#thank you poldark

[arthursfuckinghat]

"Thank you"

[wildwren]

ranking george warleggan's blood feuds

1. george vs. aunt agatha - absolutely iconic, nothing will ever top this, frankly this IS the high point of all 5 seasons of poldark. george said "i refuse to be out-cunted in my own house" and agatha was like "this is LITERALLY my house" and then they fought to the death. "that old woman will have no party" is THEE george warleggan quote of all time

2. george vs. ross - this is high on the list for george vs. ross because we all know how much of a ross hater i am, but actually im a george x ross truther, like they DO have chemistry, gay sex would nOT help, it DEFInITELY would make things worse, but i think they should try it anyway!!!! also remember that time george wept when ross' daughter died and told ross that some of the light had gone out of the world with her, and ross responded by telling george he would step over george's uncle if he saw him drowning in a puddle? because i think about that a lot. i might be paraphrasing

3. george vs. drake - i find george vs. drake tiresome sometimes because drake is simply *too* hapless, but at the same time, it's very funny that over the years, george has accused drake of: theft over forty shillings, intent to riot, grain stealing, trespassing, child grooming, bride-stealing, home invasion, and murder; has gotten drake kicked out of church, arrested, beaten and left in a ditch, imprisoned, nearly hanged; burned down his blacksmith shop not once but twice; had a pack of dogs sent after morwenna because she agreed to marry him, and probably other things i'm forgetting. meanwhile, in every sense of the idea, drake is just kicking a stone down the road.

4. george vs. geoffrey charles - i wish george vs. geoffrey charles was more fun but it's just sort of basic like oh no, george, do you hate your stepson who your beloved wife had with another man who you also hated??? how original that's incredibly creative of you!!! george almost marrying cecily was sort of an unhinged touch but by that point i did not really care. i'm a geoffrey charles hater though so maybe it's a personal problem :/

[bougainvillea-and-saltwater]

When Winston Graham wrote in Poldark, The Four Swans, "Love is not a possession to hoard. You give it away. It's a blessing and a balm."

[nervousladytraveler]

@stelly38 @abradner1 @veryflowerobservation @suziebeegee @xxsparksxx @nightowl87 @amherstsunrise63 @londonista59

One last time, thanks so much to all of you for the reblogs--not just this time but over all the years!

Final Chapters are up!

Ross & Demelza weather their holiday obligations and finally get some time alone. This is a big update (5 chapters), so bear with me.

Read Chapter 98 ("Slings and Arrows") here.

Read Chapter 99 ("Veni Vidi Vici") here.

Read Chapter 100 ("Love Commands") here.

Read Chapter 101 ("Today & Tomorrow") here.

Read Chapter 102 (Epilogue) here.

Thank you so much to everyone who has read, liked, commented, reblogged this fic--or just tolerated it as it occasionally showed up on your dash!

Would it have been ideal to post these at Christmas and not 3 weeks later (and on a Monday)? Wouldn't it have been tidy to end with 100 chapters instead of 102? Of course, but as I came to the close, I found I didn't want to rush it--and these characters just would not stop talking!

[pegleggysue]

‘Don’t you think I remember the night we came back from the pilchard catch in Sawle? Then it was different. That was the night I fell in love with you. Instead of just the physical thing … Without emotion there’s nothing, is there. Nothing worth recalling. A shabby exercise. Thank God it’s never been that between us since.’ ‘Let us thank God we are not as other people are.’”

- The Stranger from the Sea: A Novel of Cornwall, 1810-1811 (Poldark Book 8) by Winston Graham

[turneradora]

NEW ABOUT RIVALS 💯💯💯💯

New article in the Harper's Bazaar UK, October Issue, to promote "Rivals"!

Amazing photoshoot !

Here is the article of the Harper's Bazaar Uk magazine !!

Thanks to Emma Jones for the written transcription ! 🙏👍🌺

Harpers Bazaar - October 2024

BEST OF ENEMIES

Bazaar recreates the fictional county of Rutshire to meet the cast of Rivals, a new TV adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s racy 1980s blockbuster

As Jilly Cooper’s Rivals leaps rambunctiously to our screens, we meet the cast of the saucy new show

It’s 1986 and, high over the Atlantic, a London-bound Concorde is about to break the sound barrier. Most passengers continue smoking, flicking through magazines and ordering martinis, while the rattling WC door indicates that two are currently joining the mile-high club. Moments later, an unruffled, glamorous couple emerge triumphantly from the loo and the tannoy announces that supersonic speed has been reached: everyone whoops; glasses are clinked; and the thumping chorus of ‘You might as well face it/you’re addicted to love’ is amped up. This is the opening scene of Rivals, the much-anticipated new television adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s bestselling novel, and it’s so unsubtle that, even alone in a dark screening bunker below the streets of Soho, it makes me splutter with laughter. It is also irresistible.

The 1988 book is a classic of the Cooper canon and part of the Rutshire Chronicles, a series based in a fictional Cotswolds county that follows the lives and loves of the affluent elite – an area the team behind its new, and first, on-screen adaptation are well-versed in bringing to life. Produced by A Very English Scandal ’s Dominic Treadwell-Collins and written by Laura Wade, who was behind The Riot Club, Disney+’s eight-part drama is also executivelyproduced by both Cooper and her literary agent Felicity Blunt. It is largely faithful to the novel but, as that has 700 pages and 79 characters listed by name and personality trait in an A-Z at the front, the show necessarily homes in on the central plot lines.

The two main protagonists are Rupert Campbell-Black (played by Alex Hassell), a former Olympic-gold show jumper turned Conservative MP (and, incidentally, the ‘best-looking man in England’); and Declan O’Hara (Aidan Turner), an Irish broadcasting star who leaves the BBC to move to Rutshire with his actress wife Maud and children Taggie, Caitlin and Patrick. Declan’s new employer, Corinium Television, is run by David Tennant’s vile Lord Tony Baddingham and his sidekick Cameron Cook, an American producer he has lured over from New York, depicted by the US native Nafessa Williams. They are joined by a large supporting cast that includes Danny Dyer and Emily Atack.

The titular rivalries are many and varied, primarily centred on the struggle to win the local TV franchise; simultaneously, characters lock horns over love, money, class, pets, politics and property, while presenting chat shows, throwing parties and playing nude tennis. The resulting viewing experience is both a period drama that seems set on another planet and a series exploring themes that still resonate today.

Cooper – who, at 87, is still in full ownership of her signature cloud of coiffed hair, inimitable charisma and a hundred-mile-an hour conversation – loved working on the project. ‘It’s terribly exciting,’ she tells me, with an amazed shake of the head. ‘Other books of mine have been televised and it was awful – but with this, we took casting very seriously and I can’t fault any of them.’

During a break on Bazaar ’s shoot, Turner tells me how Cooper gave a cocktail party for the cast in her garden, and what a ball they all had filming in the West Country last summer. (The latter is clear: he’s delighted to see his co-stars, including the mongrel Pontie, who plays Gertrude, the O’Hara family dog, and some of her canine colleagues brought along for a day in front of the camera.)

The series appealed to the Poldark star immediately. ‘I thought the scripts were really, really funny – line-wise, I have some crackers,’ he says. Turner’s Declan is a big-hearted if self involved journalist, wrestling to reconcile his bosses’ desire to monetise his charm, his own dream of writing a Yeats documentary and the need to bread-win for his profligate family. Although this push and pull between being commercial and creative, between the professional and the personal, plays out in a larger-than-life fashion, it still somehow feels familiar to a modern viewer. ‘That’s the sign of really good television, isn’t it, when it holds the mirror up to our present,’ says the actor. ‘What have we thrown in the trash? What still needs to change?’

The ways in which prejudices have evolved in the past 40 years are thrown into quite harsh relief in the show. Casting a Black actress to play Cameron Cook, the damaged but resilient hot-shot American producer, gives the series an opportunity to delicately include a glimpse of the regularity of what we’d now recognise as racist micro aggressions. Equally, Cameron’s strength is joyful to witness. ‘Such a spicy, smart character – especially a Black woman, who can carry her own and get her way in the male-dominated world of that time – I wanted to sink my teeth into that,’ Williams says. ‘I also love the glamour: the red lip, the red nails.’ (The cast have embraced the scarlet-stiletto emoji – a replica of the original image on the classic book cover – as their unofficial series motif when posting on social media.)

The changing dynamics between men and women are portrayed with a light touch. Victoria Smurfit read Cooper as a teenager, and has now adored playing Declan’s wife Maud O’Hara – an insecure, attentionseeking former actress, the kind of mother who arrives at her son’s New Year’s Eve 21st-birthday party in the Cotswolds on a camel. ‘There are aspects of Rivals that make you think, “Oh my Lord, can you believe they got away with this back then?”’ the Irish actress says. ‘But in the show, it’s delivered in such a clear, fun, gentle, appalled way that a 2024 audience can digest it very easily.’ When I suggest the series has made more of the women and ensured they have three dimensions, perhaps to modernise the story a little, she makes a good point: that Cooper’s male characters – be it the rakish Rupert Campbell-Black or the angelic Lysander Hawkley of The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous – may seem the most famous because it was mostly women reading the books, and the author had designed her heroes – or antiheroes – to be ‘their perfect man’. ‘But look closely, and the women are not less than the men,’ she says. ‘Essentially, every character wants something they don’t have – usually love and safety – whether from their partners, animals or colleagues. Women in this world are entering the era of “having it all” and are learning to be open about what they want – and, by the same token, we are starting to see a softer side to the men.’

This is embodied perfectly in Bella Maclean’s Taggie O’Hara, the delightful, very dyslexic cook and daughter of Declan and Maud: on screen, she has slightly more twinkle in her eye than in the book – a good decision, as otherwise Taggie could be seen as almost too virtuous to be true to a modern audience. ‘But it’s so nice playing someone with a really strong backbone – it slightly rubs off on you,’ says the actress, who appeared in the latest Sex Education series and has just shone as the lead at the National Theatre’s London Tide. ‘Among all the silliness, the shoulder pads and mad hairdos, there’s always an undercurrent of something thought-provoking,’ she says of the show that could prove to be her career’s turning point. ‘There’s a love story that blossoms out of something really unpleasant. There’s light and shade.’

But the figure with perhaps the most chiaroscuro is Rupert Campbell-Black, Cooper’s number-one character, into whose shoes Alex Hassell is amazed to be stepping. Hassell is a seasoned RSC actor, with turns in The Miniaturist and His Dark Materials, whose theatre company The Factory counts Mark Rylance and Emma Thompson among its patrons. ‘I’m also from Essex, with dark features,’ he points out wryly, in reference to the white-blond locks and blue eyes of his new alter-ego, both of which are oft-alluded to in the books, and about which many young women dreamed in the 1980s and 90s. (Cooper was initially appalled.) ‘Rupert exudes privilege and confidence, so I had to learn a loucheness. It was helpful that everyone was told to treat me as if I was extremely attractive,’ he continues, laughing. ‘When you walk into a room of supporting artists who’ve been briefed to fall over themselves looking at you, smouldering becomes a lot easier. They imbued me with a certain power.’

