Music Monday – Page 10

MM: Meant to Be (JJ Heller)

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY JJHELLERMUSIC ON AUGUST 7, 2015.

I thought we should have a happy, catchy, upbeat tune today to go with a happy chapter of Her Father’s Choice. 🙂

In Her Father’s Choice, Darcy and Elizabeth’s freedom to choose each other is taken from them as they are forced together through a planned compromise. However, as you will see in the chapter below, Darcy is quick to realize that even if he had not been forced to offer to marry Elizabeth, he still would have chosen her — they were meant to be. (Elizabeth will figure it out later.) And that’s the reason I picked this song.

If you are a Spotify listener as I am, you can find this song on Spotify here.

Her Father’s Choice, Ch. 4

Lady Sophia tapped her toe as she waited in the sitting room with Georgiana at Darcy House. “He should expect me to be early. I always am.” She straightened her sleeve. “I am curious to meet the lady who has finally captured your brother.”

“Captured would be the proper word for it,” said Richard, entering the room and giving first his aunt a kiss and then Georgiana. “I did not realize you were coming today, Georgiana.”

Georgiana pursed her lips and looked at her aunt. “I was not supposed to come.”

“An omission made in error, I am sure.”

Georgiana looked at her aunt doubtfully. “My brother does not make errors of omission. He is the most fastidious correspondent.”

“Ah, well, your brother does not get married every day, either.” She smiled and raised her brows, which combined with the twinkle in her eye, made her look very impertinent. “He will see his error as soon as I have explained it to him.” She patted Georgiana’s hand reassuringly before turning to Richard. “Now, tell me why captured is the proper word.”

“It seems –” began Richard.

“That I am the topic of gossip within my own home,” finished Darcy as he entered the room and gave Richard a stern look. “Georgiana! It is a surprise to see you.” He placed a kiss on his sister’s cheek while giving a questioning look to his aunt.

MM: Persuasion – It is You I Have Loved (Dana Glover)

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY KAVI P ON APRIL 26, 2011.

I selected this video to pair with a chapter of His Irreplaceable Belle, which publishes tomorrow, because that Touches of Austen story contains touches of Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

You can preorder His Irreplaceable Belle here.

His Irreplaceable Belle, Chapter 3

The late afternoon sun felt wonderful and warming as Fritz turned his face towards it. The brightness that filtered through his eyelids was restorative. It had always drawn him forward from his often deep ponderings with a cheerfulness that was unparalleled by anything else, save for the smile of a particular lady.

However, he was not sitting in the garden to think about Belle. He was here to clear his mind and turn it towards the task at hand – finding a wife who was not Belle.

He drew a deep breath and released it. But neither the freshness of the spring air nor the intensity of the sun could chase away the dark shadow of sadness that passed across his heart at the thought.

“Mr. Norman.”

Fritz straightened himself and opened his eyes. “Mrs. Blakesley.” He stood.

“Please call me Grace. I think we will be good enough friends for such familiarity.” Grace Blakesley took a seat on the bench next to where Fritz had been leaning backward and enjoying the sunshine. “My husband does not mind if you call me by my Christian name, do you, Walter?”

Walter Blakesley chuckled as he shook his head. Was there a happier man in all of Bath? Fritz was certain he had not seen one – not even Mr. Clayton and Mr. Shelton, who were each, without a doubt, happily and contentedly married and awaiting the arrival of a child, shone quite like Blakesley did. Joy effused every part of Blakesley’s person.

“You may call my wife whatever she wishes for you to call her.”

“I hate to disappoint your wife, but I may have to insist upon Mrs. Blakesley,” Fritz said. “I assume you will not be discharging me as your physician, Blakesley, will you be?”

Blakesley guffawed. “And give up the best physician in Bath? I think not!”

A rather grumbly part of Fritz’s mind wished that people would stop referring to him as the best physician.

“Then, I assume you will also call on me if Mrs. Blakesley should ever be in need of care?”

“Of course.” The answer was given without a moment’s pause.

“In that case, Mrs. Blakesley, I will have to insist upon calling you Mrs. Blakesley. It would be too improper for us to be on friendlier terms.”

Mrs. Blakesley scowled. “I do not see why it should be considered improper.”

“There are many strictures which might seem ridiculous and yet we must abide by them. I would not wish to be thought of as unprofessional or lacking in decorum in any fashion.”

Mrs. Blakesley’s eyes grew wide. “Oh, yes, right. I completely understand.” She paused to peek at her husband who had finally taken a seat next to her rather than standing and surveying their surroundings.

The man was incurably curious.

“Mrs. Blakesley is a lovely name,” his friend’s wife said happily. “I quite like it.”

“I am glad to hear it,” Blakesley said.

“As am I,” Fritz inserted before the two with him forgot he was there.

Music Monday: Innocent Heart (Brian Crain)

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY BRIAN CRAIN ON SEPTEMBER 27, 2016.

I decided to revisit a favorite artist for this week’s song selection. If you are a Spotify listener as I am, you can find this song there at this link.

Today, I am pairing this song with a story where I would say the heroine has a very innocent heart. It is a heart that is not looking in the right place for its forever love, but the guy sitting next to her and attempting to help her catch the attention of her crush and his brother will make certain by the end of the story that her heart finds its true home.

