Because St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated in March, I thought that this month would be a good month to feature some Celtic music on Mondays.
I’m pairing today’s song with a story where the father of the hero surely would have cried out to be saved from the waters of the Irish Sea. Unfortunately, he was not. (That’s a sad note to start the month on isn’t it? Sorry. The song, however, is much more upbeat than this quote. So, there’s that. 🙂 )
At All Costs is book four and the conclusion of my Willow Hall series. The hero of this story, who lost his father at sea, is perhaps my most-favorite Bingley. Bingley is not the only gentleman who finds his happily ever after in this book. The colonel is also so fortunate. Bingley and Richard work together on a few things in this book.
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PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY RONANKEATINGOFFICIAL ON JULY 29, 2018.
Today’s music video is not a video at all but just an audio version of this song. However, please listen to the lyrics, and if you have read So Very Unexpected, imagine Marcus singing this to Lydia. Is it not the most perfect song for them?
I think the chapter below highlights how Marcus feels about Lydia even though he has just met her and literally brought her “home” to her family. He’s not going to let her fall into a desperate situation. He will be there to help her. Of course, he (and Lydia) just think he’s being a friend, but hey, this is a romance story, so you know it’s going to develop into something more. However, that willingness to see that Lydia is well is not going to change, in fact, he will add to it a determination to see her become all that she can be, and along the way, he will become not just her friend but also her safe place and her champion.
“Lydia, do be serious,” Elizabeth chided before anyone else could say a word.
“I can replace it.” Ignoring her sister, Lydia continued with her explanation. Of course, Elizabeth would not understand. Elizabeth never did anything foolish enough to be punished by their father. In fact, he had never once called Elizabeth dull or silly. No, to their father, Elizabeth was quick and clever. “I will go without most of my pin money, and I am not without skills. I could take in some sewing.”
Lydia saw the look of disbelief on Elizabeth’s face and could not ignore the stinging of her sister’s words any longer. “Mr. Wickham is not what you think, Lizzy. If you knew what he was like, you would not wish him upon me. I was not taken in by him as you were.” She smiled inwardly at the stricken look on Elizabeth’s face. “I may look like I am not paying attention at times, but I assure you, I am listening. I have heard plenty of tales about Mr. Wickham.”
“Then why did you choose him to accompany you?” demanded Elizabeth.
Lydia sighed. “Because he knows where Derbyshire is, and he is weak enough to be led. I should think you would be able to piece that together.” She knew there was a cutting edge to her voice, but she did not care. Lizzy was Papa’s favourite. “I am not so stupid as you think.” A hand took hers.
“I do not think Lydia’s plan is completely without merit,” said Marcus, squeezing Lydia’s hand tightly. “Wickham has been bought off before. I am sure he could be once again.” He returned the small smile Lydia gave him.
Welcome to a new week. This week, the blog will be sparse as I took a couple of days off last week and will be taking a few more this week so that I can go do some fun stuff with my husband before he heads back to work.
Published to YouTube by LadySweet321 on November 6, 2011
I’m sharing something a little different from my usual Monday Music selections. However, it is a song that I have been enjoying lately and it has a connection to my writing life at this moment in time.
Published to YouTube by Tenille Townes on March 18, 2019.
I have been doing a lot of thinking about Persuading Miss Mary this week because I’m struggling a bit with finding the answer to what I think is the major question of the story. How is Wes going to persuade Mary to love him when he represents something of which she very strongly disapproves? Continue reading Music Monday: White Horse, Tenille Townes
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.”
Published to YouTube by Aaron Goodvin on October 4, 2018.
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
