend time explaining to people that I'm not abused at home and that those bruises were inflicted by honest-to-god swords during my "me time." It does sound badass though and I'd love to do it again. Eppé over foil 4-eva. Just sayin'
- Attend a duel. Let's do one better and have a duel. With nerf guns. At sunset, because I am NOT getting up at dawn.
- Fire a pistol. I'm not generally one for the guns and will never keep one in my home, but there is something totally daring and badass about the idea of women firing vintage pistols.
- Gamble at a gentleman's club. Since the concept of a gentleman's club has changed quite a bit in the last 200 years, and I have an aversion to sticky floors and gyrating parts in my face, I'm gonna amend this to gambling in a casino. White's continues to exist in all of its sexist glory today. I would definitely be game for infiltration if it were the 1800's and I didn't have to risk looks of disappointment from Phil and Aidan upon learning that I'd been arrested while on vacation abroad. (Maybe next time?)
- Dance every dance at a ball. Fuck yeah! Because I love to get gussied up and dance... and I love country dances more than anything. Just ask Fania. We ceilidh'ed like champs (with a guy in a sumo Santa suit) in Edinburgh!
- Be considered beautiful, just once. This web interface doesn't have a strikethrough, but if it did, I'd be crossing this whole line out. Because that last part is bullshit. But since I don't and I value the integrity of the list, I'm gonna let it ride.
And there you have it, folks! A totally inspirational list that came out of a fun romance novel that I'm only halfway through. Can't wait to get started and mark some things off!
