Elizabeth #4: Downstairs, Upstairs
Okay, we return to the gripping saga that is Elizabeth in London.
Cover art's still fugly. Liz and Sarah are glaring at something. Or maybe Liz is glaring at Sarah. I don't know.
Vanessa is having nightmares about her mum's downward spiral into drinking and slutting. Wen she wakes up, Elizabeth offers some psychobabble that Vanessa understandably shoots down. Elizabeth feels quite stupid, and recaps the story so far in her head. The awesome thing is, she thinks about Jessica and Sam having "S-E-X". And yes, in her thoughts she actually spells the word out. She "reminds herself" that she never got the scholarship, and so is stuck working here at Pennington House. She's been in London for four months now, and her California tan is a thing of the past. Noooooo!
Vanessa's being insolent to Maid Mary, so Mary says "You mind you p's and q's, missy, or you'll be on the dole queue, you will."
Elizabeth translates this in her head into "American-speak". Get with the program, Vanessa, or you'll be out of a job and standing in line for an unemployment check! Elizabeth is amazed at how much she has learned since arriving in London. Actually "amazed". Heh. Do you want a gold star, Lizzie?
They call the late Lady Pennington a duchess too, so I think the ghostwriter has just confused countess with duchess. I'll let it slide. Wikipedia wasn't as big in 2001. But sometimes they call her a countess... I don't know. I give up.
There's been a scandal in Lord Pennington's parliamentary party- Lord Somethingorother's been sleeping with a B-list movie skank. The cover of the Daily Sun proclaims that she's "having Snookums' baby!" Sarah thinks this is hilarious, and thinks a scandal would be a fabulous way of making her more attractive to William, a sixth-former at her school. Yeah, I guess it's not a girls' school anymore.
Max wants to be a BBC correspondent in "war-torn hot spots around the world", not an MP. He's still all emo with himself as his crush on Elizabeth gets bigger, and he gets more sick of Lavinia, who's all dead inside and whatnot.
James has been chasing Vanessa around, but she hasn't said an outright 'no' yet, so he's holding on to a sliver of a chance. Poor boy. As well as his interest in merchant banking, James writes poetry and enjoys oil painting. Awwww, he's so soulful. But he's actually getting under Vanessa's skin, and she's thinking about him more and more and getting very frustrated with herself. She's sure, however, that he only wants some nookie, coz she's never met a decent guy before, and thinks all rich folk are like Lord P, with his obnoxious treatment of her mother.
Alice the Klutz has broken a glass, and she's sure she'll be fired, coz she's make of fail anyway. She's one of those people that works hard, but still does a sucky job, whereas Vanessa bitches and moans but is a really good worker. Saint Elizabeth offers to take the blame for Alice, because she knows Alice needs this job to support her gran and her little brother. So she goes to Maid Mary and shows her the glass, and Mary FREEEEEAKS. Apparently the glass was a gift to Max's great-grandmother from the Queen Mum, and is usually kept in a cabinet where the scullery maids aren't even supposed to go. Liz is stunned. At this point, though, Max comes in the kitchen to ask for some tea, and Mary explains what's happened, and says if Elizabeth is fired, they'll all understand. Max just stares deep into Liz's pacific eyes and says it doesn't matter. Maid Mary is surpirsed Max is so forgiving. Lucky it was lizzie, not Alice then. Max wouldn't have been so kind if the culprit wasn't a size-six blonde angel.
Sarah's at school, and apparently there's rumours going round about her. She assumes Nick's talking about how she wouldn't sleep with him, so she goes up to Nick and makes some smartass comments about how grungy his flat is and how slummy the bed was. But her friend Victoria tells her that Nick's been spreading rumours that Sarah's easier than a 10-piece jigsaw. Oops. Sarah's confirmed it! However, the rumours mean that Sarah's caught the eye of sexy William, and he says he'll meet her at the Angel Pub at 9pm. Hmmm, he sounds like quality.
Max opens a door and hits Liz on the head. Ha ha. He's really worried though and gets her an ice pack. The sexual tension's really building now... until Mary walks in. Bitch. Max later gets a talking-to from Papa Earl about Liz.
