“I agree with Mary and your father,” said Mrs. Gardiner, climbing off the bed. “He cares for you.” She bent and kissed Elizabeth’s forehead. “It will be a good match. I believe that confused look on your face and that fluttering of your heart…” She smiled at the surprise on Elizabeth’s face. “I felt it myself many years ago,” she explained. “It is the beginnings of love. Be brave, my dear Lizzy. Do not let those feelings frighten you, for they can lead to a very happy life for you as they have for me.”
[from Her Father’s Choice]
Published to YouTube by Kane Brown on May 14, 2017.
One evening, a while back now, as I was pushing a lawnmower around my backyard, the song in the video above came on the radio station I was listening too as I mowed, and I knew as I listened to the lyrics that this was the song for Mary’s story. She was going to need a hero who would maybe appear to be a player but who wouldn’t be. He would be someone she would have to learn to trust. I hadn’t yet conceptualized Mr. Gabreil Durward as he appears in the story, but that moment with the lawnmower and this song was the beginning of that process.
There is an element of trust that accompanies accepting love from someone and giving it in return. One individual places their trust in another that either the love will not be taken away and so it is safe to accept it, or they place their trust in the fact that the person to whom they are offering their love will not disrespect it, crush it, misuse it, or reject it. In the excerpt above the video, Elizabeth is struggling with accepting that Darcy cares for her and that she cares for him.
In the excerpt below the writing news section of this post, Mary Crawford is just at the beginning of possibly trusting a gentleman, Mr. Gabriel Durward, with her heart. In this portion of the story that I am sharing today, we see part of why Mary is so reluctant to trust freely, and we hear Mr. Durward tell her for a second time that he will not let her take on water, which is his way of saying he’ll never hurt her and his way of asking for her trust.
As you read, I hope you can see how the what if questions in the lyrics of today’s song apply to Mary and Gabe.
I only have a little bit of writing news this week.
I have made a good amount of progress on Mary’s story and am continuing to post two chapters per week on Patreon. I am hoping to reach the end of the story this week (fingers crossed), since, on Friday, I put the full evil plan, which will put Mary’s trust to the test and provide our dark moment before the happy ending, into action. 🙂
I finished writing my third short story. This one is called Frosted Windowpanes and is an original story with a Persuasion sort of plot to it.
After some planning and thinking, I have come to the conclusion that the story to follow Delighting Mrs. Bennet will be called Loving Lydia because it is through loving Lydia that Darcy’s objectives (which I cannot fully share at this time although one of them is to help Lydia improve) will be met. Thank you all for leaving your comments last week as those did help me work through this in my mind. 🙂
And now for…
AN EXCERPT FROM Mary: To Protect Her Heart: Continue reading Music Monday: What Ifs (Kane Brown)