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“Darcy, what is the meaning of this?” Lady Catherine waved at the dog who was sniffing her shoes. “I nearly fell! It is not a proper way to be greeted. Not at all. Go on with you. Leave me be,” she said to Dash, and Dash being the dog that he was, cocked his head to the side, looking up at her, and moved not an inch.
[from Loving Lydia, book 3 in the Marrying Elizabeth Series]
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Confounding Caroline, book 1 ~ Delighting Mrs. Bennet, book 2
Graeme’s brows furrowed, and he shook his head in disbelief. “Of course, I love her. She’s Bea.” He moved to rise, but Shelton’s hand on his arm stopped him.
“No, not as a friend. She’s the one you spoke about when you visited, is she not?”
Graeme blew out a breath and turned to face his friend. “Bea loves my brother, and I only wish to see her happy.” No matter how the idea of his brother marrying Bea irritated him! She deserved better than a dolt who had to be convinced of her worth rather than recognizing it of his own volition.
Shelton nodded his head slowly as if he were considering what Graeme was saying, but Graeme knew better. Shelton was reasoning things out, piecing things together, and drawing conclusions. A gentleman did not survive as a rake and be generally well-liked as Shelton had without a keen mind.
“She loves my brother,” Graeme repeated. It had been foolish of him to speak to Shelton about a lady whom he found enchanting but was unavailable. However, his tongue had been loosened by alcohol that night after they had ridden out to purchase Shelton’s new hunter, and the things that Graeme had been pondering since the evening he had nearly kissed Bea during that blasted card game had come spilling out. He had been wise enough to leave out names, but still, he knew Shelton was no fool.
“You truly wish to see her happy?”
Graeme looked at Shelton warily. “Yes.”
Shelton smiled. “Then, capture her heart before your brother can break it.”
The hairs on the back of Graeme’s neck bristled. The smile Shelton was wearing was calculating. He had seen it before — often right before some poor chap was about to be fleeced or lose his lady.
“I consider myself the charitable sort,” Shelton continued, “and I am approaching that age where a wife will be expected. I could save her heart from harm.”
Graeme’s eyes narrowed. “You will stay away from her,” he growled.
Shelton chuckled, clearly enjoying taunting his friend. “Will you call me out if I do not?”
Graeme folded his arms and smirked in return. Shelton knew that Graeme would never call anyone out. It was, for one thing, illegal, and for another, Graeme was not the best shot nor all that adept with a sword. So to use a duel as a threat would be of no effect. However, there was a threat that Graeme knew would shake Shelton. “No, I will shoot your horse.”
[from His Beautiful Bea, A Touches of Austen Novella]Mr. Shelton in the above excerpt is getting his own story! His story will have some definite nods to Jane Austen’s Emma just like His Beautiful Bea had nods to Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. And I am working on fleshing out an idea for a story for Bea’s brother Max that will have nods to Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. That book will be released in the fall as part of a multi-author project which I cannot yet tell you about but am nervously excited about being part of. However, you can start reading Mr. Shelton’s story tomorrow right here on my blog. I have chapters 1-3 scheduled and should have chapters 4 and 5 written before the end of the week. (I missed writing a chapter last week — but more on that later.) The name of Mr. Shelton’s story will be His Darling Friend, and even the title has a bit of a nod to Emma in it. In Emma, Mr. Knightley calls Emma dearest and most beloved. I wanted something similar but did not want to use those words, and darling has the idea of being dear and beloved, so that is why I chose that word for the title.
Needless to say, I am a bit excited to begin sharing this story with you tomorrow. 🙂
His Beautiful Bea is going through a little bit of a makeover. I have given it another reading and cleaned up yet more typos and such (although no matter how often you proof, there always seems to be something that gets missed.) I have updated the file for the ebook and given the book a new cover! The print book will hopefully be ready before next Monday. There are a few more hoops to jump through to get that done than to do an ebook. For those who read in Kindle Unlimited, His Beautiful Bea is in that program and can be read using your subscription.
Now, for the reason I did not get a chapter of His Darling Friend written this past week:
I finished writing Tom: To Secure His Legacy!
Yes, I am excited about that as well! This week, I might be a bit less excited as I reread it before sending it off to my first reader to check for story issues. 😀
The bad part of this news is that I will not have any new story excerpts to share here on Mondays for probably two or three weeks as I need to pick a story to work on then start writing. 🙂
I have no idea what that next story will be at this point. Hopefully, I will have that figured out by next Monday as well. It seems I have a lot of things to do this week! 🙂
So, here, for the last time as a Music Monday work-in-progress, is…
AN EXCERPT FROM Tom: To Secure His Legacy:
[note: Do not read if you do not like spoilers or excerpts that end on a bit of a teasing, tempting cliffhanger. 🙂 There is a limit to the amount and type of spoilers I am willing to share. 🙂 ] Continue reading Music Monday: Allan Walker “Sing Me to Sleep” Piano Cover (David Solis)
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Elizabeth held his arm a little more firmly, moving to walk closer to him as if somehow doing so might help him bear whatever burden he carried. His lips curled up softly as he looked down at her, and the same soft pleasure of his smile shone in his eyes.
