t continued
THE OPTIONS, which basically break down into whether anyone discovers them mid-clinch, and if so, who:
1) Portia finds them.
Pros: Given that Portia hates Lucy and wants James for herself, major conflict and angst will ensue, which is always good for fiction.
Cons: I tried it this way last night, and loved what it did with Portia, but NSM for Lucy and James. I want there to still be lots of tension and questions between them, with Lucy not sure she even likes or trusts this man she's agreed to marry to save her family, and dismayed at herself for responding to him physically. Inserting Portia into the mix turned them into a united front, and I want to delay the friendship and trust-building just a little longer, because otherwise where's the drama?
2) Hal finds them:
Pros: Hal is a real piece of work to begin with and has had rather too much to drink, so he's bound to say something vulgar and embarassing, and make his greed at being doubly connected to the rich Wrights a leetle too obvious.
Cons: No major ones, really.
3) Cordelia finds them:
Pros: It's logical within the confines of the plot that she'd be the one who actually bothered to
look
for them in the first place.
Cons: No drama. She'd be thrilled for them, perfectly willing to keep it secret if asked, etc.
4) Julius and Anna find them:
Pros: Also makes sense that they'd look for them. Cordelia might enlist their help, or Anna might be ready to go home and be looking for her brother. Given Lucy's idealized love for Julius, she'd be pretty humiliated to have him catch her getting all passionate with someone else. And, it's already occurred to her that it's awfully awkward to have to marry the brother of the woman who's going to marry the man she actually loves.
Cons: No major ones. It'd be nice and awkward.
5) No one finds them.
Pros: It'd work really well with a scene I'm planning for the next day, after Hal tells the rest of the family about the money problems. Lucy would end up having to tell the entire family about it in one fell swoop when her aunt calls her to join the family conference.
Cons: I'd lose the immediate drama of having someone catch them and having Lucy be all humiliated about it. And, I'd lose the potential of writing a scene with Lucy and her cousins having a late-night post-ball confrontation about it, which might actually be more angstful than the family conference scene the next day--you'd have Portia in full-on bitch mode without the restraining presence of her mother, Hal less than sober, etc.
All input appreciated. Thank you for playing.