Residence of rich crazy early 20th century woman?

[tamtrible]

Years are 1915-1923, location is probably near New York. No idea how to search this, though--it's more of a social feel thing.

Sorry about all the posts lately, Phillipa is *insisting* on being figured out.

Comments

[duckodeath]

Well, if you went with the first part (and I'm not saying you should at all, I'm just saying if) the second part can quite easily be explained away especially if Victoria is known to be a bit touched in the head: if the neighbors wondered what the hell was going on her parents could just say she was acting out a delusion brought on when she found out Mother was so unexpectedly in the family way. Essentially, an hysterical pregnancy by an hysterical girl. Everyone was reading Freud back then so it would be an easy sell to make.

The age of the mother is a sticking point (although it depends more on when she started having children more than the number before Victoria), but there is such a thing as a polite fiction. If they say the baby is grandma's people might think it was a bit odd, but I doubt their social peers will standing up over the dinner table to call them liars especially as I'm sure some of them had daughters who had also gotten themselves into trouble.

(And I know this doesn't serve your plot at all, but another option for the baby would have been an abortion. Victoria might have protested all she wanted, but that would not have stopped anyone from drugging her to the gills and having a doctor take care of the problem. An underage daughter (under 21) didn't have a lot in the way of personal rights in 1915. Abortions might have been illegal, but that doesn't mean they weren't being performed.)

[tamtrible]

as to abortion... it's my understanding that abortions are progressively more dangerous later in pregnancy. Which is part of why she hides it until she's at least 4 or 5 months along.

I didn't realize that 18 was considered underage at the time, I might possibly make Victoria a bit older, then.