after getting into regency romance over the holidays, I outlined a jily fic in my notes but didn’t use any names just in case someone finds it in my notes 😂
hopefully one day I’ll be brave enough to write it
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Regency- he’s titled, and she’s new money merchant class
But they meet abroad and there they are just “regular” people to each other , the family history is unknown to the other person
Meet abroad in Italy, where they both speak Italian and use only Italian names, romance starts, he gifts her a bracelet,
misscominicatoon bc a letter from his mom says he needs to come home and get married but really he had business w dad and his mom wasn’t serious about marriage/ only teasing …. But she reads the letter by accident bc it was left out and is heart broke
MISCOMMUNICATION trope
She leaves without saying goodbye, the family is packed up and gone, he cannot find her/ some other dramatic parting
1- 2 years later, back in England
Maybe a year or two passes, it’s the season , he’s definitely flirting with other women
he notices sees someone with *the* bracelet, someone’s husband won it at for her a card house
He knows it was hers, goes to the card house, trying to trace the steps, He cannot find her, only knows her by her Italian name
Masquerade ball, they meet, speaking in English so they sound different, they realize it’s the other somehow, and she is PO bc it’s like “oh so you’re interested bc I have money but when I was just a commoner it wasn’t enough for you”
And he’s like “No Whaf— tries to explain but she doesn’t believe him”
He tries to win her back, she has to play nice in society bc of his status and also so it rubs off on her sister who married a lower ranking noble/ not as popular standing
And she wants to look out for her sister
Something happens and her reputation is at stake of being ruined for being caught with him alone in a garden or something
And he asks if they can get married even though she’ll hate him to save her reputation
And she shouts “I don’t have to marry you and I don’t care about my damn reputation, I’ll leave this country for good and marry someone without a title who actually cares”
And her sister basically begs her to marry him because sisters reputation will be scared from the occurrence
FORCED MARRIAGE TROPE
during the marriage preparation she cannot even stand to be with him alone / let’s it known that she’s only doing it for her sister / does not want to hear it
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She wants to let him in but is so heartbroken about the miscommunication situation that happened a couple years earlier;
Something like “it’s very convenient for you to tell me this now”
Somehow he needs to find letters that he wrote his friend to prove that he was in love with her; luckily his friend saves all of those letters so she can read first hand
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There’s a lot of drama since he’s marrying someone outside of the nobility classes into “new money” and also the threat of them being discovered and her doing it purposely to force his hand, and he basically has to defend her to everyone
They get married
And they do eventually leave to travel bc both love seeing the world and don’t care for the gossipers