Sarah and Victoria are getting stalked by their chauffeur, but they manage to lose him in a lingerie store. Apparently it's the same one as where the Queen shops. She keeps escaping from people, so the Earl gets Liz to stalk them instead. Apparently her American accent means she can get into rich places, but Vanessa and Alice sound too common. Sarah overhears them talking though, and is pretty offended. If it was Vanessa being her friend, that would be different, coz Vanessa's actually cool. I like that Sarah likes Vanessa, considering they're secret half-sisters. Sarah hates Elizabeth coz she's such a boring goody-goody. Yaaay.
That night, Sarah is off to meet William at the pub. Liz follows their taxi in another taxi, and follows them out to a pub called the "Slaughtered Lamb". American Werewolf in London, much? It's in a veeery dodgy area, apparently very far from the centre of London. Liz gets out of her cab, but Sarah and Vic have tricked her, and gotten their cab to come back a couple of minutes later! They drive away, laughing and waving at Elizabeth. She's stranded in somewhere that looks like "Jack the Ripper's old stomping grounds", with no way to get home. She's forced to call Max to come get her, which leads to an awkward and silent car ride home. What she doesn't know is that Max broke lots of speed limits to get to her in time to save her from the dangers of London streets.
James sees Vanessa crying, and he folows her into her bedroom. She kicks him out, screaming at him. He's very sad, but still loves her, even though he's sure she hates him. However, Vanessa's point-of-view tells us that he was THIS CLOSE to her falling into his arms for love and reassurance.
Lavinia's pissed that Max picked up Liz, and plans to fire her when she marries Max. Lavinia confronts Liz, then spills a glass of wine on herself and blames Liz. However, the crisis is averted. For now.
Sarah finds Liz's diary and leaves it open on the earl's desk, in an attempt to get her fired. However, Vanessa finds it first and returns it to Liz. She doesn't want Liz to get fired just because Sarah's being sneaky. Liz's diary is pretty unsubtle when talking about Max, so Liz is told to keep it in a locked box like Vanessa does with her stuff.
Sarah's got another chance with Classy William. Woop. Liz follows Sarah and Vic after school, but a bunch of their friends from school get in Liz's way and foil her efforts. Drat! Sarah and Vic, however, were too late to catch Will, and he left with some other girl. Burn. As revenge, Sarah mentions how Max thinks Liz is lovely in from of Lavinia and the Earl.
James sees Vanessa sneak into the Earl's bedroom (to search, obviously), but he thinks she and the earl are having an affair! Ewwww, incest! Later he talks to her, saying she can do better, and she says she's "had no complaints from the earl about the service I've given him". Heh. That can fully be taken two ways. Later, he talks to her again, and she realises what he thinks she's doing, and is hugely offended. He's acting like she has no respect for herself and can't resist rich men. It breaks her heart. They're so star-crossed. Poor kids.
Lavinia invites the staff to look at her fabulous wedding dress and veil. Elizabeth says Lavinia will look like a "fairy princess" in it. Ew. That's a really crappy compliment. Lavinia kicks Liz out of the room because Liz for got to say "Lady Lavinia". Liz runs out crying, and Max sees her. He wipes her tears away, and they finally "give in to their feelings" and share some intense kisses.Elizabeth thinks "wherever we land, it will be in each other's arms". Bitch reads too much Mills and Boon. However, they are nearly interrupted, and Liz runs away.
But GASP! Overnight, someone has shredded Lavinia's veil! Lav blames Lizzie, and then scissors are found in Liz's nightstand, with threads of lace still on them. Liz is so busted, but she insists it wasn't her. She thinks Lavinia did it to her own veil to discredit Elizabeth. But peopel are talking about possible deportation! Max worries that their kisses drove Elizabeth to it. He's so vain, he probably thinks this book is about him. Max wouldn't have thought she could do something like this, but after last night...
Liz is packing her stuff, all the staff are sad, they can't believe she has this violent streak. They'll miss her though. Everyone's all sad and confused until Mary presses the intercom to tell Sarah they've run out of scones, but instead everyone hears Sarah talking about shredding the veil! She feels guilty! SARAH DID IT! She did it to get Liz fired, not deported though. Everyone is shocked, and Liz is promptly given her job back .She's mad at Max though, for believing she could do it.
James busts Vanessa in the countess's room and tells her that she can trust him, whatever she's doing. She's upset, becuase she can't, even though she likes him.
Trouble is brewing.
And this is where I leave you. The last two books in the series will be recapped by ultimate_cin, so I'll hand the reins to her. Hope you enjoyed!
