En Svinesti, Carl Bøgh, (1869) Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Do these pigs look like their listening to a delightful tale of adventure to you? They do to me, and that is why I chose to pair this painting with the excerpt below.
The Beginning of Prudence is set in the springtime at Rosings and in one fun scene near the end of this novelette, a pig and Colonel Fitzwilliam take a stroll, and that is the scene that I have chosen to share below.
Now, I wonder which pig in the painting is Betsy? I think it might be the one lying down on the left side and looks to be talking. 😉
Enjoy!
P.S. The Beginning of Prudence is free to read for followers on both Ream and Patreon this month. Of course it is also available to purchase at your favourite ebook retailer.
Images taken by me (Leenie Brown) at Uniacke Estate Museum Park, Nova Scotia
Today’s excerpt takes place in the study at Longbourn so I thought I’d gather a few images of different desks and desk items I’ve taken pictures of over the years when visiting various historical houses. However, I found that I only needed images from one historical house.
These pictures were taken at a Sunset and Shadows a few years ago at Uniacke Estate Museum Park. That evening, those in attendance were allowed to go behind the ropes and into the rooms. We were even allowed to peek inside drawers (that’s how I got the top middle picture) and cupboards. It was wonderful getting to see and photograph the rooms from different angles.
Uniacke Estate was built as a summer home between the years 1813 and 1816. The study is a small room with lots of interesting things in it. More things than I have pictured. The gentleman who owned the home, Richard John Uniacke, was, at one point in his career, Nova Scotia’s attorney-general. So, as you might imagine a study would have been an important room for such a man. And the shelves were lined with many legal books.
I have no idea if Mr. Bennet had any books in his study that would also have been on Mr. Uniacke’s shelves, but I do think he would have loved the little room with it’s desk, chairs, walls of books, and scientific equipment.
It is Mr. Bennet’s study in which the following prologue to Not an Heiress is set. This prologue lays the foundation for the scheme that will play out in the book.
I must warn you a little bit about this book. If you like your reading to be squeaky clean. This one is not that. It’s clean, but it’s closed door/fade to black clean. The hero and heroine do fall into a compromising position or two over the course of the story and we know that impropriety has taken place. There is no sex on the page but there is off the page and before the couple is married.
And if you expect all good-girls like Mary Bennet who read sermons to always be good and beyond the temptation that is presented by a handsome officer, then, this book is going to disappoint you because even good-girls can fall prey to desires when circumstances are arranged to leave no means of escape. 😉
However, if you like a different sort of Lady Catherine who is fun, that you’ll find in this story.
Not an Heiress is set in the spring around Easter a few years after Darcy and Elizabeth are married and is a sequel to Discovering Mr. Darcy in which Lady Catherine with the help of Colonel Fitzwilliam scheme to see Darcy and Elizabeth happily married. In this book, it’s Richard’s turn to find his happily ever after via a trap laid by his aunt.
Published by: Sayer & Bennett, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Who doesn’t love a trip to a library or bookstore? I know I do. And in the excerpt from For Peace of Mind below, the party from Gracechurch Street is going to indulge in such a pleasure. Unfortunately, this trip to the bookstore is not going to be a pleasure trip, and that meme that often shows up on social media about a lady who always has a book with her will always have a companion and a weapon is going to prove very true.
The excerpt below is from Chapter 5 and ends right before the use of a book as a weapon is put to the test. I cut it off right before that so that you can enjoy the discovery of how the book comes in handy.
Enjoy!
Please note: For Peace of Mind is currently only available at Amazon because it is enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited Program.
Interior of the billiard room at Lupton House, Devonshire, designed by George Wrightwick for Sir J.B.Y. Buller. Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ah, the billiard room. How many scenes I have I written that take place in such a room? I’m sure I don’t know. It is a favourite place to set a part of a story when a couple of characters – usually gentlemen – need to have a discussion.
Chapter 7 from Listen to Your Heart takes place, in part, in a billiard room. But it isn’t just gentlemen who are playing and having a discussion. Nope! The ladies get in on it, too. And it’s a scene were a very important discussion takes place between a gentleman and lady.
This book has a lot of games and schemes in it – some present time, some from the past, some friendly (like this game of billiards), some deadly, and all designed to share secrets and either push forward a happy ending or prevent it from happening.
Enjoy!
FYI, this book is currently available in Kindle Unlimited, and therefore, can only be purchased on Amazon.
Isn’t this a lovely book illustration? I thought it would go well with the story excerpt I want to share today…
Have you ever wondered what was going through Mr. Darcy’s head when he made his infamous slighting remark at the Meryton assembly? Have you ever wondered how things might have changed if he had been turned around and forced to say what he said while looking directly at Elizabeth while he said it?
Well, I have. 🙂 And that is exactly the questions that sparked From Tolerable to Lovely in my mind. It’s a short tale with only four chapters, and it’s free for followers to read on Ream this month. (And if I get it up there before Wednesday, on Patreon as well.)
Below is how the story begins – with Darcy’s thoughts and then his getting turned about. I’ll let you read the rest of the tale to see how he proceeds once he’s facing her. I’ve put links to both Ream and Patreon at the end of the story.
