Story Connections – Page 10

The High Oxford (Myles Birket Foster)

*A busy day on The High, Oxford with figures and a pony and trap near Queen’s College*. Myles Birket Foster, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Don’t you just love the activity in the street in this painting? I can almost hear the sounds and smell the aromas. The painting gives us a lovely little glimpse of what the daily life in the town of Oxford might have been like years ago.

My book His Sensible Heart, which is book 6 in my Touches of Austen series, is set in the town of Oxford because our hero is attending school there. He’s not been a very diligent student before the book began, but things in his life have changed. His father is no longer pleased to just let him float along in life, doing as he pleases. In fact, his father has cast him aside — all because he chose the wrong lady to fall in love with.

That young lady (a very sensible young miss) and her father (a kindly gentleman) require Miles to prove himself. That will mean applying himself to his studies. His friend Tom, as we can see below, has offered to help Miles learn what needs to be learned to succeed in the challenge set before him.

I’m sharing this particular story excerpt today because I think, like the painting above, it gives a glimpse of who our hero is by showing us a piece of his life in action.

A Cottage in a Cornfield (John Constable)

John Constable, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This painting made me think of Mr. Dobney’s cottage in So Very Unexpected. It is the first place where he and Lydia really meet — even if they had been introduced the day before. Below is how that meeting started. (And it really did not get any better for some time — though eventually, Lydia finds that the fellow who owns the cottage into which she crept when running away has decided to be her friend, a real friend, unlike any she has ever had before.)

La Maison De Musique (Pierre Carrier-Belleuse)

La Maison de Musique (The Music House) by Pierre Carrier-Belleuse, c. 1901. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The young lady above could be Miss Mary in my book Christmas in Gracechurch Street.

(Even if, as I look at this image while typing this, the dress reminds me a bit of one that Wes did not approve of Mary wearing in Persuading Miss Mary, but I digress. LOL)

You see, the Mary in Christmas in Gracechurch Street changes when she gets to town with Elizabeth. She becomes more fashionable, and well, as you can see from this excerpt, much more proficient with music. She’s been hiding a quite a few things actually, and discovering this new Mary was fun when I was writing.

Well… it was fun for me. It might have been a little less fun and more shocking and occasionally disconcerting for her sister. But then, I suppose that made it more fun for me. 🙂 Ah, my poor characters. Forced to entertain me before they entertain you.

In this excerpt, which is set in a music room at Matlock House, we are at the darker part of the romance for Elizabeth, which is why the first line is what it is. To find out what has happened to make Elizabeth wish to cry, you’ll have to read the book. 😉

The Trouble of a Curricle (and the gentlemen who drive them)

Morburre, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

If you’ve read Waking to Mr. Darcy, then you know that at the end of that book we discover Mary Bennet has as secret crush. Nicholas Hammond is that crush. He’s also the Bennet’s neighbour, the eldest son of a spendthrift of a father, the older brother to a rather reckless brother, quite practical (perhaps to a fault?), and not uninterested in Mary.

Below is when we first get to meet Nicholas’s brother, Fred, and his friend, Whit. This excerpt tells of just one incident where the two of them cause trouble with a curricle and the first of four times they cause issues through racing.

Despite all that, they are two of my favourite troublemakers. 😉

My Favourite Description of Caroline

Image: The Palmy Days of the Café de la Rotonde. In the Palais-Royal, 1868, François Courboin [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Several years ago, I shared this image on a Wednesday right before the Thursday on which I posted the chapter from which the quote is taken. Back then, I was just beginning the writing of my Marrying Elizabeth series, and I was posting it on Thursdays as I wrote. Below is a portion of that Thursday’s chapter. (It was chapter 11 if you’re curious.)

Until the end of January 2023, you can download Confounding Caroline for FREE at your favourite ebook retailer. I have put links to the book below the excerpt for those who don’t have this book in their collection yet.