Has Spring Finally Arrived??

It’s been so long since any of us have last written an entry here, I finally decided it high time I quit being shy and write a post to update on all of us.

We think Spring has finally decided to show her beautiful face here at the Manor! Though the weather has been everything from snowstorms to 70 degree weather lately, the Spring fever has certainly caught us all! Our rooms have all been in an uproar as we ruthlessly throw gowns and laces back into their rightful spots (which is not,  though contrary to popular opinion, on top of the bookshelf, under the bed, or randomly placed on the floor), thwack those dust mites forcefully with our dusters, and scrub the windows ’til they practically shine. Some of the ladies have been eyeing those of us caught up in this delightful little disease called Spring Cleaning with an understandable amount of wariness. I suppose it is rather frightening to catch a dear friend laughing gleefully with an evil glint in her eye as she wipes away the last cobweb.

  Aside from Spring Cleaning, many things have been happening around the Manor. Lady Anna has gotten a job caring for young children, and recently had a delightful time going to a petting zoo with one of her charges. Lady Chantel has had some long days working for her job, resulting in not much time for the cleaning she so longs to do. We ladies shall have to devise a plan to help her.

Lady Olivia had some very exciting, but also saddening news. Her prospects for living in London for a year with her family, I’m afraid, are not looking up. We should miss her terribly, but we know how she longs to go! So we await the final verdict in this case… We’re also very pleased to hear that she’s finally recovered from the dreadful flu and mono that had plagued her for many weeks! Our Livi is just about back to normal health.

Lady Jo has added a splendid looking mare to her stables. Masey is a truly beautiful black horse, and Lady Jo has been having lots of fun getting to know her. She also surprised us with the news that, come late summer, she will have a younger brother or sister for the first time! We’re all quite excited about the coming of the baby!

Lady Alicia has been looking forward to her big trip to New York City for quite some time now! She’ll be going for dance (which she is very talented at, I might add), and I’m sure we’re all anxious to hear a first hand account of what life is like in the Big City!

Lady Danielle recently had an operation done on her foot, so has been absent from the Manor for a few days while she recovers.

Lady Amanda just had her 16th birthday, and has met a wonderful young man online. We know she’s very excited to have finally turned this very adventurous age!

Our poor Lady Sam has just had her wisdom teeth out (it seems it’s coming to several ladies at the Manor all at once!). We’ve not heard from her since the operation, but her mother informed us she became very ill afterwards.  We’re all praying for her swift recovery: we miss her mischief and hearty laugh ringing throughout the Manor!

Lady Aurora has been absent quite a bit recently…we must assume it is due to her beau. *sigh* The Gibsons are growing up!!

In other Manor news, we’ve started up the Ladies Writing Society that began but died a few years back. We’re all having an immense amount of fun writing letters to one another! Livi, now that she is well again, I suppose will be back to terrorizing the mail men, and I have quite the hankering to try it out myself! I’ll have to borrow Lady Abby’s legendary parasol though, if she’ll be able to part with it for a time.

I’ve a feeling I’m leaving out some very important or exciting fact, but this journal entry is getting rather long, so I shall close, leaving some space for the next Lady to have at it!

The 29th Day of February

(It isn’t right that I should be writing two entries in a row, but today was too unique to not write anything, and I cannot let it slip by without someone jotting in the journal in memory of the 29th day of February, 1908. I have hopes that I can convince some of the ladies to also jot their thoughts of Leap-year-days here, though. We shall see. )

In honor of the day, here’s to Life, the Gibson Girls, and to a Leap Year full of unexpected things! 

I surely hope I won’t regret writing that one of these days.  You never know.

The Heartbreaker

How many times I have picked up the journal and thought to write a line or two, and then set it aside, waiting for better words or a less busy day. I’m starting to think, though, that such things never come to those who wait for them, thus I ought not simply think about writing so much, but actually do it. Thus, while I was busy today with my various attempts at sorting, it is that I decided to record for all of us the happenings of today, for it’s some of the little things that are the best to remember.
Earlier this week we received a post from our Brittany. The excitement, wailing and delight that that letter created was something that one would have had to have been there to see, but the hope that perhaps someday she shall return to the Manor put us all in high spirits.

Today, though, all of us were fairly wrapped up in our individual duties and pursuits much of the day, and thus a bit more quiet than the Manor often is- Olivia and Alicia were huddled on one of the sofas in the parlor sipping tea, reading, cross stitching and talking together, and attempting to recover from the latest bought of illness that has attacked our Gibsons, some off for lessons in town, and the rest of us busily working on sewing, writing or tidying.