In the Rivals prequel Riders, there are some pretty unpalatable aspects of Rupert’s personality – particularly the way he treats women and animals – that haven’t aged well. ‘We never explicitly had this conversation, but for my portrayal of Rupert, we’ve kept some parts of that history and taken out others. In our version, there’s a loneliness to him: he is a shit, but he has a kindness.’

However, there are two elements of Cooper’s storytelling to which the show stays steadfastly loyal: the abundance of sex and wordplay. Rupert’s dialogue is riddled with quips – some very clever, some very… Eighties. Hassell’s favourite is delivered just as Rupert is getting down to it, and involves a pun that combines Tories and the clitoris. ‘It was a hard sell,’ he says, laughing.

His character and storyline – which takes Rupert on, dare I say, a journey – are key to the show’s charm, pace, plot and sociopolitical signposting. What would Hassell like viewers to make of the series? ‘I hope people enjoy it, have conversations about the knottier topics it raises, and maybe have sex later,’ he says. ‘I say that jokingly, but – and maybe this is high hopes – perhaps for people who don’t talk to one another that much, as the series goes on, watching it with someone else might allow certain things to come to light.’

Cooper is delighted by this possibility. ‘Well, we’re philanthropists, aren’t we? I keep reading that the birth rate is going down like mad. Putting Rivals on the telly may help,’ she says, with the enthusiasm of a writer who has long had one foot in showbusiness: in her forties, she appeared in her capacity as a celebrity columnist on the BBC game show What’s My Line, and wrote a sitcom about a four-girl flat-share with Joanna Lumley in the lead role.

Revisiting the world she created – and partially lived in herself – 40 years ago has been bittersweet: it made her miss the era (‘it was much more naughty’), but also her late husband (‘there’s a lot of darling Leo and his jokes in the book’). Indeed, what today’s viewers may not clock is the real people Cooper drew on to shape several fictional figures, namely the ‘glamorous aristocratic types who were floating about when I, middle-class Jilly, moved to the country in ’82’. Rupert Campbell-Black, for example, is a patchwork of Andrew Parker Bowles, the late Earl of Suffolk and the fashion designer Rupert Lycett-Green. Her ‘beloved’ Taggie is entirely made up, but the scruffy Lizzie Vereker – a novelist whose husband cheats on her – is, she admits, based on herself: ‘She is nicer than me, though. I love her – that’s terribly narcissistic to say, but I do.’

Like her conversation, Cooper herself still rattles along at a good clip – last year, she released a bonkbuster about football inevitably titled Tackle!; this May, the King presented her with a damehood for services to charity and literature, and she’ll be tapping away at her typewriter on various secret projects right up to the very moment she is dragged out of rural Gloucestershire to the premiere of Rivals.

To all these endeavours, Dame Jilly continues to bring the same philosophies she always has: a disregard for snobbery (like many great minds, she rereads Proust and loves Helen Fielding) and a straightforward goal of contributing to the gaiety of the nation. ‘Maybe one day I’ll write something serious,’ she says. ‘But, at the moment, there’s some terrible sadness and loneliness, isn’t there? So, more than ever, and more than anything, I’d like to cheer people up.’

‘Rivals’ is released on Disney+ in October.

[anglophiletraveler]

In My Life Chapter 40

Help!

Written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon

******************

Sorry that it’s taken so long for this chapter.  I had a hard time writing this one, which is probably why I titled it Help!  Thanks for sticking around and supporting this story!

******************

“Elizabeth…”

There was a mutual gasp in the room when Ross called out Elizabeth’s name.  A startled Demelza covered her mouth and looked at everyone around her… Dwight, Grace and Joshua and Verity.  Of course the staff in the room didn’t realize what was going on.  

Dr. Brown looked at Demelza, “Are you Elizabeth?”

Demelza couldn’t speak, she just shook her head.

Grace spoke up hoping that maybe she could make sense of what just happened, “Ross, dear, can you hear me?”

He shook his head and mouthed the word ‘yes’.

Grace smiled, “You’ve given us a scare!  Especially Demelza!”  Grace waved her hand nonchalantly but in a hope that Ross noticed Demelza was in the room.

It worked.

Ross tried to sit up, “Demelza!”  

“Mr. Poldark lay back down, you can’t get up,” a nurse was trying to get him to settle back down.

Demelza grabbed his hand and kissed it, “I’m right here.  I’m not going anywhere.” Tears were rolling down her cheek.  She could find out why Ross called out for Elizabeth later.  It was more important that he’s awake and feeling better.  

Joshua spoke up, “Son, do you remember what happened?”

Grace gave Joshua a dirty look.

“Not a whole lot.  Elizabeth had just called me.  I answered… phone on….  bluetooth, didn’t know it was her.”  It was obvious Ross was having a hard time breathing.  “She… bitch…”

“Shhhh Ross, calm down.  We don’t have to talk about this now.  It’s not important.  Just relax, I don’t want you to get upset.  She’s not worth it,” Demelza’s voice was a little stronger as she tried to get Ross to settle down.  

“I think maybe we should let Ross get some rest.  The last thing we need to do is tire him out right now,” Dwight spoke up in his doctor voice.

“I think you are correct Dr. Enys,” Joshua said.  He leaned over and gave Ross a kiss on the forehead.  “Son, it’s so good to see you awake.”

“Thanks dad.”

Verity walked up to Ross’s bedside and gave him a kiss on the forehead, “Behave yourself Ross.  I love you.”

Grace got up out of her wheelchair, “We’ll be back later on darling.  Get some rest.”

Ross looked at Demelza, “Don’t go.”

Demelza looked at Dwight.  “Alright you can stay, but I don’t want either one of you getting upset.  Ross needs to rest.”

Demelza smiled, “I promise.”  Dwight smiled at Demelza and Ross as he left the room.

Demelza scooted her chair closer to Ross’s bedside, and picked up his arm and kissed and leaned her face against it and sighed.

Ross noticed that Demelza looked tired.  Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun, her eyes had dark circles under them along with being bloodshot.  He moved his arm so that he could run his fingers through her hair, “You look… very tired, love.”

She hummed at the feel of his fingers in her hair.  She was worried that this simple gesture of love would never happen again, “I’m fine as long as you’re awake and doing better.”

“I’m sorry… that.. I worried you,” Ross’s voice was weak.

“Shhhh, you have nothing to apologize for.  It wasn’t your fault.  Just relax and get some sleep.”

“Did you… spend the night…here?”

Demelza sighed and looked him in the face.  He would know if she lied to him, “Yes, well not here in the room.  I slept on the couch in the waiting room.  The nurses were nice to me and gave me a pillow and a blanket.  I wasn’t going to leave you here!  I wanted to be here when you woke up.”

Ross smiled and let his finger caress her cheek, “Demelza, promise… me that you’ll …go home and get some rest.  Please baby.”

“I am totally fine.  I don’t need to go home.  Drake is taking care of Seamus for us, so I don’t have to worry about that.  So, Mr. Poldark, I am all yours!”  She was trying to convince him that she wasn’t tired and didn’t need to leave him.  “Honest Ross.  I’m fine.  If I get tired, I’ll go out in the lobby and take a break.  I almost lost you and I don’t want to leave you just yet.”

Ross smiled, “Right… but I’m not going anywhere.  Hey did … anyone find my cell phone from the accident?”

“Um no, if someone did find it nobody told me.  Do you remember the accident?” Demelza asked.

“A little.  Everything’s kind of foggy right now. I remember talking to Elizabeth on my bluetooth, and then I hung up on her.  Then she called again and after that …. I don’t remember anything.  My throat is really sore.  Can you help me with a glass of water?”

“Of course.”  Demelza got up to search through a drawer to find a straw for Ross to drink through.  “Here you go babe.  Does that help?”

“Yes, thanks.  I’m really tired. I think I’m going to take a nap.  Why don’t you go home so you can get some proper rest and then come back later,” Ross suggested.

“I don’t know…” Demelza looked at Ross and he definitely looked knackered, “Maybe I will.  But I will be back, so you are not going to be rid of me.”

Ross grabbed her hand, “Babe, I don’t ever want to be rid of you.  Lean down here and give me a kiss before you leave.”

Demelza leaned down to kiss Ross’s lips, then his nose and his forehead,  “I love you Ross.”  Demelza couldn’t help the tears dripping down onto Ross’s cheeks.

Ross raised his hand to run it over Demelza’s cheek, “I love you too, love.  I can’t wait for us to get married.” Demelza smiled but couldn’t keep herself from crying even more.  “Hey there, shhhh.  Everything’s going to be fine baby, please don’t cry.  You need to go home and get some rest.  You’ve worn yourself out.  I can see it in your eyes.”

Demelza stood up and wiped her tears away, “I’m sorry.  You’re probably right.  I’ll be back later.”

*********************

A couple days later, Ross was stable enough that he was able to be moved into a step down unit and also to be interviewed by police about the accident.  Joshua and Grace just happened to be in the room when the police arrived.  They were able to return his phone to him after they pulled the call history from it, to see if he was on a call when the accident happened.  He explained to him that his ex-fiance had called him and he hung up on her while wearing his blue tooth, and that she called back again.  At least he assumed it was Elizabeth, he never actually heard a voice from the other end and then the accident happened.

Secretly, Ross was more concerned if he was actually the one to cause the accident, but fortunately the police officer told him that another driver in the lane next to him caused the accident when he was distracted by his friend in the seat next to him. They were a couple of young college students not paying attention to what they were doing.   It turns out that he not only hit Ross’s car, but he rear ended the car in front of him, causing a chain reaction.  In total, there were seven cars involved.  Luckily there were no fatalities.  There were plenty of witnesses that all confirmed what happened.  The police officer left all of the paperwork with Ross that he would need to turn into his insurance company.

All three of them sighed after the officer left.  “Well, that’s a relief,” Ross said.

Grace looked at her son, “What’s that dear?”

“I was afraid that I caused the accident while talking on the phone with Elizabeth.”

“Well, you were honest with the officer and told him that you were on the bluetooth.  You weren’t actually holding the phone.  I still can’t believe that bitch Elizabeth tried to convince you not to marry Demelza!  Who the hell does she think she is!” Grace answered.

Ross gasped at his mum, “Mum! Watch your language!”

Joshua was smirking at his wife, got up and stretched his legs, “ I’m sure your precious BMW is totaled,” Joshua smiled at Ross.  

“Yeah, that’s what I’ve been thinking.  That really pisses me off.  I loved that car.  It was the first thing I bought when I got my job at the firm.  Now we’ll have to get two cars… one for Demelza and one for me now.”

Grace smiled and raised her eyebrows and hummed, “Hmmm interesting…”

Ross tilted his head at his mother and the dark Poldark eyebrows furrowed, “What?  What are you thinking, mother?”

She sat back and smiled while her crossed legs started bouncing, “Oh nothing, just…”

Joshua was spying the evil grin on his wife’s face.

“Just what mum?  What are you thinking?”

“Nothing!  My goodness you’re so suspicious!  You need to lay back and rest.”

“I am not going to relax until you tell me what you’re up to!” Ross’s voice was getting louder now.