Cover art's still fugly. Liz and Sarah are glaring at something. Or maybe Liz is glaring at Sarah. I don't know.
Vanessa is having nightmares about her mum's downward spiral into drinking and slutting. Wen she wakes up, Elizabeth offers some psychobabble that Vanessa understandably shoots down. Elizabeth feels quite stupid, and recaps the story so far in her head. The awesome thing is, she thinks about Jessica and Sam having "S-E-X". And yes, in her thoughts she actually spells the word out. She "reminds herself" that she never got the scholarship, and so is stuck working here at Pennington House. She's been in London for four months now, and her California tan is a thing of the past. Noooooo!
Vanessa's being insolent to Maid Mary, so Mary says "You mind you p's and q's, missy, or you'll be on the dole queue, you will."
Elizabeth translates this in her head into "American-speak". Get with the program, Vanessa, or you'll be out of a job and standing in line for an unemployment check! Elizabeth is amazed at how much she has learned since arriving in London. Actually "amazed". Heh. Do you want a gold star, Lizzie?
They call the late Lady Pennington a duchess too, so I think the ghostwriter has just confused countess with duchess. I'll let it slide. Wikipedia wasn't as big in 2001. But sometimes they call her a countess... I don't know. I give up.
There's been a scandal in Lord Pennington's parliamentary party- Lord Somethingorother's been sleeping with a B-list movie skank. The cover of the Daily Sun proclaims that she's "having Snookums' baby!" Sarah thinks this is hilarious, and thinks a scandal would be a fabulous way of making her more attractive to William, a sixth-former at her school. Yeah, I guess it's not a girls' school anymore.
Max wants to be a BBC correspondent in "war-torn hot spots around the world", not an MP. He's still all emo with himself as his crush on Elizabeth gets bigger, and he gets more sick of Lavinia, who's all dead inside and whatnot.
James has been chasing Vanessa around, but she hasn't said an outright 'no' yet, so he's holding on to a sliver of a chance. Poor boy. As well as his interest in merchant banking, James writes poetry and enjoys oil painting. Awwww, he's so soulful. But he's actually getting under Vanessa's skin, and she's thinking about him more and more and getting very frustrated with herself. She's sure, however, that he only wants some nookie, coz she's never met a decent guy before, and thinks all rich folk are like Lord P, with his obnoxious treatment of her mother.
Alice the Klutz has broken a glass, and she's sure she'll be fired, coz she's make of fail anyway. She's one of those people that works hard, but still does a sucky job, whereas Vanessa bitches and moans but is a really good worker. Saint Elizabeth offers to take the blame for Alice, because she knows Alice needs this job to support her gran and her little brother. So she goes to Maid Mary and shows her the glass, and Mary FREEEEEAKS. Apparently the glass was a gift to Max's great-grandmother from the Queen Mum, and is usually kept in a cabinet where the scullery maids aren't even supposed to go. Liz is stunned. At this point, though, Max comes in the kitchen to ask for some tea, and Mary explains what's happened, and says if Elizabeth is fired, they'll all understand. Max just stares deep into Liz's pacific eyes and says it doesn't matter. Maid Mary is surpirsed Max is so forgiving. Lucky it was lizzie, not Alice then. Max wouldn't have been so kind if the culprit wasn't a size-six blonde angel.
Sarah's at school, and apparently there's rumours going round about her. She assumes Nick's talking about how she wouldn't sleep with him, so she goes up to Nick and makes some smartass comments about how grungy his flat is and how slummy the bed was. But her friend Victoria tells her that Nick's been spreading rumours that Sarah's easier than a 10-piece jigsaw. Oops. Sarah's confirmed it! However, the rumours mean that Sarah's caught the eye of sexy William, and he says he'll meet her at the Angel Pub at 9pm. Hmmm, he sounds like quality.
Max opens a door and hits Liz on the head. Ha ha. He's really worried though and gets her an ice pack. The sexual tension's really building now... until Mary walks in. Bitch. Max later gets a talking-to from Papa Earl about Liz.
