The Flame and the Flower, part 2
The best thing about The Flame and the Flower is that it manages to be offensive and hilarious. For instance, it’s impossible to take the third rape seriously when Heather’s thoughts (such as they are) run along the lines of,
Trapped! Caught! Like a bird in a snare and now, plump and roasted, she must wait on the platter while he whetted his knife for the carving.
Heather Simmons, Thanksgiving turkey.
And when the feast was done, what then? The same table? The same dinner? Again and again? Surely no simple-minded fowl ever suffered its fate but once.
…Too easy. Let’s move on. Afterwards, Brandon laughs in a satisfied, post-coital way at the reaction of his “little kitten” when he tells her she’ll get used to it.
“Never!” she half sobbed. “I hate you! I loathe you! I despise you! Not in a million years!”
At this point you almost expect Brandon to twirl his mustache, tie Heather to the railroad tracks and do her again right there, but despite her protestations she’s already starting to fall for him.
There was no denying he was handsome, physically magnificent.
Well, that makes up for everything then. He also explains to her that he feels no regret at raping her because with her looks, men would have gotten to her sooner or later. By the way, Heather is 18. Brandon is 35. Makes it all the more romantic, no?
After that, Brandon has to attend to some non-rape-related business off the ship, so he leaves Heather in his cabin - along with his pistols, which are stored conveniently in an (unlocked) box in an (unlocked) closet. Heather has no idea how to load the things and would probably shoot her own foot off if she did, but she bluffs her way out with them and goes back home to her eeeevil aunt's house.
The village cobbler, who’s in love with Heather, proposes marriage. But of course she has been Irrevocably Despoiled and has to turn him down, presumably to the delight of another girl who likes him. The story does a lot of head-hopping, but it also takes a little jaunt into the other girl’s perspective just to underline Heather’s matchless perfection.
Even her own father had commented often of the uncommon beauty the Simmons girl possessed.
I think this will be emphasized at least a few hundred times more before the book (mercifully) ends, but on with the story. What always, always happens when the hero and heroine have tumultous sex but part on bad terms and believe they will never see each other again? One guess.
She was going to have a baby - a baby by that scoundrel of a sea captain. That cad! Madman! Lunatic! Oh God, she thought, why? Why?
Because he was too dumb to use protection, that’s why. But her aunt reminds Heather that her father had a close friend who was a magistrate judge in London.
A frown touched Heather’s smooth brow. “Lord Hampton was one of my father’s closest friends. He used to come to our home often. He’s known me since I was a baby.”
And now that you’re having one, you’ve finally remembered him. So Heather and her entourage set off for London to ask for her convenient fairy godfather’s help, while she bewails her fate a little more.
Strong, potent, full-blooded, he had done a man’s due with an ease she found maddening. How was it when a great many men sweated over their mates month after month with little to show for it, that she had to have the misfortune to be taken to bed by such a virile male being?
This view of sex reminds me of the Quiverfull types who believe that when it comes to children, the more the merrier. So if a man has sex with a woman and she doesn't get pregnant, he's wasting his time, panting and heaving with no real result?
Maybe it's a good thing she's saddled with this walking turkey-baster. Anyway, back to the story. Lord Hampton hugs Heather, tells her how gorgeous and wonderful she is and then sets the wheels in motion for a shotgun marriage. At Brandon’s reappearance I was wondering if Heather would burst into tears, but she “sought solace in a blissful faint” instead. Then she shudders and trembles her way through the wedding preparations, with the maids assuring her that she’s the most beautiful woman they’ve ever seen while her aunt hisses and sneers.
The wedding ceremony goes as one would expect. Heather is terrified and shaking while Brandon is cold and distant, until the part where the priest tells him he can kiss her. So he all but sticks his tongue down her throat, until others express their discomfort and the priest interrupts to tell him he’ll have to wait until later for that. Brandon is most displeased by anyone telling him what to do or not to do, so he takes it out on Heather with veiled implications and subtle threats while she shivers in fright.
Lady Hampton tries to make up for Heather’s nonexistent guts by assuring her that she’s radiantly lovely and has an equally gorgeous and fertile husband.
“But he’s so magnificant. Truly all your babies will be fine and beautiful…”
She was thinking of the ease with which Brandon had planted his seed in her. She would no doubt be giving birth to many.
Heather Simmons is Michelle Duggar!
Brandon is also mad because now he’ll have some ‘splainin’ to do when he gets back to his house in Charleston.
“Do you know I am - or shall I say, I was engaged to be married when I returned home?”
That must be a rhetorical question, since I don’t recall him discussing his betrothal with his victim at any point.
“What am I supposed to tell her - my fiancee? That I saw you and couldn’t help myself?”
I don’t know, what do men of “strong moral fiber” normally tell their fiancees if not the truth?
And I’m not sure what else he can tell his fiancee. Given that Heather is a tiny teenager with the backbone of a jellyfish, the fiancee might find it a tad bit difficult to believe that Heather saw him, held him down while she tore his clothes off and then robbed him of his manly virtue.
“If you had come to me when you first learned of your pregnancy, I would have helped you… but to send your mighty friend and threaten me, it was a most unwise thing for a little girl to do.”
He then tells her that he may marry her, but he’ll treat her like a servant, not give her money, make her life hell, blah blah fishcakes. He even threatens to rape her again. Well, I have to say, it does take strong moral fiber for a man to browbeat, threaten and hint at raping his pregnant wife. But Heather notices that he’s handsome and thinks, “Perhaps it would not be so bad to have a son like him.”