“Shhh!  Don’t get all rattled, love.  I was just thinking that you might want to get a bigger vehicle, you know, for the future, like a van or…”

Joshua and Ross both gave Grace a dirty look.  “Mum, there is no bloody way in hell that I’m getting a van!  We don’t need a van!  Bloody hell!  What are you thinking!?”

“Calm down!  I was just thinking that maybe you might need something bigger with Demelza’s cello, and… and… the trips you might take, and if you start having babies you’ll need something bigger,” Grace was still grinning.

Ross shook his head and looked up at the ceiling, “Mother!  I told you that we might not even have kids.  We haven’t decided on that for sure.  Mum please don’t say anything to Demelza about this.  I promised not to pressure her about kids.”

“Is that something that you and Demelza are definite on?” Now Joshua was in on the conversation.

Ross looked at his father and then looked down, “Look, it’s… undecided at this point.  Demelza’s not sure about kids.  You have to remember that she basically raised her six brothers, so the thought of having her own children is a bit overwhelming to her.”

Joshua moved to sit back down next to Ross, “Ross, I always thought that you wanted children?  This is a big decision to make, have you really thought about what a life without children will be like?  Don’t get me wrong, I really love Demelza and think she’s a wonderful woman, but to not be totally certain about something this important before you get married can really cause trouble down the road.”

Ross let out a big sigh, “Dad, Demelza and I have talked about this plenty of times.  Yes, I want children, but I love Demelza more, and if she decides not to have children, then I will just have to live with it. I don’t want to lose her.   Now can we please change the subject before she gets here because I don’t want her walking in here with all of these long faces.  Please.”

Grace and Joshua both looked into their son’s face and saw how serious he was about his words, and knew they wouldn’t be able to change his mind.  

Luckily a nurse came into the room to check Ross’s vitals so the tension in the room lightened up. 

Ross looked at his parents, “So are two still staying in the hotel?”

Joshua nodded, “Yes, it’s nice that it’s just across the street and we can pop over so that your mother can have a kip.”

“Well, you can always stay at our place.  I’m sure Demelza wouldn’t mind…”

Just then Demelza walked in with a smile on her face, “What wouldn’t I mind?”

Ross’s face broke out in a bright smile, “There’s my girl!  I was just saying you wouldn’t mind if mum and da stayed at our place while they’re here in town.”

Demelza leaned down to kiss Ross, “Of course not.  You’re more than welcome to stay at the house.”

“Oh thank you Demelza, I was just telling Ross that the hotel across the street is really convenient for us so that Grace can go to the room and take a quick nap.  But if you need me to drive you to rehearsal and pick you up, I’d be more than happy to do that for you,”  Joshua responded.

Demelza sat on the bed next to Ross and grabbed his hand, “Thank you.  Maestro said if I wanted to take the rest of the week off, he wouldn’t have a problem with it.  But thank you anyway!”

Ross looked at Demelza, “Babe, are you sure you want to miss that much rehearsal time?”

“Well Ross, I didn’t even ask.  He called me so I think it’ll be alright.  Plus I’ve still been practicing at home.  And speaking of home, Seamus is really missing you.  He’s been moping around like crazy.”

“Aww poor Seamus!” Grace said.

“You should sneak him in for me!” 

“Ross, how am I going to sneak in an Irish Setter?” Demelza was smiling at her fiance.

“Nobody will mind.  Just say that he’s a therapy dog!”  All three just shook their heads 

at Ross.

Joshua stood up, “Well on that note, I think your mother and I will go get something to eat and head back to the hotel for the night.  Demelza dear, let us know if there’s anything we can do for you.”

Demelza stood up to hug her future in-laws, “Oh I will, thank you again.  Take care Grace.  Get some rest.”

“Good night Demelza.  You get some rest also!”

Demelza turned around and raised her eyebrows at Ross, “We're finally alone!”  She went over and put her hands on Ross’s face, careful not to knock off his oxygen hose, and gave him the deepest, lustful kiss that she could give him.  

Ross moaned, “Mmmm I could use more of that Mrs Poldark.”

“Hey now, don’t jinx us!  What… what is this stuff?”

Ross opened the envelope and bag and showed Demelza the contents, “The police brought it by.  It’s my phone and some other stuff that was in my car.  I guess I’m going to have to get a new phone.  Maybe then I’ll be able to find out for sure if it was Elizabeth calling back a second time.”

“Well, I can work on getting you a new phone tomorrow.  I don’t think the store will be open now.  Have they said when you can come home?”  Ross tried to pull Demelza closer to him, but she was resisting, “Ross, not here!”

“Oh you’re no fun!  Come on baby, just snuggle a little bit. I miss you,” Ross was starting to whine.

“Alright, just a little,” Demelza wrapped herself under Ross’s arm.  She couldn’t help herself and started caressing Ross’s belly.  “Mmmm I have to admit this does feel good.  Ross..”

“Hmmmm?”

“I think we should postpone the wedding.  It’s going to take a while before you’re feeling better, so I think we should postpone it.  When you’re feeling better and stronger, then we will have the dresses and the suits and we can go ahead and get married,” Demelza’s voice was soft.

Ross sat up, “Absolutely not!  We are not changing a thing.  You hear me?” 

Demelza looked up in Ross’s eyes, “Yes, I heard you.  But it doesn’t make me happy.  Ross, you’re going to take a while to recover, it’s not something that can be rushed.

“I am going to be just fine by the time of the wedding.  My respiratory treatments are going well, my physical therapy started today.  I will be fully healed and strong when I say my vows to you.   Speaking of which, do we have an officiant lined up?”

“Oh, um I don’t know.  I’ll have to check with Caroline about that,” Demelza weaved Ross’s fingers through hers.

Ross’s eyebrows furrowed like they always do when he’s thinking, “Speaking of which, I haven’t seen Caroline since I’ve been in the hospital.  I mean, not that I’d expect her to be here for hours on end, I just thought…why are you looking that way?  What’s wrong?”

Demelza let out a sigh, “Well she was here with me the whole first day while you were in surgery, but I just got the feeling that there’s something wrong going on between Dwight and Caroline.  That whole day they barely said two words to each other.”

“Did you ask them about it?  That is kind of weird for them.”

“Yeah it is, and yes I did.  I asked Caroline when Dwight had stepped out if they were alright, and she just said something like they were going through a rough patch.  Later on Dwight said the same thing and that it was nothing to worry about.  I haven’t seen her since, but  I have talked to her on the phone a couple of times, but we really haven’t had time to talk about it.  I’m really worried about them though.  Maybe you could talk to Dwight?  See if he will talk to you about it.”

Ross kissed Demelza’s hand, “If I get the chance without a bunch of staff around, I will.  Now, talk less, snuggle more.”

Demelza rolled her eyes and followed Ross’s instructions.  But of course, with snuggling, eventually comes snogging, until…

“Oh please!  Really Ross!  In a hospital!  Don’t you have more respect for yourself than that!”

Ross and Demelza jumped out of their skin and looked towards the door and there stood Elizabeth hand on hip, a very expensive handbag hanging from the other arm, a very expensive dress hugging all of her curves, hair and makeup perfectly done.

Ross sat up in bed, inadvertently yanking his oxygen tube from his nostrils, “Elizabeth, what the fuck are you doing here?”  Demelza’s face quickly turned beet red.  She climbed off the bed and straightened herself up in her embarrassment.  

“I came here to talk some sense into you.  I wasn’t expecting to visit your hospital room while the two of you are screwing.  Very tacky even for you Ross,” Elizabeth said.

“Elizabeth, you’re the reason why I’m in this hospital bed, so… please… leave!” Demelza noticed that Ross was starting to have trouble breathing, so she hit the nurse call button.

“Elizabeth, I think you should go, you’re upsetting Ross,” Demelza raised her voice to try to get Elizabeth to leave.  

“I am not going anywhere until I talk with Ross.  Alone!”

The nurse came in and immediately put the oxygen mask back on Ross instead of the hose that was previously in his nostrils.  She was an older nurse who looked like she didn’t take shit from anybody.   “Alright, calm down Mr. Poldark, you’ve got your heart rate up.  Take some nice easy breaths.  That’s right, nice and slow.  Okay gorgeous, now, which one of these birds got you riled up?”  Ross pointed to Elizabeth.  The nurse looked right at Elizabeth, “Alright sweetheart, it’s time for you to leave.”

Elizabeth just stood still, “I am not going anywhere, I need to speak with Mr Poldark before I leave.”

“Look lady, I don’t know who you are, and I don’t care who you are except that you’re upsetting my patient and now he can’t breathe.  So either you leave on your own, or I call security.  It’s your choice.” Demelza couldn’t help but smirk.

Elizabeth gasped and scowled at the nurse, so the nurse reached for the phone to call security, so Elizabeth finally left.  

Demelza was standing by the bed and rubbing the hair out of Ross’s forehead, trying to get his breathing to settle down.  

The nurse got a cool wet washcloth and placed it on Ross’s forehead.  She took a listen at his lungs, and looked at his heart rate blip across the screen.  “Now that we got her out of the way, I’ll put a note up on your door that all visitors are to check at the desk before they come in.  Alright?  So just calm yourself down.  We’re going to keep this mask on you for a little while longer.” the nurse looked at Demelza, “So redbird, are you his girlfriend?”

Demelza smiled at the nickname the nurse gave her, “We’re engaged.  That woman was engaged to him years ago but is married now to his cousin.”

“Ahhh she’s trying to have her cake and eat it too!  I get it now.  Well, we will take care of this at the desk.  Now, I think you should be going in a little while. Your future mister needs his rest after Miss Fancy Pants disrupted him.”

Demelza frowned, “Is he going to be alright?  What about his breathing?”

“Don’t you worry, I’ll keep both my eyes on ‘im for ya, and if there’s anything you need to know, I’ll call you.  You have to take care of yourself too, ya know. I’ll give you 30 minutes.”  The nurse smiled at Demelza and then left the room.

Demelza looked at Ross wearing the oxygen mask again.  He looked pale like he did a few days ago and that worried her.  “Oh Ross, I could just smack Elizabeth!  How could she come charging in here like that!  I’d like to get a handful of her hair and drag her around a bit!”

Ross smiled at Demelza picturing her dragging Elizabeth by the hair of her head.  He held her hand and tried to comfort her, “I’m fine, I shouldn’t…  have let her…  get to me like that.  She’s… not worth…it.”

“I don’t want to leave you Ross.  I’m worried now, and I want to stay and keep watch over you,” Demelza was almost in tears now.

“My love… I am fine and I’ll… be okay.  I have all of this equipment monitoring…me, and that nurse … watches me like… a hawk…  so don’t, worry, my redbird,” Ross smiled at her new nickname.  

Demelza gave a weak smile at that, “Alright. I’ll go, but I’ll be back first thing. I love you Ross,” she leaned down and kissed his forehead.

“I love you too Demelza.”

****************************

[missfckingfortune]

How many works do you have on AO3? 4

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? I have no idea. Maybe around 150k? (I’m sure there’s a way to actually see this?

3. What fandoms do you write for? Currently only writing for ACOTAR and Masters of the Air In the past, on a different site ( most of which I have since DELETED) band of brothers The pacific last kingdom the 100 thor one direction ( I know, I know)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? I only have four fics. But of those. It’s I Can Wait For You At the Bottom.