Sarah and Victoria are getting stalked by their chauffeur, but they manage to lose him in a lingerie store. Apparently it's the same one as where the Queen shops. She keeps escaping from people, so the Earl gets Liz to stalk them instead. Apparently her American accent means she can get into rich places, but Vanessa and Alice sound too common. Sarah overhears them talking though, and is pretty offended. If it was Vanessa being her friend, that would be different, coz Vanessa's actually cool. I like that Sarah likes Vanessa, considering they're secret half-sisters. Sarah hates Elizabeth coz she's such a boring goody-goody. Yaaay.
That night, Sarah is off to meet William at the pub. Liz follows their taxi in another taxi, and follows them out to a pub called the "Slaughtered Lamb". American Werewolf in London, much? It's in a veeery dodgy area, apparently very far from the centre of London. Liz gets out of her cab, but Sarah and Vic have tricked her, and gotten their cab to come back a couple of minutes later! They drive away, laughing and waving at Elizabeth. She's stranded in somewhere that looks like "Jack the Ripper's old stomping grounds", with no way to get home. She's forced to call Max to come get her, which leads to an awkward and silent car ride home. What she doesn't know is that Max broke lots of speed limits to get to her in time to save her from the dangers of London streets.
James sees Vanessa crying, and he folows her into her bedroom. She kicks him out, screaming at him. He's very sad, but still loves her, even though he's sure she hates him. However, Vanessa's point-of-view tells us that he was THIS CLOSE to her falling into his arms for love and reassurance.
Lavinia's pissed that Max picked up Liz, and plans to fire her when she marries Max. Lavinia confronts Liz, then spills a glass of wine on herself and blames Liz. However, the crisis is averted. For now.
Sarah finds Liz's diary and leaves it open on the earl's desk, in an attempt to get her fired. However, Vanessa finds it first and returns it to Liz. She doesn't want Liz to get fired just because Sarah's being sneaky. Liz's diary is pretty unsubtle when talking about Max, so Liz is told to keep it in a locked box like Vanessa does with her stuff.
Sarah's got another chance with Classy William. Woop. Liz follows Sarah and Vic after school, but a bunch of their friends from school get in Liz's way and foil her efforts. Drat! Sarah and Vic, however, were too late to catch Will, and he left with some other girl. Burn. As revenge, Sarah mentions how Max thinks Liz is lovely in from of Lavinia and the Earl.
James sees Vanessa sneak into the Earl's bedroom (to search, obviously), but he thinks she and the earl are having an affair! Ewwww, incest! Later he talks to her, saying she can do better, and she says she's "had no complaints from the earl about the service I've given him". Heh. That can fully be taken two ways. Later, he talks to her again, and she realises what he thinks she's doing, and is hugely offended. He's acting like she has no respect for herself and can't resist rich men. It breaks her heart. They're so star-crossed. Poor kids.
Lavinia invites the staff to look at her fabulous wedding dress and veil. Elizabeth says Lavinia will look like a "fairy princess" in it. Ew. That's a really crappy compliment. Lavinia kicks Liz out of the room because Liz for got to say "Lady Lavinia". Liz runs out crying, and Max sees her. He wipes her tears away, and they finally "give in to their feelings" and share some intense kisses.Elizabeth thinks "wherever we land, it will be in each other's arms". Bitch reads too much Mills and Boon. However, they are nearly interrupted, and Liz runs away.
But GASP! Overnight, someone has shredded Lavinia's veil! Lav blames Lizzie, and then scissors are found in Liz's nightstand, with threads of lace still on them. Liz is so busted, but she insists it wasn't her. She thinks Lavinia did it to her own veil to discredit Elizabeth. But peopel are talking about possible deportation! Max worries that their kisses drove Elizabeth to it. He's so vain, he probably thinks this book is about him. Max wouldn't have thought she could do something like this, but after last night...
Liz is packing her stuff, all the staff are sad, they can't believe she has this violent streak. They'll miss her though. Everyone's all sad and confused until Mary presses the intercom to tell Sarah they've run out of scones, but instead everyone hears Sarah talking about shredding the veil! She feels guilty! SARAH DID IT! She did it to get Liz fired, not deported though. Everyone is shocked, and Liz is promptly given her job back .She's mad at Max though, for believing she could do it.
James busts Vanessa in the countess's room and tells her that she can trust him, whatever she's doing. She's upset, becuase she can't, even though she likes him.
Trouble is brewing.
And this is where I leave you. The last two books in the series will be recapped by ultimate_cin, so I'll hand the reins to her. Hope you enjoyed!