*facepalm*
It’s all downhill from here.
Trapped! Caught! Like a bird in a snare and now, plump and roasted, she must wait on the platter while he whetted his knife for the carving.
Heather Simmons, Thanksgiving turkey.
And when the feast was done, what then? The same table? The same dinner? Again and again? Surely no simple-minded fowl ever suffered its fate but once.
…Too easy. Let’s move on. Afterwards, Brandon laughs in a satisfied, post-coital way at the reaction of his “little kitten” when he tells her she’ll get used to it.
“Never!” she half sobbed. “I hate you! I loathe you! I despise you! Not in a million years!”
At this point you almost expect Brandon to twirl his mustache, tie Heather to the railroad tracks and do her again right there, but despite her protestations she’s already starting to fall for him.
There was no denying he was handsome, physically magnificent.
Well, that makes up for everything then. He also explains to her that he feels no regret at raping her because with her looks, men would have gotten to her sooner or later. By the way, Heather is 18. Brandon is 35. Makes it all the more romantic, no?
After that, Brandon has to attend to some non-rape-related business off the ship, so he leaves Heather in his cabin - along with his pistols, which are stored conveniently in an (unlocked) box in an (unlocked) closet. Heather has no idea how to load the things and would probably shoot her own foot off if she did, but she bluffs her way out with them and goes back home to her eeeevil aunt's house.
The village cobbler, who’s in love with Heather, proposes marriage. But of course she has been Irrevocably Despoiled and has to turn him down, presumably to the delight of another girl who likes him. The story does a lot of head-hopping, but it also takes a little jaunt into the other girl’s perspective just to underline Heather’s matchless perfection.
Even her own father had commented often of the uncommon beauty the Simmons girl possessed.
I think this will be emphasized at least a few hundred times more before the book (mercifully) ends, but on with the story. What always, always happens when the hero and heroine have tumultous sex but part on bad terms and believe they will never see each other again? One guess.
She was going to have a baby - a baby by that scoundrel of a sea captain. That cad! Madman! Lunatic! Oh God, she thought, why? Why?
Because he was too dumb to use protection, that’s why. But her aunt reminds Heather that her father had a close friend who was a magistrate judge in London.
A frown touched Heather’s smooth brow. “Lord Hampton was one of my father’s closest friends. He used to come to our home often. He’s known me since I was a baby.”
And now that you’re having one, you’ve finally remembered him. So Heather and her entourage set off for London to ask for her convenient fairy godfather’s help, while she bewails her fate a little more.
Strong, potent, full-blooded, he had done a man’s due with an ease she found maddening. How was it when a great many men sweated over their mates month after month with little to show for it, that she had to have the misfortune to be taken to bed by such a virile male being?
This view of sex reminds me of the Quiverfull types who believe that when it comes to children, the more the merrier. So if a man has sex with a woman and she doesn't get pregnant, he's wasting his time, panting and heaving with no real result?
Maybe it's a good thing she's saddled with this walking turkey-baster. Anyway, back to the story. Lord Hampton hugs Heather, tells her how gorgeous and wonderful she is and then sets the wheels in motion for a shotgun marriage. At Brandon’s reappearance I was wondering if Heather would burst into tears, but she “sought solace in a blissful faint” instead. Then she shudders and trembles her way through the wedding preparations, with the maids assuring her that she’s the most beautiful woman they’ve ever seen while her aunt hisses and sneers.
The wedding ceremony goes as one would expect. Heather is terrified and shaking while Brandon is cold and distant, until the part where the priest tells him he can kiss her. So he all but sticks his tongue down her throat, until others express their discomfort and the priest interrupts to tell him he’ll have to wait until later for that. Brandon is most displeased by anyone telling him what to do or not to do, so he takes it out on Heather with veiled implications and subtle threats while she shivers in fright.
Lady Hampton tries to make up for Heather’s nonexistent guts by assuring her that she’s radiantly lovely and has an equally gorgeous and fertile husband.
“But he’s so magnificant. Truly all your babies will be fine and beautiful…”
She was thinking of the ease with which Brandon had planted his seed in her. She would no doubt be giving birth to many.
Heather Simmons is Michelle Duggar!
Brandon is also mad because now he’ll have some ‘splainin’ to do when he gets back to his house in Charleston.
“Do you know I am - or shall I say, I was engaged to be married when I returned home?”
That must be a rhetorical question, since I don’t recall him discussing his betrothal with his victim at any point.
“What am I supposed to tell her - my fiancee? That I saw you and couldn’t help myself?”
I don’t know, what do men of “strong moral fiber” normally tell their fiancees if not the truth?
And I’m not sure what else he can tell his fiancee. Given that Heather is a tiny teenager with the backbone of a jellyfish, the fiancee might find it a tad bit difficult to believe that Heather saw him, held him down while she tore his clothes off and then robbed him of his manly virtue.
“If you had come to me when you first learned of your pregnancy, I would have helped you… but to send your mighty friend and threaten me, it was a most unwise thing for a little girl to do.”
He then tells her that he may marry her, but he’ll treat her like a servant, not give her money, make her life hell, blah blah fishcakes. He even threatens to rape her again. Well, I have to say, it does take strong moral fiber for a man to browbeat, threaten and hint at raping his pregnant wife. But Heather notices that he’s handsome and thinks, “Perhaps it would not be so bad to have a son like him.”
*facepalm*
It’s all downhill from here.