5. Do you respond to comments? YES!!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? None of my current fics have ended yet, but I’m not a fan of angsty endings.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? None of my fics have ended yet, but spoiler alert, it’s going to be I Can Wait for You at the Bottom.

8. Do you get hate on fics? I’m not popular enough for this hahahaha

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Currently the good old f/m kind. I’m for sure a plot with porn girl with some good old breeding kink, praise kink, and light dom themes. But open to branching out to m/m or f/f and likely will for one of the spinoffs I have dreamed up ( Azris)

10. Do you write crossovers? Haven’t yet.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Again, I’m not that popular.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Please see above.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Not yet!

14. What is your all-time favorite ship? Oh, like all time? Doesn’t even have to be ACOTAR? Let’s do acotar first just to get that out of the way. I’m a major Elucien girlie. All time? Will Turner/Elizabeth Swan, Ben Solo/Rey, Charles Vane/Elinor Guthrie, Ross Poldark/ Demelza Carne, Bellemy Blake/Clarke Griffin. There’s probably a million more I’m not thinking of!

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? My Reylo fic- Strange Addiction. I’m just not in the same place as when I started.

16. What are your writing strengths? Description and VIBEZ. Sometimes dialogue.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Pacing, not repeating myself, organization, thinking the plot all the way through.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I’m so uni-lingual American it’s not funny, and I have not done this before, really. Oh, wait, there’s a teensy amount of French in I Can Wait for You at the Bottom, courtesy of google translate.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Band of Brothers 20. Favorite fic you’ve written? I Can Wait for You at the Bottom. This was my return to writing as an adult, and I’m pretty proud of it, even if it is a bit of a chaotic mess

Thank you so much to @beesays @cauldronblssd and @witch-and-her-witcher for the tags!!! You are all goddesses and I love you!! <3 I'm so late to this, so if you've already been tagged please ignore me!

@itsybitsybluesy @wilde-knight @clockwork-ashes @temperedink

[sgiandubh]

The Couple Next Door - a very, very short overview and my 50 cents, in the process

With as little spoilers as possible. My first plan was to make a post per episode, but I quickly realized that would be useless (so much talking, already, plus a very plethoric press ) and risky (the more you write about it, the less able you are to avoid spoiling it and no, that is not this page's editorial line). You will have to do with this short review, instead.

This is the story of a botched swinger coupling experiment, somewhere in the middle of a non-descript, Truman Show-esque Midlands suburbia. Where nothing is what it seems to be and curtains always flutter for a reason. Adjacent storylines complement this sexy & risqué core, which I personally found more interesting than S puffing and panting on top of Tomlinson. Corruption, life crisis situations, lost late pregnancies, a hidden child, bigot parents looking not unlike Grant Wood's American Gothic odd couple (especially the mother, enough spoiling it), voyeurism and privacy violations - this is a LOT to take in. With a bit more tact when it comes to script writing (sometimes things are really in your face and almost didactic: never a good thing), it could have been BAFTA material. It is not, and no, Disgruntled Tumblrettes - not because of S, but because of numerous plot holes, useless plot devices that could have been gags but totally miss the mark (walking little old lady, anyone?) and an overall superficial approach. It's like trying to cram half a dressing into a carry on: burst at the seams it will or you will end up with odd bits and pieces that do not necessarily make sense.

So if you set your bar very high or are poised to watch it in contempt, this is not going to be fun at all. If you have no expectations and also no idea about the rest of the cast, you will find it interesting and enjoyable. I personally think Enoch is a perfect cast, as is the very intelligent Jessica de Gouw: she knows how it's done and she knows where and especially when to stop. Tomlinson, eh - not so much. I have zero idea about how she fared in Poldark, but here I found her inattentive, formulaic and totally cliché. She has some good intuitions, but she fails to deliver, especially at the end. So, that's a 4/10 for me.

Now for S, as I am sure you are all interested to know. After all, this is why I even bothered watching and getting a paid VPN for it. I will say only this: there is a before Episode 3 and an after Episode 3, by far superior. You'll get my point when you watch it. It's not OL, but thank Heavens, it's not Where the Starlight Ends, either. With all the indulgence in the world, I'd say 8,5/10 - not his fault, the script was brutal to Danny ('Take a good look' is a major, MAJOR eyeroll and it did make me spit my Coke). Also, that intergalactic arse makes it on screen for about 5 minutes, which is nothing- so long for Mordor's honest reviews. Last but not least: he tried, bless his heart, to help Eleanor, but to no avail. Sorry.

The most interesting secondary storyline is Alan's, by far. The press shite - meh, that was there just to give Enoch's character a job, I suppose. And the child - it left me completely hungry and there was definitely room for more.

Rewatch? Christ, no.

Overall? a solid 7/10.

Recommend? not to my mum, but to my best -offline shipper- friend, for sure. She'll watch for S and we'll cackle over the phone.

Potential springboard? I hope so, but he still needs a real, well written role. This is decently good, but still not good enough to showcase what I know he is perfectly able to deliver.

Home eye candy takeaway? Oh, come on, the one involving this item:

I mean, what is more sexy than a bear of a man carrying a washing machine like I would carry my purse?

[love-little-lotte]

A Look Into My New Guilty Pleasure: Poldark (2015 Series)

My biggest weakness is period dramas — especially period dramas with a talented cast, sweeping romance, terrific scenes (preferably set in some kind of country/provincial side), and lots and lots and lots of just sitting around and talking.

That's probably why Poldark has captured my heart. As a big fan of Outlander, it's no surprise that I fell in love with this show. Outlander and Poldark have so many similarities that I may make a lengthy post about it, but for today, let me just rant about my new guilty pleasure. I'm so obsessed with this show that I actually finished watching the entire five seasons in one week!

Poldark is based on Winston Graham's novels and adapted by Debbie Horsfield. I was so excited to start this show, with a male protagonist originally written by a man, created and written for a series by a woman. I haven't read Graham's novels (I'm going to one of these days, I swear!), so I'm not sure how well Debbie's adaption worked. I've read many Reddit threads, though, and some fans of the novel are not that impressed with how she omitted and added details to the show (will get back to this once I've read the books or at least the seven ones that were used in the show). The show has also been adapted in the 70s, so this was not the first time Graham's novels were seen onscreen!

Despite not having read the books, I fell in love with the story, the characters, and the cast! The show follows Ross Poldark returning to Cornwall after fighting in the American War in the 1780s. He looks forward to marrying his childhood sweetheart Elizabeth but, believing him to be dead, is now engaged to his cousin Francis. He then tries to resurrect his family's mining business and hires a young girl Demelza to be his kitchen maid (whom he eventually marries) while also crossing paths with the villain George Warleggan, a corrupted banker who stops at nothing to ruin Ross's prospects and personal life. As the show progresses, we also meet other characters, including Prudie and Jud, Ross's servants, Verity, Ross's cousin and Francis's sister; Ross's friend Dr. Dwight Enys and his love interest Caroline Penvenen; Sam and Drake Carne, Demelza's brothers, and Morwenna Chynoweth, Drake's love interest.

Yes, this show has a large ensemble cast, and trust me, there always comes a point when you hate or love them. Especially our protagonist Ross Poldark. Ross... is an interesting character. He's terribly, terribly flawed and many times times, I'm so infuriated with him to the point that I want him to suffer. I swear, you cannot go through this series without screaming at Ross. (When that moment came up in Season 2, I swear I had my middle finger ready every time Ross showed up on my screen from then on.)

But my favorite character in the show is Demelza, Ross's wife who started as his kitchen maid. She's the heart of the show, the voice of reason, and even though she makes questionable decisions along the way, you can't help but get on her side no matter what. She's the perfect fiery yet gentle match to Ross's stubbornness. He treats her like shit many times in this show, which makes me angry to no end, but they eventually grow to be understanding, loving partners.

And it also helps that Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson have one of the best romantic chemistries I've ever seen. They're terrific actors as well and they bring the characters to life so effortlessly. They just seem like they have the best time shooting this show. I kind of want to rewatch Loving Vincent now just because they're in that movie, even just in supporting roles.

Poldark is a roller coaster, with so many ups and downs (mostly downs, to be honest, please give Demelza a break!) My favorite season has got to be Season 1. Season 1 had the best Ross and I loved the early stages of his relationship with Demelza. It also has my favorite episode: Season 1, Episode 8. That episode broke me so much, thanks to Aidan and Eleanor's perfect performances. It's the only time I ever cried watching this show. I usually cry in period dramas (I've cried countless times in Outlander and Downton Abbey), but for some reason, I only cried once in Poldark. Most of the time, I'm annoyed and infuriated (hahaha but I still love it!)

The romance in Poldark is also quite unique, something I haven't seen before. Ross and Demelza emotionally hurt each other many times in this show, and they don't have the best communication. It's not an ideal marriage, but that's what makes it so raw and real. It hurts when Ross sleeps with his first love Elizabeth or when Demelza falls for the much-sensitive Hugh Armitage, but these are challenges people face all the time, and it's interesting to view it in characters and circumstances through 18th-century lenses. Plus, it can be very tiring to see perfect couples onscreen all the time. So watching Ross and Demelza's relationship thrive, suffer, and reconcile is very refreshing to me.

Nevertheless, Ross and Demelza are still able to work together. Seasons 2 and 3 showcase the worst moments of their marriage, from infidelities to insecurity, but the love between them still perseveres and they learn to forgive. In the end, they realize that they belong together.

And despite the unconventional marriage, Poldark is not a stranger to grand romantic gestures. Two of my favorite Ross and Demelza moments occur in Season 2:

A real funny, old-married-couple type of bicker in The Beach Scene:

And of course, showing all intimacy in The Stocking Scene:

(Let's just not talk about what happened 2 episodes after this!)

The romance in Poldark not only ends with Ross and Demelza. We also got two really good couples in the series: Dwight and Caroline and Drake and Morwenna.

And these love stories don't just happen! They're fleshed-out characters with proper backgrounds and their own problems, especially Drake and Morwenna's relationship. Morwenna is one of my favorite characters, and she doesn't deserve all the shit thrown at her. The last season of Poldark is not the best (bordering on bad, actually, especially the last two episodes), but watching Drake and Morwenna get their happy ending is worth it.

Finishing all five seasons is bittersweet. I enjoyed most of the story and fell in love with different characters. I kind of regret watching everything in one week haha. But what can I say? As soon as I finish each episode, I'm so tempted to start another episode. I think the last time I stayed up until 5 AM the next morning to watch TV shows was Yellowjackets. Poldark's just too good to binge! It's one of my favorite TV shows now. Maybe I'll watch Sanditon next...

I want to write more about Poldark soon, maybe a comparison with Outlander or maybe just a post about each character. I realized I hadn't talked much about Elizabeth, Francis, and George in this post; I was too preoccupied with the love story aspects and Ross and Demelza. We'll see!

