I know very, very little about the social customs of the time you're writing about but this scene has captured my imagination (and made me sigh, lovely). so my idea:

I liked the idea of her walking by and seeing him there in his element and them making a connection at that point. Could the bad guy officer who catches on to the attraction be the one walking her back to her tent? And could she hesitate to watch the group and start singing the song she does know quietly (and along with Jack). Then she and Jack realize they are singing together, share an intense look, and begin to harmonize to the end of the song. And Tracy catches on immediately to the current flowing between them (sorry for the awful metaphor, you know what I mean, the kind of look that is so intense it is almost as powerful as a touch).

You really don't want seven thousand indignant experts writing you rude letters....

I know. Especially since I'm picky about these things myself. But sometimes you get an image in your brain that's just so pretty that you're willing to move heaven and earth to make it happen, y'know? But I think this new version will be nearly as pretty and offer better opportunities for dialogue.

I like the image of her listening to the music just inside/outside her tent, thinking of everything she's missed in her unhappy marriage. Maybe even a wistful thought on what she can't participate in due to the requirements of society.

Mmm, yes.

this scene has captured my imagination (and made me sigh, lovely).

Thanks! One of the hardest things for me as a writer is to take a visually evocative scene like this with all kinds of hidden undercurrents and capture it on the page--my gifts run more to dialogue and a good historical voice. So if just the basic description I gave is enough to make you feel this way, I'm either getting better, or the scene is so good it's going to come through despite my deficiencies!

the scene is so good it's going to come through despite my deficiencies!

I think it summarizes one of the primary themes of fiction: yearning for things you can't have, especially when you're trying to fit yourself into expectations.

The scene makes me think of gypsies dancing around a fire. I have no idea why.

Sorry, I'm really no help when it comes to historical fiction.

If an upper-class woman sits down by the fire with the ranks, she's going to throw a chill on the atmosphere; the soldiers are immediately going to feel pressured to behave themselves. (Some of them are going to resent this, too.) They certainly aren't going to cheerfully start singing bawdy ballads.

So if just the basic description I gave is enough to make you feel this way

I could just see it in my romantical head right away. And it made me all wistfull sitting here at my desk trying to write a description of a database table based on input from a Russian programmer.

Betsy, I know you're right--I just came across that particular bawdy song while doing my research, and it was just so catchy and so perfect for the story that I got carried away. But I think the new version will be even better--more sexual tension AND more historically appropriate. Win-win.

Yes, what Betsy said - it's what I was getting at. Plus, there was the whole "would her social rank and upbringing even allow her to sit down with them?" thing. But Susan, yep, the altered version is true to the mores of the period, and even prettier. As you say, win-win.

Is it just me, or is anyone else imagining Sharpe-era Bean in his 95th uniform as the fellow, here?

And as to that, I'm curious. Does anyone (else, besides me) "cast" your stories with actors or people you know? I know I've done that, and then as I wrote, the characters fleshed themselves out in a completely different way from how I imagined them at the start. Quite a lovely thing, when it happens.