Two More Days at Netherfield by Heather Moll - Guest Post and Giveaway

I'm very happy to be welcoming author Heather Moll back to the blog, as the blog tour for her new book Two More Days at Netherfield stops here for a guest post. I love posts where I learn something, and this is what Heather has treated us to today, with a post about parlour games in the Regency period. There's also the chance to win an ebook of Two More Days at Netherfield for yourself! Let's look at the blurb and then I'll hand over to Heather :)

Book Description

While her sister Jane is ill at Netherfield, Elizabeth Bennet overhears Miss Bingley and the proud Mr Darcy discussing his admiration of Elizabeth and her fine eyes. Not sure what to think of his praise after all of their previous disagreements, and more flattered than she wants to admit, Elizabeth teases him for the disparaging remark he made about her at the Meryton Assembly. Darcy is then forced to reconsider his opinion of a woman who has truly bewitched him more than any other. 

The result of this unintended eavesdropping leads to confrontations and apologies on both sides and, eventually, the beginnings of a friendship between Darcy and Elizabeth. Their warming acquaintance impacts the courtship of Darcy’s friend and Elizabeth’s sister, the jealous temper of Miss Bingley, and even the behavior of Mr. Wickham after he arrives in Meryton. 

How are the events of the winter drastically affected by the Bennet sisters choosing to spend two more days at Netherfield?

* * *

Guest Post from the Author of Two More Days at Netherfield, Heather Moll

Hello Ceri and thank you for welcoming me back to Babblings of a Bookworm to share my new release Two More Days at Netherfield. Imagine that it’s another cold November evening at a house party. You never have a good whist partner. None of the ladies want to play the pianoforte. Your friend’s library has nothing worth reading aloud. And everyone is sick of playing cards. What do you do to pass the time?

You play a parlor game.

Two More Days at Netherfield features a longer stay for Elizabeth and Jane and, throughout the visit and the rest of the book, parlor games are both entertainment and a way to advance the plot. Games were not only a fun way to pass the time but an important way to solidify social bonds. They also gave men and women the chance to act with a little more freedom than the era’s societal restrictions allowed.

The first game played during Jane and Elizabeth’s stay is called Consequences. It’s best described as a regency-era Mad Libs. Each player takes a turn writing one of the following words or phrases:

1. Adjective for gentleman

2. Gentleman’s name

3. Adjective for lady

4. Lady’s name

5. Where they met

6. What he wore

7. What she wore

8. He said to her

9. She said to him

10. The consequence was

11. What the world said

The player writes their answer, folds the paper so the next player can’t see it, and passes it to the next player until the phrase is complete and read aloud. This game can produce some amusing stories, but in Two More Days at Netherfield it allows Darcy and Elizabeth to send some veiled messages to one another, and this has far-reaching consequences on its own.

Snapdragon

Christmas and Twelfth Night was a time that leant itself to revel and games. In Two More Days at Netherfield, a few lively activities are mentioned. One is snapdragon. The room’s lights are dimmed, a few dozen raisins are put in a shallow bowl, and then the bowl is filled with brandy and lit on fire. The object was to put your fingers through the low blue flames, snatch out as many raisins as you could, and pop them in your mouth without burning yourself too badly. I think this sounds ridiculous and would result in sore fingers and a burned dining room table but, then again, I have a Fortnite Monopoly game in my house so maybe I shouldn’t judge other people’s games?

Another game mentioned at Christmas is Buffy Gruffy. One person stands blindfolded while the other players arrange their chairs in a circle and exchange seats. The player approaches a chair and pushes their knee forward to see if anyone is there—I can imagine Mr. Wickham nudging someone’s skirts a little more than necessary. The blindfolded player asks 3 questions to determine who is in the chair and the seated player disguises their voice as much as possible. If the player guesses correctly, they exchange places. If they miss, they pay a forfeit and have to proceed to another player until they successfully guess.

A key element to many of these parlor games was the forfeit. In order to ensure that everyone participated to the best of their abilities, for every loss or error a player makes, a forfeit has to be paid. Sometimes they were trivial stunts or slightly embarrassing actions or a riddle to solve. Or they could be kissing forfeits. Physical contact between the sexes was limited, so opportunities like this to flirt and maybe kiss someone’s cheek were not to be missed.

Forfeit - "Kiss if you can"

One kissing forfeit was “kiss the person you love best without disclosing the secret”. This one is pretty simple to win: The gentleman has to kiss all the ladies present so his love stays a secret. A more challenging kissing forfeit was “kiss if you can”. Both the loser and the person assigned to them kneel on the floor back to back. The lady looks over her left shoulder while the gentleman looks over his right shoulder and he has one chance to kiss her cheek while she tries to evade him by either leaning down or standing up. A motivated and quick man just might be able to get an arm around her waist and catch a kiss before she escapes.

We can play one of the games played in Two More Days at Netherfield in Ceri’s comment thread. It’s called I love My Love with an A. It’s a turn-taking alphabet game and you incur a forfeit if you can’t come up with a suitable word. But no kissing forfeits for us, and we can exclude X, Y, and Z. This is a format:

I love my love with a(n) ___ because s/he is ___. I hate my love because s/he is ___. I took him/her to ___ to the sign of the ___. I treated him/her with___ and his/her name is ___.

I’ll start: I love my love with an A because he is ardent. I hate my love because he is angry. I took him to Albany to the sign of the acorn. I treated him with apples and his name is Andrew.

Parlor games were an important way both sexes in Georgian England entertained themselves in the evenings outside of music or cards. In Two More Days at Netherfield, they help pass some of that extra time and it helps to push Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship in a new direction. But you’ll have to read the book to learn if anyone gets a kiss.

Author Bio

Heather Moll is an avid reader of mysteries and biographies with a master’s in information science. She found Jane Austen later than she should have and made up for lost time by devouring Austen’s letters and unpublished works, joining JASNA, and spending too much time researching the Regency era. She is the author of Two More Days at Netherfield and His Choice of a Wife. She lives with her husband and son and struggles to balance all of the important things, like whether to clean the house or write. 

Connect with her on Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, and Twitter.

Buy Links

Two More Days at Netherfield is available to buy now in both ebook and paperback. It's also available to read in Kindle Unlimited - Amazon US / Amazon UK / Amazon CA / Add to Goodreads shelf

Giveaway Time!

Quills & Quartos Publishing is giving away one ecopy  at each blog stop of the Two More Days at Netherfield blog tour. All you need to do to enter the giveaway is comment on this blog post, and Quills & Quartos will randomly choose one random winner after February 21. So, make sure you join in the conversation!

Note Regarding Comments: I love to read your comments, but a few blog visitors have reported difficulties in commenting while using the Safari browser. If you are unable to comment, please try using another web browser, such as Google Chrome, or please contact me and I will add your comment for you :)

Blog Tour Schedule

Check out the other stops on the blog tour, particularly if you'd like to win one of the ebooks of Two More Days at Netherfield that Quills and Quartos are giving away on the blog tour - visit them all and maximise your chances!

Many thanks to Heather Moll for her wonderful guest post, Quills and Quartos for putting on this blog tour and providing the giveaways and to Christina Boyd of the Quill Ink for organising the blog tour.

* * *

If you don’t want to miss any of my future posts, please subscribe:

Subscribe to Babblings of a Bookworm

If you'd like to be friends on Goodreads then please invite me - just say that you visit my blog when it asks why you'd like to be friends with me.