[arthursfuckinghat]

Arthur and Poldark 𑁦𐂂𑁦 Fort Mercer

[bougainvillea-and-saltwater]

hello, Gigi!! 15, W, 🤩, and 🕷️ for the first time asks? 🥰

HELLO, HELLO LUMI!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THESE!! 💖💖

☀️ask game!☀️

15. answered here! 🥰

W. First time they realized their relationship is endgame... or isn't

OUGH, ENDGAME… I think they get that They Are Made For Each Other after the Baby Jia Scene, where they understand there’s something bigger going on between them, even if they can’t quite grasp the deeper meaning of it… But honestly, I think they slowly realize they’re endgame because they’re going through so much together—from exposing themselves in front of each other, in every sense of the word, to standing by each other’s side during their most confrontational moments, to fighting battles together. I think this is how they loved each other too—I’ve told this before, but while their fascination towards each other came quickly, the actual love came gradually, and it came not only because they were both Dragonborn, but because they were both human... or became again.

🤩 - First big inspiration for writing (an author? a piece of media? a plot idea?)

To be honest, when I first started writing, I did it on a whim—I didn’t necessarily have very specific inspiration, I just wanted to escape that dreadful reality I was living… Unconsciously, I think my blorbos were inspired by certain pieces of media—for example, my Miraak has very Geralt of Rivia vibes, since I was watching The Witcher back then, and Jia used to have a very ‘Daenerys Targaryen flare’ too, even though I mostly connect her to Helaena Targaryen and Demelza Poldark these days. Now, I take inspiration from authors (Winston Graham has become one of my favorite sources of writing inspiration) and fellow fic authors, SO CONSIDER I FEAR NO FATE A BIG INSPIRATION FOR MY WRITING AS WELL—I really love studying other people’s stunning writing styles, taking examples, and exploring my own and my story!

🕷️ - First time writing something that scared you, and how it went

Ah, definitely the SA, even if it’s only implied in my fic, no graphic descriptions are mentioned. It’s something I’ve seen in real life through my work, something that traumatized me quite a bit and gave me a lot of anxiety then (even if it didn’t directly happen to me…), so when I first decided that my main character would suffer something like that… I was very scared; I was scared that I wouldn’t do it justice, that my fic will receive lots of hate for broaching ‘taboo topics’ like this, or even that it’s a ‘cliche’ trauma to give a character (yes, I’ve heard a lot that it’s overused). But to me, it means much and by writing it, it helps me cope with my own feelings, so I’m not scared anymore. 

[nervousladytraveler]

Promps again😊 Too hot to cuddle

Oh @veryflowerobservation, what have you done? This started off a small thing then turned into a proper story. Well almost proper--it's not done yet. But here's where we are so far. From the Poldark Like Someone/Rose in December universe (maybe called "Plans and Proposals"?) And it's pretty darned hot here this week so I feel like I did some "field research" but alas I did not have Ross to help me.

Thanks again!

---

“Well, well! Such progress!” Ross said as he came up behind Demelza in the kitchen garden–or to be precise, the plot that had been a garden at one time and was once again in the making. He hadn’t meant to sound patronising but the look she shot him made him fear she might whack him with her spade.

“I had forgotten how god awful this soil was here. Packed hard but also sandy and now full of weeds. And stones.” She stooped to pick up a rather large one then threw it over her shoulder. Farquahar, their six month old puppy ran to chase it then lost his focus when a moth flew by. That he’d remained outside this long was unusual. He had a dislike of getting his paws dirty, a rather unfortunate trait in a dog, much less a dog that resides on a farm.

“We could move your garden elsewhere,” Ross suggested practically.

“No, tradition says this is where the Nampara garden lives. Your mum had it here, I had it here years ago, this is where it shall remain as long as the Poldark name is on the land deed.

He smiled. She wasn't really cross with him, just frustrated with her task–a task she rather adamantly took on herself. 

Ross still found pleasure in all of Demelza's moods–even when she was fractious or even a little impatient. It meant she was real and that their relationship was genuine and not confined to safety at the surface. 

Anyone could be sweet and accommodating for the first few months of love but at some point, if they were honest with one another, disagreements should in fact occur. Their quarrels weren’t dramatic, it turned out. They laughed off the times they didn't see eye to eye and never let the sun set on a row. Ross should have expected as much since that had been the case with them years ago. Well, at least that had been their playbook for most of the time they were together until …

Best not to think of that.

Instinctively Ross moved towards Demelza to ease his mind. He managed to land one kiss on her neck before she wriggled away.

“No, that's enough of that, Ross. Not now,” she said and stepped back before he was able to wrap his arms around her. “It's too hot to cuddle.”

“It's never too hot to cuddle,” he said, his arms still outstretched. Another sidewise glance from her told him what she thought of that.

“You might regret those words, Ross. I’m stinky as hell,” she said and crouched to pull out a clump of Ribwort plantain, then thought better of it. “These are supposed to be good for bees.” 

“I happen to like your stink,” he countered.

She sniffed her t-shirt sleeve then wrinkled her nose dramatically to prove her point. “Seriously, I'm even makin’ myself sick. As soon as I'm done here I'm headed straight for the shower. Then we can revisit your proposal.”

“I can run you a cool bath now if you'd like.” He’d meant to sound supportive but immediately saw he was distracting her.  

“I'm nowhere near done for the day but if that ever happens, I’ll use the outdoor shower.” She struck her spade back into the packed soil. 

The outdoor shower was an inspiration he’d had when the (new) North Barn was being built. It made sense to have a place where one could clean up before heading indoors, whether one had been in the field or at the beach. It was a vast improvement from the previous set up in the yard.

Good god that water was cold, he thought, recalling the rubber hose and rusty old sink.

“Fucking hell!” Demelza bent over to pick up another rock. “Who’d have guessed that nature would so fiercely take back an unattended garden. I mean it hasn't been abandoned that long, has it?”

Only six years.

He made some half-hearted attempts to keep it going after she left–out of spite really–before he finally let it go to rack and ruin.

“Demelza, love,” he said, suddenly feeling very guilty about his role in the garden’s current state. “Please, let the lads do this. They’ll be done in the hopyard in an hour and can even come through with the tractor…”

“No!” she said, then laughed when she heard herself. “Sorry, no thank you. I can do it–I want to do it.”

“Do you?”

“Well, the growin’ things part yes but not really the wrestlin’ with the rocky earth part. But I simply won't be one of those pretentious weekend gardeners. The ones who have the whole thing set up for them by someone else and then just show up to pluck a weed or two and prune the tomato vines and call themselves ‘avid gardeners’...”

“Tomatoes? Is that your plan?”

“Maybe.” 

“No one is doubting your commitment, Demelza,” he said. “Unless you are.”

“No, it's not that. But you should know…well, I'm not really into havin’…” She paused, carefully picking her words.

“Into having…?”

“Help,” she said. “I mean hired help. Like servants.”

“Come on! Michael and Sean aren't…”

“Yes, they are, Ross. And havin’ once been the hired help myself, I’m not really comfortable havin’ someone else in that role workin’ for me. No offence, Ross. And no judgement–I know your family has had help for generations and it is needed on a farm but…”

“Isn't a garden part of the farm? The idea is to grow things, is it not?”

“Not a kitchen garden. It's more like an extension of the house and…it just isn't for me.”

“Demelza, sure you were the help at one time, but you were also more than…”

“Watch out, Ross,” she laughed. “I don't think you want to follow that thought to its logical conclusion of just what more I was….”

He nodded solemnly (point taken) but her smile suggested she was teasing more than warning.

“Look, love, don’t try to downplay it. I was a servant—farmhand, maid, cook, whatever the role. I was in service. And it's part of who I am–what I was. Just as you once were a soldier,” she said softly. “These things made us who we are now.”

“Okay, I see that. I’m sorry if you felt I was trying to erase an essential part of your…”

“No worries,” she brushed it off. “Just no servants for me.”

“Got it–but what about a cleaner–occasionally?”

“Oh good lord. With just the two of us? I think we can manage!” she snorted. “Although…” Some new thought seemed to pass through her mind. “Maybe, if we were havin’ a big do–like a special party or celebration or somethin’—we could have someone come through, just the once.” 

“Cleaner for special occasions only. Duly noted,” he nodded. “But no housekeepers, footmen, butlers, valets,  cooks…”

“Cooks?” she laughed. “That's ridiculous! Unless…”

“Unless?”

“Maybe–again a big do–like a catered event for more than twenty people–we'd need help with that.”

“And maybe before this hypothetical big do, we’d need to hire on a gardener to tidy up in the yard?” he laughed. “I mean, is the party outdoors?”

“Don't you think it would need to be? If it's like fifty people?”

“I thought you said twenty?”

“I said more than twenty. And we could certainly accommodate fifty–or more–out here. But yes, maybe a temporary gardener so that you don't spend all day trimmin’ the shrubs and then be too knackered to play the host. Plus you'd need to keep your nails clean and all that.”

“What kind of party is that where people are scrutinising my grooming? And I always wear work gloves, don’t you know?” He gave a teasing glance to her own hands, gloveless as usual. “But you seem to be giving this “do” some thought.”

“Hypothetical do. Strictly hypothetical,” she smiled. “But I do mean it–no hired help in the house, day to day.”

“Noted.”

“Maybe a childminder–workin’ folks need that obviously–but no proper nanny per se and no live-ins!”

“Oh?” He raised a brow. This was new. He wasn't sure where she was going but she seemed to have leapt ahead of hypothetical outdoor catered parties for fifty (or more) guests on to a more distant future. He considered prodding her into offering more information then decided to wait her out.

“I wonder… just because all was fertile here once doesn't guarantee it is now…Do you think we’re startin’ this too late?” she asked, pausing again and this time leaning on her spade for support. 

“Too late for what?” 

“A garden, of course.” She looked at him like he’d just asked the most idiotic of questions. “Surely it would have been better to start in April or even May. But now? It's so hot…”

“The heat isn't helping but since you're buying your plants already started from the garden centre, I think you’ll be fine,” he reassured her. “And we both know, you can coax anything into growing.”

“Seeds! Of course I’d need good quality seed...but that’s for next year…” Her head snapped up as though she’d made up her mind. “Okay, Ross you can help me.”

“What?” He was struggling to keep up. 

“You can help me dig, if that’s what you're offerin’...”

“Yes,” he laughed. “I’ll gladly help you, just let me go change.” Then he paused to ask the question on his mind. “Demelza, what do you mean by ‘that’s for next year’?”

“That next year I’ll do this garden properly and try my hand at growin' plants from actual seeds,” she said. “What do you think I meant?”

"Nothing. Just know that whatever your plans--for the future--I support them."

"Even if I give them up half way through and bunk off to go swimmin' instead?" she laughed.

"Swimming?"

"Yes," she said. "Forget the garden for now. Let's go down to Hendrawna. Days this hot just beg for the sea."

"Well, Madame," he said, "I accept your proposal."

[flipperbrain-awakes]

I'm doing this gif thing in my Poldark fan group on fb, quick fav scenes. I posted a larger, longer higher-res version of this gif because damn, and pretty (I wish file sizes here could accommodate but oh well.) Some ladies were asking where that's from because they'd never seen it on Prime. I have Prime and also BritBox and the version I watch is an extended UK version... is this unseen/new info for some people? I thought we were all served up the same content. I wonder what else has been cut from a US version??