[from Loving Lydia, book 3 in the Marrying Elizabeth Series]
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Confounding Caroline, book 1 ~ Delighting Mrs. Bennet, book 2
KOBO AMAZON NOOK IBOOKS MAILING LIST PATREON SOCIETY6
Lucy’s hand flew to her heart and her eyes grew wide. “So much? Surely, that was not necessary.”
Philip took the items from her and placed them on the desk before taking her hands and drawing her to her feet and into his embrace. “For you, Mrs. Dobney, there is no price too high.”
“But…”
He placed a finger on her lips to stop her protest. “I have already had this argument with Darcy, and I assure you that neither he nor you will convince me that the money was spent in vain, for it has bought back your things and, I hope, something far more valuable, your peace. From this day forward, there is nothing left of what your uncle did which can harm you.”
She squeezed him tightly. “How can I ever thank you for such a thoughtful gift?”
He looked down into her eyes, which were peering up at him. “Love me, always, just as you do now.”
She shook her head and smiled at him. “I cannot promise not to love you more with every passing day, but I will always, always love you.”
[from And Then Love, book 1 in the Willow Hall Romance Series]This song was an earworm for me last week, and so I decided to share it with you. So thoughtful of me, I know. LOL It’s a sweet song with a catchy tune that I heard played a couple of times on the radio as I was making supper last week, and it stuck.
Above the video is an excerpt from one of my already published books, And Then Love. The excerpt is from the ending but had the right feel to go with the song today. If you have read that story, you might remember that Lucy approaches Phillip to ask him to marry her so she will not have to go live with a horrible uncle. He decides to help her, and over the course of the book comes to realize that marrying her is the best decision he has ever made.
[A little side note: When I say horrible uncle here, I mean nearly as bad as they come. I tapped into my dark side for a couple of characters in the Willow Hall Romance series, and Lucy’s uncle was one of them. As bad as they come is reserved for another despicable character in this series.]Along with humming or singing the above song throughout last week, I also managed to get a good bit of writing done.
Tom: To Secure His Legacy is not quite finished, but it is so close to being done. I’m hopeful that three more chapters will complete it. Therefore, it should be done by the end of Friday. I hope to get three chapters of this story posted at Patreon this week instead of the two chapters I have been doing.
(Oh! You might be interested in the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, as well as Mrs. Darcy’s sister Kitty, showed up in one chapter of what I wrote for Tom’s story this week. The Mr. and Mrs. Darcy here are the ones from Two Days Before Christmas. I figured I should clarify that since I have several stories which end with a Mr. and Mrs. Darcy.)
Roger’s story now has three chapters, and if I get one more written this week (which is the plan), then that story will begin posting on Tuesdays here on my blog. If you look at the menu options, you will see that Sweet Tuesdays has been added as a choice. However, there are no posts there yet. I just needed to set up the link so I could tag it at the beginning of each chapter for those who might need to go back and read previous chapters.
I have a title for the story, and if you are on my mailing list, you will receive a January update from me that will share that title with you. Everyone else will have to wait until next Monday when I share it here. 🙂 [hint but not a very good one: The title is three words long and is a reference to something that is said in Emma.]
Those are the stories in progress with the most news. The other writing I did was…
I wrote another chapter of Loving Lydia, and a few hundred words of Apple Blossoms got dictated this week. Nothing very interesting or new is happening with those stories right now. (Well, news-wise. Story-wise there is interesting stuff happening with both. But I can’t tell you about that just yet. 😉 )
On quick reminder that the Kobo 40% off boxset sale ends on February 3 at 11:59 PM EST. The promo code to enter at check out is 40JAN. The two box sets which I have in this promotion are
The Choices Series which includes all four novellas in that series: Her Father’s Choice, No Other Choice, His Inconvenient Choice, and Her Heart’s Choice
A Dash of Darcy and Companions Cottage Collection (1) which includes five novellas: Finally Mrs. Darcy, Waking to Mr. Darcy, A Very Mary Christmas, Discovering Mr. Darcy, and Not an Heiress
And now for…
AN EXCERPT FROM Tom: To Secure His Legacy:
(This is from near the end of the story, so read at your own risk as it could contain some spoilers.) Continue reading Music Monday: You Are (Aaron Goodvin)
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“We should like to view some muslin.” Lydia looked to her companions, Kitty and Georgiana, who both nodded. “And Miss Darcy would like to see what sorts of music might be acquired here in Meryton.” She glanced at Mrs. Annesley. “If that would be acceptable to you.”
“I think those are fine items for which to look,” Darcy replied.
Elizabeth was quite impressed by her sister’s demeanor until they were just about to go in search of their first store.
[from Loving Lydia, book 3 in the Marrying Elizabeth Series]
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Confounding Caroline, book 1 ~ Delighting Mrs. Bennet, book 2
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