The story I am talking about is His Beautiful Bea, which is the first book in my Touches of Austen series, and the innocent heart belongs to Beatrice Tierney.

Important note: This book is currently on sale for $0.99 but ONLY until today. At some point tomorrow, that price will be going up!

If you have been reading my Sweet Tuesday stories, I think you will recognize a name or two in this chapter.

His Beautiful Bea, Chapter 2

“You are a fair sight to see,” Max said later that afternoon as he plopped down next to his sister on a couch in Stratsbury’s drawing room. He flicked her book. “You’ve not finished it yet?” he queried. “I half expected you to be ready to peruse the library before we leave today, but you have more than half the book left to read.”

Bea smiled at her brother. He was not a great reader. He preferred being out of doors and doing things to sitting and reading.

“I promise I shall not disappoint you,” she replied. “I have completed my book of poetry and would like to replace it. Sir Herbert has already promised me that I might. Will you help me choose a new book?”

Max shook his head and laughed. “Not likely. My knowledge of poetry is limited.” He stretched out his arms, resting them on the back of the sofa with one wrapped around her shoulders. “I know a few poets and poems, but not a vast array. You would be better to ask Everett or even Graeme. They would know more.”

“Then if I require assistance, my dear brother, I will ask one of them and not you.”

Music Monday: World for Two (King Calaway)

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY KING CALAWAY ON JANUARY 25, 2019.

This is one of those songs I just happened to see as a suggestion on YouTube. I had never heard of this Country Pop group before. So, I clicked play and decided it was a song worth sharing and pairing up with Assessing Mr. Darcy.

(You can find this song on Spotify at this link. I don’t get anything for sharing this link. I am just trying to do my part to help musicians earn a few pennies when listeners listen. 🙂 )

I’ve chosen the following chapter because it is when the first hints of a desire for “Building a World for Two” begin to filter into Darcy’s thinking. It is the moment he meets Elizabeth. (Yes, this is a story where Darcy falls for her immediately, and then they work through some stuff.)

Assessing Mr. Darcy, Ch. 4

Darcy had found his tea with Bingley to be refreshing, but not so refreshing as the feel of the wind against one’s person as he rode. At least, that is how Darcy saw it. He and Bingley had discussed the basics about which books were most important to look over first and what Bingley’s hopes were in securing an estate like Netherfield. It was for Bingley as it was for many gentlemen.

Bingley wished to gain the prominence that such an estate would bring him as well as a place into which he could put some of his inheritance in such a fashion that it would continue to reap benefits well past when he departed this earth. Bingley was no fool. He was happy and amiable as well as obliging to a fault at times, but he was no fool once he put his mind to a matter. It would take some doing, but Darcy did not expect it would be overly long before Bingley understood the workings of an estate as well as any gentleman did. Darcy smiled wryly. Bingley had the added advantage that he was likely to gain the approval of all his neighbours with very little effort. That was how Bingley was. He liked people, and they liked him. It was an enviable quality.

“I see the knoll,” Bingley circled back to where Darcy was riding at a slower pace. “There.” He pointed to his left. “And that fence there must be the one of which the groom spoke. We are nearly at the end of Netherfield’s lands in this direction. I shall have to ask him tomorrow for a marker of where it ends in the opposite direction.”

“Do you truly care to know?” Darcy teased. “Are there pretty ladies at an estate in all four directions?”

Music Monday: Siúil a Rúin (Ella Roberts)

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY ELLA ROBERTS ON FEBRUARY 25, 2020.

“Siúil a Rún” is a traditional Irish song, sung from the point of view of a woman lamenting a lover who has embarked on a military career, and indicating her willingness to support him. The song has English language verses and an Irish language chorus, a style known as macaronic. (source: Wikipedia)

The same Wikipedia article later said that some say the lover in this song was given a choice to either choose a military career or permanent exile, and he chose exile.

No matter what the reason, this song is about separated lovers and is a beautiful (though sad) piece of music.

I have chosen to pair this song with a story that might be very familiar to you if you read my Sweet Tuesday stories or read this story as a Thursday’s Three Hundred when I first began doing those stories.

In “Hope at Dawn”, the hero (Nicholas) and heroine (Kathleen) have been separated for a year. His suit was refused by her father and brother, and she was taken to Ireland, along with the match her father hoped she would settle on, while the hero remained behind in England.

I would imagine Kathleen’s heart cry during her separation from Nicholas sounded something like this song — beautiful and sad. However, Kathleen and Nicholas’s story does not remain sad — I write happily ever afters, you know. 😉

Hope at Dawn, Ch. 1

Hope at Dawn is one of four novelettes included in my *First Blooms and Second Chances* anthology.

As the sun slipped below the horizon, leaving its fiery glow resting upon the gently rolling black waters, Nicholas Sidemore spotted the boat for which he had been waiting, bobbing just on the edge of the sea ─ where the water dropped away and could be seen no longer. His heart raced at the sight of her, and he swallowed the fear that rose inside him as the vessel drew closer. It would not be long now ─ a few hours or perhaps a day ─ until he knew his fate.

Using the glow of his lantern to light the way, he carefully picked his way around the rocks lining the shore. Choosing a large one with a smooth top, he sat down. From this vantage point, he could easily see the entrance to the harbour and past it to the sea beyond.