Honestly I hesitated, I knew some would love it but there's biddies in the neighborhood as well (prob not a very pc moniker but accurate). I think there was some clutching of pearls happening due to the 'nudity'. Is he nude here? I mean I wish!! I have to imagine the camera panning down in my mind's eye. But tbf you can see more at a men's swimming meet ffs. I guess this is the reason we can't have anything nice here because a spate of fucking might break out at the sight of Aidan Turner's abs.

Somebody mentioned Rivals possibly being edited for the US audience, was that you Stelly38? People like this must be the reason why. Thank God I am not and never will be like these women.

[turneradora]

Here are the press article from the Radio Times magazine.

Thanks again to Emma Jones for the written version ! 🙏🥰

Rutting in Rutshire!

Bouffants, bounders and creaking beds… Jilly Cooper reveals why Rivals is her favourite book (and shares the secret of a happy marriage)

‘Buckets of electric blue eye shadow, heaving shoulder pads atop polka dot and pinstripe suits, haystacks of bouncy hair, kept in place by enough lacquer to fuel a rocket – it feels like I’m back at school getting ready for the end-of-term disco. In fact, I’ve walked onto the set of Rivals, Disney+’s big-budget adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s 1988 bestselling bonkbuster.

We’re inside a huge restaurant in Gloucester, which is doubling up for a posh eaterie in the novel’s fictional Rutshire of 1986. Waiting to make his entrance is Aidan Turner, sporting a moustache to make Tom Selleck proud, in the role of TV chat show host Declan O’Hara. Other names on the call sheet include David Tennant as the cartoonishly named Lord Baddingham, Danny Dyer as big-of-heart, bigger-of-wallet Freddie Jones, and Alex Hassell as the polo player-turned-Tory minister and one-man shagathon, Rupert Campbell-Black. It’s quite the starry cast, but despite all the familiar faces in the room, there is an audible hush upon the arrival of one small, smiling figure through the door – Dame Jilly herself is in the building.

Later, in a quiet corner, she expresses her enthusiasm for the project in exactly the selfeffacing, giggly and gushing style you would expect from the creator of such scrumptious literary – and now TV – fare: “It’s miraculous!” What about the producers? “They’re brilliant, they don’t really need me.” This is clearly not true. With 45 titles to her name since her light-hearted guide to wedlock How to Stay Married debuted in 1969 and 11 million books sold in the UK alone, Cooper is best known for her Rutshire Chronicles, an 11-strong set of door-stopping tomes that began in 1985 with Riders and follow the antics of the horsey set in bedrooms and boardrooms, stables and swimming pools. Rivals, the second in the series, focuses on the very 1980s idea of a battle to secure a regional TV franchise. “I think of all the books I’ve written,” says Cooper, “Rivals is my favourite. The battle for franchises in those days was so strong. And people made absolute fortunes."

The ideas he presented were lovely and he was lovely. It just happened.” She grins. “Plus, the fact that he is double-barrelled, that’s nice.”

As is her priapic protagonist. Rupert Campbell-Black is at the centre of the new drama, as he is in the books, and was the one bit of casting over which Cooper exercised her veto. “I thought Alex (Hassell) wouldn’t be right, he wasn’t blond, but then I met him and… he is very attractive.” Campbell-Black is a composite of two real-life, double-barrelled men, Rupert Lycett Green and Andrew Parker Bowles, as well as the Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire, all of whom the author met soon after she and her husband Leo moved to the Cotswolds in 1982.

“I’d just moved to the country and met these heavenly men, they became great friends and and I was able to study how an upper-class man would behave there.” Do her friends mind appearing in her novels? “Oh no, they love it.”

Campbell-Black may have wall-bouncing charisma, but he’s not entirely chivalrous with its deployment. Is that OK? “People do behave badly,” says Cooper. “They certainly did in the 1980s. Rupert has good qualities. He’s lovely to his dogs, he’s a good MP and he adores his wife. They fall madly in love with each other. Lots of men are frightfully promiscuous until they find their true love.”

Does she believe men like Campbell-Black are at risk of being squashed out of society today? “Yes. When did you last see a fantastically attractive man on television in drama recently?” Hmm, Poldark? Another grin. “He’s in my story. I love good-looking, glamorous, funny, macho men.”

Cooper’s own great romance was with Leo, her publisher husband of 52 years until his death in 2013. She says: “Happiness in marriage comes from creaking bed springs, not so much from sex but from laughter. Well, a bit of both, but definitely laughter. He was lovely, funny, clever, full of military history and kind. He loved cats and I loved dogs, so we worked that out.” She is perhaps referring to his well-documented 1980s affair that rocked, but didn’t ruin, their marriage when she says, “Obviously ups and downs, but when you go through a down, you just hang on and hope it gets better”.

Cooper’s stories are all as raunchy as they are romantic – “I just like people to be happy,” she smiles – but in between all the muddy boots, labradors on mats and shepherd’s pies on kitchen tables, there are progressive layers to be found in both the books and now the TV adaptation. The female characters are strong and self-determining. “The women in those days were seduced, and were seductive,” Cooper says, before adding wistfully, “Beautiful men and women… and they didn’t fight so much.”

Have love and romance changed in the 30 years since the book came out? She sighs. “Half of teenage children are brought up without their parents staying together. It’s so sad. Happy marriage is the best recipe for life and if people can try to stay together, they should try to make it work. The world is very frightening now. Don’t give up on things easily.”

In real life, Cooper counts among her set Andrew Parker Bowles’s first wife Camilla, now better known as Her Majesty, of whom the author can’t say enough good things. “She’s a friend of mine. I adore her and I think she’s going to be a wonderful queen. She looks beautiful at the moment, she’s become very glamorous.” And, of course, a real-life totem of Cooper’s favourite thing, a happy ending.

”‘FOR JILLY TO APPROVE MY RUPERT WAS IMPORTANT’

ALEX HASSELL PLAYS RupeRt Campbell-blaCk

You were chosen from hundreds of possible actors to play Jilly Cooper’s romantic lead. Did you feel the pressure of expectation?

Initially, I wasn’t sure I’d get the part, I’m not blond or blue-eyed and I’m not from that world, but it’s important to me to live up to a certain Rupert-ness. To have Jilly’s seal of approval was very important.

Where did you go for inspiration?

I’ve met two of the men she based him on, which was helpful. But once on set, you put on your costume and start to feel it.

Or take your costume off…

How did you prepare for that naked tennis scene?

By trying not to get intimidated! If I did have nerves, that day was important as I had nothing to hide behind and it was a naked crucible through which to believe myself as Rupert.

With his arrogance and privilege, is Rupert a force for good?

It depends… He’s reaching middle age and rattling around in his house with just dogs and horses for company, and he’s realising that past choices aren’t going to end well for him. But there is a core of goodness there.

IT’S A PERIOD PIECE LIKE DICKENS’ DAVID TENNANT PLAYS

Lord Tony Baddingham

What was the appeal of Rivals? Before I’d even opened the script, my wife Georgia saw the title and told me I was going to be in it, so any element of choice was taken away from me. She had quite a visceral reaction to it and has been a champion of the whole thing. Did a little part of you want to play Rupert Campbell-Black? It didn’t really matter who I played. But I couldn’t compete with Alex for Rupert. I think Lord Tony Baddingham is a more natural fit for me.

Tony is the resident baddie. Do you have any sympathy for him?

He doesn’t see it that way, he’s just doing what he needs to do in order to survive. Objectively, I can see that some of the things he does aren’t particularly morally robust. It’s all Daddy issues. I don’t think Tony is difficult to make sense of, he’s very plausible. The characters all have drama to them, but they’re nuanced and make sense. You’re not struggling to join the dots, they’re well-crafted and that’s why Jilly’s books have survived. There is a quality in this work that makes it timeless.

Would these characters be believable in a more modern setting?

No, they are entrenched in the politics and mores of that era. It was such a specific moment in time – all that excess; Margaret Thatcher saying there was “no such thing as society”. It changed how people were allowed to think and certain people grabbed it, ran with it and wallowed in it. These characters all swim in that swamp.

The big battle in Rivals is to win a TV franchise. Is the story still relevant?

It’s not something we really have an understanding of now. When I first read the scripts, I thought, “Are the stakes of this going to make sense?” But it doesn’t matter what they’re competing over, it’s just who they are and that’s what drives them and that feels very alive and human.

What kind of portrait of 1980s England do we see in Rivals?

Jilly Cooper is a great chronicler of the human condition. It’s a period piece like a Dickens drama. You can marvel at how different some things were and how similar other things were. That’s part of the joy.

What did you love most about the 1980s?

I’ve loved rediscovering the music. I was a teenager during those years, so there was a lot of music it wasn’t cool to like. But some of these tunes are banging.

‘A WOMAN WITH RED LIPS KNOWS HER BUSINESS’

NAFESSA WILLIAMS PLAYS Cameron Cook

You were born and raised in West Philadelphia, a long way from Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire. What drew you to the role of TV producer Cameron Cook?

It was the script, plus how smart Cameron is. You have this black woman in a white man’s world in the 1980s, being able to run a company. She’s very fashionable, very strong, very grounded in who she is — and very comfortable in her sexuality.

She’s very distinctive. Did you have a particular style influence?

The singer Sade was a big inspiration for how Cameron looked, with the flicked back ponytail and the long braids.

Would you resurrect any of that era’s distinctive fashion?

I loved the high waists, the belts, the hair. It was all bigger, bolder, brighter. We don’t see as many red lips and nails now as we did back then — that speaks of a lot of confidence and sexiness, and being bold. A woman with red lips and red nails knows her business. Bring some of that back!

‘THERE WAS AN INSTANT TRUST WITH AIDAN’ VICTORIA SMURFIT PLAYS

Maud O’Hara

Maud doesn’t seem very satisfied with her lot as Declan’s wife and is very open to temptation… She is a very complicated, insecure, broken butterfly who exists on validation. She’s feeling down, she wants every man to fancy her, and her selfishness drives her to where she wants to go.

Had you met Aidan Turner, who plays your screen husband, before?

I didn’t know Aidan, but there was an instant trust. We barely talked about how our characters operated, we just knew they were existing in an English hierarchy, as this scrappy, passionate Irish family. We instantly knew where we were at.

Does Jilly Cooper treat her female characters well?

When you watch the whole arc of all the different women, by the time you get to the end, it feels like a feminist piece. All of the female characters play their politics out the way they want to — some get what they want and some get what they need.

Maud is very colourful in her mood and clothes. Did you have fun with your costumes?

Maud is more boho 70s than the others. The costumes did a lot of the work for us. As soon as we put on our clothes, it felt like we knew who our characters were.

I BASED DECLAN ON MY DAD’

AIDAN TURNER PLAYS Declan O’Hara

When you got the script for Rivals, did a little part of you want to play romantic rogue Rupert Campbell-Black, as opposed to Irish chat show host Declan O’Hara?

No, not one single bit. Alex [Hassell] does it better. It’s a best person for the role thing. There are very few Irish actors who can do Declan O’Hara as well as me, know what I’m saying? My eyes were always on the O’Hara prize.

How familiar were you with Jilly Cooper’s books before you were cast?