But in spite of our quietness, today has not lacked its moments.

First, Grace moaned that she had somehow forgotten her own last name, and instead of writing “Grace Gibson” on the delivery paper, had jotted “Grace Johnson“, though she knew not why or how that came out. If we didn’t know better, we might think… well, never mind what we might think, but it did give us our first reason to laugh, especially when Lady Jo addressed her Uncle as “Aunt Bert”, and Lady Alicia was caught mumbling to her “Bob”, which, she claims is her invisible friend that doesn’t exist, and we started to wonder if something had been put in the tea.

Shortly after, Rissa arrived home from a trip to town and announced that she had met a “Real Heart Breaker”. In a most lamentable and sorrowful voice, she added “Ohhh, those big brown eyes! Oohhhhhhhh! That melancholy, beseeching gaze….” and then sighed and said sadly, “I don’t think I shall ever get over him.”

I am not sure what she was expecting from such a pitiful tale, but Olivia looked up briefly from her embroidery, and asked “Was it an actual person?”

For just one moment, the room was silent, and Rissa looked absolutely shocked and horrified. Would she be speaking of a dog? Or piece of furniture?” After a short pause, Olivia shrugged and said she thought she was describing a dog. That was the start of an exchange that one could only have heard to do justice but that sent us all into our second fit of laughter for the day.

We laughed until some of us cried, and then Abby, glancing meaningfully towards Rissa asked how old this heartbreaker was. Rissa took her book and declared because we had all laughed and acted as if she was the most ’sensible creature that ever lived” she would tell us nothing of her heartbreaker, and went to her room to leave us to ourselves.

So… there it is. Rissa has lost her heart. Just like… (well, perhaps I ought not to mention names, for we all know who and what already.) Apparently Blue eyes (or grey, of course, if you ask one girl, not mentioning names again, of course…) aren’t the only things that take a girl’s heart, and nor is it only the tall and dark and handsome. Apparently the small, and wiggly, and… er, hairy, can do so just as well.

And truly, when one looses their heart, it is hard to get it back. After threatening to imagine up some great thing, she finally relented and told us that yes, the cause of her heartache, her tears, and the one she would never get over was… a dog.

And now, I am off to bed. I really meant to be asleep before now.

Comings and Goings…

Since we’re all anxious for another post, here are the new happenings at the manor.

There is so much to say, but it seems no one really wants to think about it.  *sigh*  First on our list, we’ve lost a dear member.  Or at least, we’re pretty sure we have.  Lady Brittany Ann, who joined us only a few months ago, has had to leave us, as her parents need her back home.  We already miss her so much, and things just seem…dismal.  But many of us are still praying she can come back to us.  It is comforting to know that we can still write letters with her, although the mail service can’t be trusted for speedy delivery, I suppose.

Which leads to another bit of news–we found Danielle’s missing letters!  I still think that Jeeves was behind it…but the important thing is that now we can exchange cards and see what others have to say.  I know we’re all nearly popping out of our skin, we’re so anxious to receive them.  Now let’s hope that Abby doesn’t dawdle in dividing them out.  We may need to poke and prod her a few more times…

And I can’t forget this: with the departure of one Gibson, a new one (or not so new) has come back.  Lady Lissa took an extended leave, but is now back with us again!  It’s wonderful to get to know someone new…or old.  Er, yes.

Hmm…let’s see.  What else?  Grace apparently had a gentleman caller, although she doesn’t seem to want to reveal much about him.  It’s all a rather mysterious business.  Lady Aurora is spending Valentine’s Day with her beau, and it turns out that Kate may be doing the same.  It all seems quite romantic, because she tells us he’s a soldier stationed nearby.  Can you imagine?  I do so hope she’ll invite him to tea!  We all want to know more about him.

We’ve been having an interesting debate about ghosts in the discussion hall.   It’s interesting to see what other girls believe.  I think that our own ghost may have something to say on the topic, though…

I suppose that’s all for now, at least from me.  And I can’t wait to see what the next girl has to say!

The Wind is Howling…

The sun faded away a full two hours ago, and the sky is dark and starless, and the wind is howling mercilessly around the manor. They say that it has all the signs of being an intense and wild windstorm, and I rather have an itching to go out… to stand in the wind and feel it blowing against me, and the biting of the snowflakes. I can’t help but imagine that there might be some adventure out there in the wind and snow, but I wouldn’t enjoy it all alone, and I don’t know which of the Ladies would care for me to drag them out on a night like this, as absorbed as so many are in their books, thoughts, or… paintings, which ever it might be.

