Resolution: Day 13

Word Count: 78,084

Summary of Events:

Georgiana, her mother, and her sisters attended a church social event and try as she might to avoid it, her impending wedding came up in the conversation, with another woman expressing disdain that Georgiana would dare get married before her older sister. Shelton and Wesley had a discussion that caused Shelton to realise his older brother had felt just as unacknowledged by his father as he did. Georgiana had Hilda over to talk about their dresses; Hilda brought along a picture from the paper of Elizabeth Taylor, who'd just been married, and suggested Georgiana should have a dress in that style, which Georgiana was quite disinclined to do . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“But you suggested no little sleeves on your underdress,” Hilda said. “You’ve never showed your full bare arms before.”

“I’m inclined to have little sleeves on my underdress,” Georgiana said. “But I might let them be shorter than I usually have by a bit.”

“So why can’t you have the neckline lower?” Hilda asked.

“But that low?” Georgiana asked, pointing at the picture. “I couldn’t possibly, not even under lace.”

“Surely no one would be scandalised if it were under lace,” Hilda said.

Georgiana looked at Hilda with eyebrows raised. Hilda really thought that? Didn’t she remember that there were women in their church who were still scandalised that any woman would dare show her calves in public? The ceremony was going to be open to everyone, and Georgiana had to admit she didn’t want to have people questioning her morals.

Yes, she felt fine wearing shorter dresses and shorter sleeves than some women did, but low necklines? Those were the most suggestive of all, to be honest, and she didn’t want her parents to be thought poorly of because they allowed her to have a dress in the style of a Hollywood actress.

“You’re not going to, are you?” Hilda asked.

“No,” Georgiana replied. “I am not going to, not even under lace. I may have the neckline of my underdress lower than that of my overdress, but I am definitely not going that low with my underdress.”

She pushed the clipping back across the table to Hilda, who turned it to look at for a moment before folding it back along the creases she’d made and tucking it back away whence it’d come.

“I think it’s a beautiful dress,” Hilda said.

“It is decently pretty,” Georgiana agreed. “But it’s too immodest for me. In fact, I’m sure it would absolutely shock the congregation and they’d wonder where Father and Mother went wrong.”

“The world is changing,” Hilda said. “They’re going to have to get used to it.”

“But is all that change for the better?” Georgiana asked. “Is it better to have shorter dresses? Lower necklines?”

“I don’t know,” Hilda replied. “They look pretty.”

Georgiana opened up her notebook to a blank page.

“You don’t seem to think the changes in women’s fashion are good,” Hilda said.

“And we’re each entitled to our own opinion,” Georgiana said. “But that aside, maybe we should see about going to look for fabric and patterns.”

“I’m going to have to have a high neckline like you right?” Hilda asked.

“You said yourself your dress was supposed to be a subdued version of mine,” Georgiana said. “Mine is supposed to be more eye-catching. Besides, I’m sure you’re going to know everyone at the wedding and aren’t going to find yourself a husband.”

“A girl can hope, right?” Hilda asked.

Georgiana shrugged. This seemed a little unlike Hilda, and it made her wonder if her engagement and pending marriage weren’t upsetting Hilda and making Hilda wonder why she didn’t have a fiancé yet. It made her feel badly, but what could she really do?