I remember dating an Irish girl who loved Jilly Cooper. She was in the atmosphere, but I hadn’t read the books until I started shooting. On the first day of filming, I got into the trailer and there was a copy of Rivals. We already had all the scripts, but we could use the book as a reference for tone. It was great to have it there.

Declan has quite a distinctive look. Where did you go for inspiration?

There’s something of my dad, who had a moustache all through the 1980s and 1990s. I lightly based a lot of Declan’s character on my dad — he sounds like him and has his physicality. Plus Declan is a dad, and I’m a father now, too. I felt I made a lot of connections.

Was there a TV interviewer or chat show host you studied beforehand?

Declan’s an amalgamation. There are some modern British presenters, but someone I went to a lot was the host of the American debate show Firing Line, William F Buckley. His show was political, smoky, quite serious, slow-paced and high-brow — all the things Declan would love.

You’ve been interviewed many times before. What did you discover about life on the other side of the microphone?

When you’re interviewing someone, there’s power because you can ask what you want, but it’s about building up the trust. If you just lambast people, you won’t get to a second season — people have to respect you.

These things are important to Declan. Even the word “chat” irks him slightly. Rivals is set firmly in the 1980s. What would you like to bring back from that decade?

The lack of telecommunications and mobile phones. As we see in the show, it forces people into situations that could be easily solved with a phone call. The characters can’t contact someone on the other side of the county, they have to show up unannounced at their house. There’s a lawlessness, a looseness, an unpredictability.

‘I MISS THE SHOULDER PADS’

KATHERINE PARKINSON PLAYS Lizzie Vereker

Lizzie is the sweetest of the local women, but she can be easily led by her Rutshire neighbours… Lizzie gets caught up with the snobbery of the world she’s in, and she does that thing of joining in with the crowd for survival. Then when Freddie Jones [Danny Dyer] arrives and they mock him, she’s chastened.

It takes an outsider to come in and hold a mirror up to these people. The married but neglected Lizzie embarks on an affair with Freddie. Did you approve?

They are both quite pure and drawn to each other for the right reasons, so it’s actually a positive thing. You want these characters to find themselves again.

Rivals is set in 1986. Have things got better for women since then?

My mother’s generation were more likely to sacrifice their talents for the sake of their husbands. I think that’s definitely evolved since the time Jilly Cooper was writing about, but it’s helpful to look back and see what still needs to change.

In your opinion, what was better about the 1980s?

The earrings… and the shoulder pads.

‘I’VE NEVER CLAIMED TO BE A HARD MAN’

DANNY DYER PLAYS Freddie Jones

Tech millionaire Freddie Jones is a lot softer than the “hard” men you usually play?

I don’t know where that comes from. I know I’m a working-class actor, I swear a bit and walk like a duck with a swagger, but I’ve never claimed to be a hard man. When I was in EastEnders, I wore a pink dressing gown. But this is something different and, for me as an actor, I needed an opportunity to look different. I don’t get many opportunities to do that. Even my biggest haters through their gritted teeth might have to accept that Freddie is a nice, watchable character.

Was that your real hair?

I wish. I had it all clipped on. What a bouffant it is! I’ll cling on to what I have for dear life, but I accept it. I’m a grandfather now, I’m allowed to go bald.

Freddie is the richest of all the characters, but an outsider in Rutshire. Is he the real top dog?

There’s a kindness behind the eyes of Freddie, but he’s a teddy bear with a bite. He has no desire to be top dog, but when he needs to put his foot down, he does. I fell in love with him when I read the script.

One scene, where Freddie and his wife are mocked by the Rutshire set, makes for uncomfortable viewing...

There’s an element of classism and other -isms in the show. As much as they want Freddie and his money around, they also look down their noses at him.

In 2018, you accused David Cameron of “putting his trotters up” instead of working hard. How did it feel going to Gloucestershire, the stomping ground of Cameron and his pals?

It’s not the world I come from. But this is set in the 1980s, we’re in a different era and environment now, but we’re true to how it was.

Freddie also develops a slowburn, hard-earned romance with Lizzie Vereker…

They’re both in marriages where they feel suppressed and don’t feel seen. Hopefully, the audience will root for us to have an affair, which is a strange thing as it sounds awful.

Do Freddie and Lizzie get a suitably Cooper-esque sex scene?

You’ll have to keep watching. Things take a surreal turn.

What was the best aspect of the 1980s? Anything you miss?

I think we have far too much technology now. I have children who can’t understand how we survived without mobile phones. I feel it was slightly less complicated in the way we engaged with each other: sitting down, making eye contact.

EMILY ATACK PLAYS

SARAH STRATTON

Your character, the wife of the Tory deputy Prime Minister, appears very manipulative and conniving. Did you enjoy playing her?

She’s a car crash, but she’s ambitious, smart and a bit sick of being told all her life she’s a ditzy blonde. Particularly at the time this is set, women felt there was little other option for them but to use their sexuality to get what they wanted. Characters like her are often written as unlikeable, but there are lots of hidden layers and vulnerabilities.

Her look is very much of her time. How did you go about creating it?

My morning pick-up times were the earliest of the entire cast. Hours and hours in hair and make-up — so much hairspray and backcombing. At my first fitting for costume, I thought, “I’m never going to fit into that,” but with a pair of Spanx we were good to go. And I bought some cheap 80s perfume, which I wore every day.

For one famous scene of naked tennis with Rupert Campbell Black, there are no clothes at all. How did that feel?

The whole cast were warned early on that there would be nudity and sex scenes, so you knew what you were getting into. The sex is integral to the scenes and the characters, and the tennis scene is very famous, so I wanted to get it right. Alex [Hassell] and I talked it through with the director, to make sure we felt comfortable. It was a closed set. I felt very safe, and I had a great spray tan.

Last year you made a documentary about the sexual harassment you’ve received for several years. Did you hesitate to take this role, or did you feel defiant?

You can’t win whatever you do. If you keep your clothes on you’re a frigid nun, if you take your clothes off you’re a tart. But I love my job and if a role I’m playing requires nudity and it’s integral to the story and I’m safe, I’m exactly where I should be. I’ve learnt it’s not my behaviour that needs to be looked at and changed, it’s other people’s. I’ve learned to take back the narrative that was taken from me — my sexuality, my body. These kinds of roles are fun. I’m still young and it’s OK to feel liberated. I enjoy what I do. And it’s Jilly Cooper – it’s an honour to do it!

Since filming, you’ve had a baby. Are you thinking about work again yet?

For nine months solid, I sat on my arse, ate peanut butter sandwiches and watched all of Downton Abbey. So I’ve had my time off, and now I’m back

[anglophiletraveler]

In My Life

Chapter 41

And I Love Her

Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

I could hear this song in my head when I was writing about Grace and Joshua in this chapter.  Thye’ve had this long, loving relationship for so many years.  They’re one of those couples who still hold hands while taking a walk, and still very much enjoy making love.  Must be where Ross gets it from!  Thanks for being loyal readers.  

***************** 

Demelza got a phone call from the hospital later that night.  It had actually woke her from a deep sleep that she had finally managed to obtain.  At first she was confused as to why her phone was ringing and then she quickly answered the phone.  It was a nurse from the hospital. The nursing staff had to move Ross back into ICU because his sats wouldn’t stabilise after the disastrous visit from Elizabeth.  She quickly called Caroline and Dwight and they picked her up on the way to the hospital.  She decided to wait until she saw Ross before she woke up his parents.  On the way to the hospital Demelza told the couple about Elizabeth showing up and getting Ross upset, refusing to leave, and how Ross’s nurse had to throw Elizabeth out and threaten to call security.  It was after this that his breathing became laboured again.  Demelza had packed a small bag with her this time.

The three friends walked swiftly into the waiting room for the ICU unit. Dwight stopped Demelza and had her get her composure before they approached the window that separated the nurses station from the waiting room.  Demelza took a couple deep breaths and rang the buzzer to let the nurses know that they were there.  The window slid back to reveal a nurse, “Hello, I was called earlier and told that my fiance’ Ross Poldark was transferred here because of his breathing.”

The nurse looked at her and at Dwight and Caroline behind her.  “Hold on, I’ll go get his nurse,” and she closed the window again.  

Demelza rolled her eyes and started biting her lip.  Caroline stepped forward and put her arms around her friend, “It’s going to be okay.  He’s right where he needs to be.  And don’t you worry, the next time I see Elizabeth, I will personally slap her.”

Dwight stepped in the conversation, “Caroline, that’s not going to help anything.”

Demelza swung her head around so quickly at Dwight she looked like she was from the Exorcism, “Like hell it won’t Dwight.”  Dwight’s eyes widened at Demelza’s response.

The window opened again, and the nurse smiled at Demelza, “Hello, I think I remember you from when Mr Poldark was in our unit the last time.”

Demelza smiled at the recognition, “Yes, hello, so how is Ross?  Can I see him?”

“Hello Dr. Enys.  Well, he’s finally resting comfortably now and we’d like to keep him that way.  His breathing became very laboured a few hours ago like I told you over the phone.  But I told him that you’re here, and he’s asked to see you.  So you can see him but only for a few minutes.”

“Did you have to intubate him?” Dwight asked.

“No, but it was close.  We’re doing what we can to avoid that.  Radiology will be coming in for a portable chest x-ray soon.  We’ve been keeping a really close eye on him.  He’s on 4 litres of 02 right now, so hopefully by morning we can titrate that down.”

“Thank you.  May we see him now?” Dwight asked.

The nurse gave him a pensive look, “I really should only let his fiance in, but if you promise not to excite him, I’ll let all of you go in, but just for a few minutes.”  The nurse opened the door and let the three friends go into Ross’s room.  Demelza hated how quiet it was in this unit.  The quiet was accented by the beeping of the machines, the blue lights glowing from the monitors, the swooshing sound from the respirators.

The nurse pulled back the curtain to Ross’s room.  Demelza was making every effort to keep herself together, but the minute she saw Ross laying in that bed looking pale again, she couldn’t hide her tears.

Ross smiled, “Hey, hey baby don’t cry.. … I’m fine. And I’ll be ….even better tomorrow.  You just ….wait and see.  Shhhh.”

Demelza sat next to him on his bed and held his hand, “I’m sorry, I can’t help it.  You need to stop scaring the shit out of me like this!”

Ross smiled at his fiance, “I’m sorry,” Ross turned his head and noticed Caroline standing behind Dwight. “Oh fuck… I must be dying if… Caroline is here,” he was only half kidding when he saw her standing there.  He hadn’t seen her since he had been in the hospital.

Caroline smiled and stepped forward, “No, I’ve just been lifting weights so that when I punch Elizabeth it will really leave a shiner on her eye!”  All four friends laughed at her statement.  

Demelza raised an eyebrow at Caroline, “Get in line girlfriend, I get my hands on her first.”

Ross was looking at his fierce redhead, “Hang on…now, wait until I’m better… so I can watch!”

Dwight shook his head, “How are you feeling Ross?  What’s your chest feeling like?”

Ross tilted his head a little, “Um, it’s… a little tight.  I imagine…after a couple… more breathing treatments…it will feel…better.”  