As it is, it’s been quite the day. Earlier today, when Lady Aurora and I were near the gate at the end of the drive leading to our manor, a rude and insolent fellow peeked up over the hedge and in the worst and greatest attempt at an insulting voice asked if we had made our shawls out of corn cobs, and if we ever sold old heels by the barrel. Besides being slightly startled at his sudden appearance, we paid him little heed, even though he did throw a few sticks our direction when Aurora told him that she feared he had the wrong place if he was looking for barrels of old heels and that as far as she knew, only crows cared for corn-cob shawls. She said it so calmly, that I found myself nearly shaking with laughter, but it seemed to be just the thing to do, for after mumbling something that could have been mistaken for any thing in the world really, but we decided he might have said “Sorry”, and he slipped away behind the hedge again and we heard his footsteps heading away, and figured he was really gone, and indulged in a great fit of laughter at his squeaking, insulting voice and the way his hat kept slipping back too far on his head. I do wonder whatever gave him the notion to poke his head up over the fence though.

I can’t decide which was more amusing though- that, or the way Abby charged up to us girls- Brittany, Olivia, Tess and myself- when we were examining the painting Brittany has been working on for a while. After one glimpse, she squeaked out some threat, and then when Sir Anthony suddenly appeared in the door way, tore off for the kitchen and Kit as if the whole Army of the Potomac was after her, and never mind what she says, the color in her cheeks was not caused by the wood stove or any other such thing. Poor Sir Anthony never did quite figure out, I don’t think, the reason for the grins we all had, and Abby’s flight, but… of course, when does he know what to expect from the Gibson Girls.

Grace has been sick, Sam getting better, and the rest of us holding out. Thank God for tea, scones and a whole lot of laughter. They are bound to cure just about anyone.

Enough of my rambles. I think I’ll go see if Tess or anyone will go out exploring with me. Perhaps we can spy on that cousin of ours, or think of some way to torment the rest of the girls.

Bits and Bobs from the pen of Lady Abigail

So I have recently been informed that the first entry in this pristine new journal is to be mine – quite an honour! And yet, it is a task that I approach with trepidation – I’ve never quite liked making the first entry in a new diary or journal. What if my pen spattered, or I had to cross something out? The entire page would be ruined, but there can be no starting over!

*drama*

(Or else I begin to ramble…as you see I’ve just done) Anyway. It has been fairly quiet at Gibson Manor as of late – hardly a mystery or a ball or a party to be seen! Lady Brittany, however, one of our newest (but no less beloved!) Gibson Girls, was recently caught making a painting that both vexed and amused me greatly. It depicted myself seated at the piano, with Sir Anthony Woodville draped over the other end, unusually attentive to yours truly. The painting is what amused me, and the vexing was from the way the Girls giggled and cast sideways, meaningful glances at myself. Lady Olivia even waggled her eyebrows at me! The nerve! And it certainly wasn’t that I blushed. I had just been seated too near the fire, you see. Somehow I simply can’t make these incorrigible Gibsons understand that Sir Anthony and I are just very good friends, and intend to remain that way. *haughty sniff*

Some of the girls – myself included – have been participating in a friendship card swap. Even though we all live at the Manor together, it’s tremendous fun to send the letters “out to the post” with Jeeves, who enters into the spirit of things and produces the cards several days later, professing that they have “come in the post for you today, Lady So-and-So.” Lady Danielle’s seem to have gotten lost – but I’ve no doubt Jeeves has them stashed away somewhere in the recesses of his Butler’s Pantry, holding them hostage in order to heighten the suspense. He will do such things in order to vex us, the dear man.

What else, what else? We have been attending a series of plays in Havena Village, based on Jane Austen’s wonderful novels. I think sometimes that whoever adapted them for the stage cannot be quite right in the head, for there have been some rather perplexing additions that have caused more than one of us to scratch our heads in confusion and look at one another in dismay. Silly man – for it was a man, I am sure. A woman would have known better than to try and “improve” on Jane Austen’s writings. There have been some issues in the casting department as well, but I will say no more on this, for all the occupants of the Manor have already been privy to my opinions on the matter, and on more than one occasion, too. Still, for the most part they are enjoyable productions.

But my ink begins to run out, and as I’ve already written a three-volume novel here, I shall lay it aside and leave room for the next Lady to write an entry.