Leenie Brown fell in love with Jane Austen's works when she first read Sense and Sensibility followed immediately by Pride and Prejudice in her early teens. As the second of five daughters and an avid reader, she has always loved to see where her imagination takes her and to play with and write about the characters she meets along the way. In 2013, these two loves collided when she stumbled upon the world of Jane Austen Fan Fiction. A year later, in 2014, she began writing her own Austen-inspired stories and began publishing them in 2015. Leenie lives in Nova Scotia, Canada with her two teenage boys and her very own Mr. Brown (a wonderful mix of all the best of Darcy, Bingley and Edmund with healthy dose of the teasing Mr. Tillney and just a dash of the scolding Mr. Knightley).
Frederick Morgan [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons
Can't you just imagine Lady Matlock doting on her little boys, and they returning the love and giving her kisses? I'm thinking Wes would be happy to be less well-loved in this chapter. ;)
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“You are not leaving.” Lord Matlock stood in front of Wes’s door the following morning, blocking Wes’s path. “Your horse has been returned to the stable. Your mother will not be persuaded to let you leave until you are completely well, and I will not be persuaded to go against her in this.”
Wes sat down on the edge of his bed. His father was actually forbidding him from leaving Matlock House? That was new. He had expected his mother to be put out with him for leaving before she declared he was well enough to do so but not his father.
[from Persuading Miss Mary, book 4 in the Marrying Elizabeth Series]
Can you believe it is August already? July certainly seemed to fly by. This upcoming month will be a busy and fun one for me as my husband will be off from one of his jobs for part of the month. So, I’ll be cutting back on some of my work time while still attempting to keep a few projects on track.
Published to YouTube by YirumaVEVO on July 12, 2019.
And that cutting back means there will be some impact on the blog — but it should be minimal. These Monday posts might end up being abbreviated and there will be one week (August 19-23) when there will be no posts at all. Yes, there will be a two-week wait between chapters for both the Sweet Tuesdays story and the Thursday’s Three Hundred story. However, I will make sure our couples are in happy places the week prior. So, there will be no cliffs to hang off of for those two weeks. 🙂
An Interior with a Curtained Bed Alcove; Unknown Artist; ca 1853; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons
I really doubt that Wes's room was either this small or this full of furniture, but the bed is close enough to the door for Wes to listen to a conversation just outside that door -- a conversation that starts like this:
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“Oh, Mr. Darcy!”
Wes opened one eye and peeked at the door to his room which was partially open. Was that Darcy at the door?
“Good day, Miss Lydia. How might I be of service?”
Apparently, Darcy was at the door. Wes groaned and rubbed his aching head. Two days in bed and the blasted thing still hurt – despite his mother’s best attempts to do him in with potions from the apothecary.
“I was wondering if you had any friends.”
Wes chuckled at Miss Lydia’s inquiry. He’d give anything to see Darcy attempt to not look offended at such a comment.
[from Persuading Miss Mary, book 4 in the Marrying Elizabeth Series]
“Do you know,” Walter continued as Grace took a seat on the bench, “that this was my favourite place when I was just a lad and came to visit my grandparents.”
“Was it really?” Grace smiled and ran a hand over the bit of slab next to her where he was about to sit. “It is a lovely bench, and the aspect from here is delightful.” She leaned toward him when he finally took a seat. “I am particularly fond of arched garden gates, and you can see the gate between the hedges quite perfectly from here. I imagine that the gate is even more delightful when all the flowers are in bloom.”
“It is,” Walter agreed. “And when the tree behind us is laden with leaves, there is something very cozy feeling about this place, almost as if one could hide here, which I must say, I have.”
“You have hidden here?”
Walter nodded. “When I was just a boy of about six, I used to curl into a ball under this very bench when playing hide-and-go-seek. Every time.” He gave her a sheepish grin. “I would not advise using the same hiding place over and over if one has been found in it. It is the surest way to lose a game.”
[from Her Secret Beau, Touches of Austen Book 3]
Published to YouTube by Simply Three on February 27, 2014
Published to YouTube by SaraBethie on January 16, 2014
The top video is an instrumental piece and has been on my Music to Write By playlist for a long time — it was the first song added to that list. 🙂 The bottom video includes lyrics and is one of the videos on my Music Meets Movies playlist.
I thought the song was good for tomorrow’s chapter of Walter and Grace’s story as they are in the garden alone and in a special place in that garden. Hopefully, you will get a chance to read that chapter tomorrow — it’s a good one. (But then, aren’t they all? Well, not all of them include almost-kisses.)
There is also an Austen Authors post of mine you can read tomorrow. It’s more pictures than words 🙂 I’m sharing pictures from some of my summer fun, and I am hosting a giveaway as well.
Deux Soeurs (Two Sisters), William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1901. [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons
The relationship between sisters sure does go through changes as they grow up. Mary and Lydia's relationship is shifting in this story -- especially in Chapter 7 from where the excerpt below is taken. It's a bit of a role reversal as the little sister is stepping up to care for the big sister.
~*~*~
Lydia threw her arms around Mary and pulled her into a tight hug. “Oh, Mary! Being alone in the middle must be dreadful! How you must suffer for it. I will not allow it to be any longer,” she said, and then, she did something she had not done since they were both very young. She kissed Mary’s cheek.
[from Persuading Miss Mary, book 4 in the Marrying Elizabeth Series]