Dwight could tell that he was struggling and looked tired.  He cleared his throat, “Ladies, I think we need to get going so Ross can get some rest.”  He gave Caroline a knowing look.

“Yes, I need to get my beauty sleep,” Caroline said.  “Demelza, why don’t you spend the night with us?  And then I can drive you back first thing in the morning.”

Demelza shook her head, “No, I’m going to spend the night in the waiting room.  I packed a bag.”

Ross grabbed Demelza’s hand again, “Babe, I promise I’ll …be alright.  Go home, or …spend the night with them...  Besides, the morning isn’t… that far off.  Get… some rest.  ‘Kay?  Please?”

A tear rolled down Demelza’s cheek, “Oh, alright.  But I’m just going to be right back here in the morning.”  She leaned down and kissed him again. “I love you Ross.”

“I love you too baby.”

Caroline wiped a tear from her eye watching her friends.  They left the room and they all let out a heavy sigh.  Demelza looked Dwight in the eye, “Okay Dwight, be honest. How is he really?”

“Well, he’s struggling to breathe again, like he did when he first came out of surgery, and I’m not happy about that.  From what the nurse said, he’s right on the edge of needing to go back on the vent, and that’s not good.  I think the next couple of hours are critical in keeping him off the vent.  If he can make it through the next few hours without having to go on the vent, that will be huge.  He needs to stay calm and rest.  I’m not going to stop you from spending the night here in the waiting room, but I would tell the nurses to not tell him that you’re here, because the last thing he needs is to worry about you sleeping out here.  But, I understand that you want to be close by.  Have you thought about getting a hotel room across the street where Joshua and Grace are?”

“No, I haven’t.  Do you think I should call them?”

“Yes, I do. Just because I think they should know what happened with Elizabeth and how it caused him to have a setback.  Would you like me to call them?” Dwight asked.

“No, I should do it.  Thank you both for coming with me.  I’m sorry to get you out of bed in the middle of the night,” Demelza’s voice was low.

Caroline hugged her friend, “Don’t be ridiculous.  We’re here for you 24/7.  Just take care of yourself and don’t be afraid to call us, alright?”

Demelza shook her head in reply.  She was glad to see Caroline and Dwight together and they didn’t seem to be as tense together as they had been previously.  After they left, Demelza walked back up to the window for the nurse station.  When the window opened she explained that she was going to stay in the waiting room, but they weren't to let Ross know.  She sat down and stretched her neck out a little and then called Joshua.  He was able to talk with Demelza without waking up his wife.

“So, I’m going to get you a room here at the hotel so you’ll be closer.  I’ll come over in a few hours and relieve you, so that you can come get your room and rest.  And I’ll not take no for an answer, Demelza.  Do you hear?  You don’t have to do this all on your own.”

“Yes, I hear.  I’ll call if there are any changes.”  She hung up and decided to get as comfortable as she could on the green couch that smelled like hospital antiseptic.

**********************

When Joshua arrived, he found Demelza asleep in an uncomfortable position on the green couch.  He went over to the window for the nurse’s station and gave them a list of Trenwith occupants who weren’t allowed to visit Ross with the exception of Verity.  They weren’t going to risk another setback in Ross’s condition.

Joshua gave Demelza’s shoulder a nudge to wake her up, “Come on, luv, wake up so you can go get some real rest at the hotel.  Here’s your room key, you’re in room 318.”

“Wha..oh hello.  What time is it?”

“It’s time for you to go get some rest.  Don’t worry about Ross, I’ll keep an eye on him.  Come on, up you go.  And Ross is still asleep so don’t even think of going in to say good-bye.  You can see him later.”

Demelza frowned at her future father-in-law.  He had a different tone in his voice that she didn’t appreciate.  She hasn’t allowed anyone to speak to her that way since she walked out of her father’s house all those years ago and never looked back.  So she’s hoping that he’s just in a grumpy mood for not getting enough sleep.  She didn’t really know her future in-laws that well, so she needs to tread cautiously.  “Well, I am going to see him before I leave.” She got up and went to check on Ross.  Joshua furrowed his brows like Ross when he watched her walk back to Ross’s room.

**********************

Demelza quietly walked back to Ross’s room.  She didn’t want to wake him, she just wanted to see his sleeping face before she checked into the hotel room, but she was greeted by a brilliant smile.  “Well hey there!  I wasn’t expecting you to be awake!”

“Well I wasn’t expecting youuu… to be here at all!  So either …you got up extra early to get here, or… you spent the night… on the couch after…I told you to go…home!  I’m guessin….that you spent the night.  Come here…and kiss me.”

Demelza didn’t waste any time and gave Ross a long, slow kiss, “Mmmm, I love you, but I shouldn’t be doing this in case your father walks in.”

“My father?  Who cares …..what he walks in on.”

“Well, he told me not to come in and see you before I left.  I think he was afraid that I was going to wake you up and disturb you,” Demelza added.

“Well, I’m glad that you didn’t listen to him,” Ross’s eyes were starting to have their sparkle back

“Well you look like you feel better.  That’s good.  Maybe you can get moved out of this room into a regular room today?”  Demelza was hoping for the best.

“That’s a definite possibility!” Demelza turned to the voice of the same nurse that ran Elizabeth out of town yesterday.  “Good morning Red, I trust you had a good night’s sleep on that lovely green couch.”

Demelza chuckled, “As a matter of fact I did, thank you very much.  I’m actually becoming quite attached to it!  So you think you might be setting this one loose today?”

“Mmmaybe.  But your father brought us a list of visitors that are not allowed to visit, so that should help.  So I’ll leave you two alone for a few minutes before you go find a real bed, and so this gorgeous hunk of man can get another breathing treatment.”

Ross smiled at the nurse, “Gorgeous huh?  …You better watch out …Demelza, you might have some competition!”  The nurse laughed on her way out the door.

Demelza gently ran her hand over Ross’s cheek, using her thumb to caress his lips. “I can’t wait to get you home, Ross.  I miss you so much,” she was doing her best to hold back that lump in  her throat.

“I know baby, I want to be ….home with…. you too.  I promise you…. I’m doing everything… I can to get better.  Now why don’t …….you go home and get some ……..really good sleep, and I’m going to let them………. do that wonderful breathing treatment on me.”

Demelza sighed, “Ok.  Your dad got a hotel room for me across the street with them so I can just go over there.  Drake is taking care of Seamus so we don’t have to worry about him.  I brought a change of clothes with me, so after I wake up and shower, and I’ll smell better, I’ll come back to be with you, alright?”

Ross smiled, “Sounds good.”

*************************

“Here’s your medicine, love, and a cup of water,” Joshua handed Grace her mid-day meds

“Where’s my spoonful of sugar?” Grace’s eyes had their usual morning twinkle in them.  Joshua smiled at his wife, trying not to let the worry show through.  This latest trip to London had been hard on his wife and her routine.  Plus, she was definitely getting weaker from the treatments.  He was beginning to wonder if putting the surgery off until after the wedding was a wise decision, and now Ross’s accident on top it didn't help things at all.   

“I’m going to order some room service for lunch, and after we eat, I’ll head back to the hospital,” Joshua looked at his watch, “It’s 12:00 so hopefully Demelza is fast asleep by now.  What would you like to eat for lunch?  Some pasta?  A burger and chips?  Fish and chips?”

“Mmm I think maybe a cup of soup.  Maybe a bite of fruit.” Grace was looking at the collection of scarfs on her lap, smoothing them out with her hand, trying to decide which one she felt like wearing today.  Her hair was beginning to fall out, so she was trying to get used to the idea of scarfs.  She had already ordered a wig for the wedding.  She always loved her long dark brown hair.  She kept it styled in soft waves most of the time.  Every once in a while she had thought about cutting it shorter like most women her age had done, but she would always resist the urge.  It was part of who she was.  Joshua still wrapped his fingers in the locks when they would be sitting next to each other, or during times of intimacy.  

Joshua frowned at her, “That doesn’t sound like a lot to eat darling.  You have to keep up your strength.”

Grace shook her head slightly, “Alright, I’ll have a toasted cheese sandwich as well if you insist.  I really would like to go visit with Ross today.”

“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea for either of you.  You need to stay away from hospital germs, and Ross needs to rest and stay calm so that his lungs can heal properly.  Christ, I had a hard enough time getting Demelza to leave this morning when I was over there.  She insisted on seeing him before she left.”

“Joshua, of course she wanted to see him before she left.  She loves him and wants to be there for him.  I hope you weren’t harsh with her.  Don’t forget that very soon she’s going to be your daughter-in-law,” Grace didn’t back down from scolding her husband when he needed it.  He just grumbled back to her in return.

“Alright, so room service is ordered.  Hopefully they don’t take an hour and a day to get up here,” Joshua was grumbling again while he looked out the window.

“Joshua, what the hell is wrong?  Why are you in such a grumpy mood?”

Joshua let out a sigh and crossed arms in front of him.  His forehead was filled with worry lines.  “I’m just…  I’m just tired.  I want us to be in our own home, our own bed, eating our own food.  I want you home safe and away from all of these germs.”

Grace stood up and walked over to Joshua with her hands on her hips, “We need to be here for Ross.”  She might have looked frail, but her voice showed how firm her intentions were.

Joshua turned and looked his wife in the face, “Do we really Grace?”

“Joshua Poldark of course we do!!  What the hell’s wrong with you!  Our son is laying over in the ICU in that hospital!  He’s not out of the woods yet.  We can’t leave now, what if he takes a turn for the worst, God forbid!  I’m ashamed of you!”  There was no doubt now that Grace Poldark was pissed.

Joshua turned and walked away from his wife, hands up in the air shaking his head, “For Christ’s sake Grace, I’m worried about you!  I need to take care of you!  I can’t lose you!  You are my life, the reason I get up every morning, you are the air that I breathe! My God!  Having you here is not good for you.  You catch a cold from someone in the hall of the hotel or the hospital and you could end up in the hospital, and I can’t have that my love!  Of course I care about Ross and I know that he’s not out of the woods yet, but he has Demelza to watch over him, and Dwight and Verity.”

Grace put her hand on Joshua’s arm, “Joshua, our son is in the ICU.  As long as I am breathing, I am going to be there for him.  I understand about the germs which is why I’m not pushing to go sit in his hospital room.  But I need to be close to him in case something… goes wrong,” the mother had tears in her eyes now.

Joshua pulled her in for a hug.  He got it.  He didn’t want to lose another son either, “Shhh don’t cry.  You’ll use up your energy.  Shhhh I don’t want to lose him either.  I’m just so worried about you, my sweet love.”

Grace looked up in Joshua’s eyes, “Please don’t make me go home.  Not yet.”

He leaned down and kissed her forehead, “Alright not yet.  But as soon as he’s out of ICU and is stable I’m taking you home.  Deal?”

“Deal.”

********************

And I Love Her

Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

I give her all my love.  That’s all I do.

And if you saw my love, you’d love her too.

I love her.

She gives me everything.

And tenderly.

The kiss my lover brings

She brings to me.

And I love her.

A love like ours

Could never die

As long as I

Have you near me

Bright are the stars that shine

Dark is the sky.

I know this of mine

Will never die

And I love her.