between a rock and a hard place, or between...

[asakiyume]

Scylla and Charybdis

the devil and the deep blue sea

... any others?

In my personal experience, it's Between the Busy Road and the Poison Ivy



That dappled sidewalk may look inviting, but if you step from the curb YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF TRUCKS AND CARS and if you brush against the foliage on the right, you will have itchy ankles: it's poison ivy.

Two people can't walk abreast very easily there. One person could practice their balancing on the pale curb, or the other could practice elf-walking lightly over the top of the poison ivy like Legolas on snow, but...

... would you like another moonflower?

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I read it. I do remember that Bryony and Gillyflower were really popular names for the requisite Fey Child/Strange Young Girl in really bad Gothic romances that I powered through on the library shelves when I was twelve and thirteen.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

The things I missed! I didn't know there were romances as a genre until I was sixteen, though that was a major part of my fondness for Jane Austen and Jane Eyre.

Bryony was the third sister, not Good like Liss and not Naughty like the Dido-stealing sister. But she was corrupted by Doll.