Her Secret Beau is the first of two stories in my Touches of Austen series that are set in Bath. So, I thought it’d be fun to gather a bunch of images from Deposit Photos (since I’ve never been to Bath, sadly) and make a setting collage.
I like having a few images in my mind when I am writing or reading a story, and these do relate to different scenes in the story as there are a few in gardens, one at the hero’s town home, and of course, the Assembly Rooms. There’s also a scene where the Abbey is mentioned. So, these all seemed to fit the theme.
I’ve selected to share chapter 10 in which you will find the scene where the Abbey is mentioned. We are about halfway through the story by this chapter, and the scheme that Grace is perpetrating is full swing. Here are the basics just so you’re not confused when you read the excerpt below.
Grace Love is secretly courting Mr. Blakesley (Walter). She is pretending to love Mr. Norman (of whom her mother does not really approve, though he’s a lovely fellow). the Claytons (Graeme and Bea) and the Sheltons (Roger and Victoria) know all about Grace’s scheme and why she deems it necessary. The reason behind the subterfuge: Felicity Love, Grace’s sister. I think that’s probably enough details to set you up to read what follows.
Hugh Thomson (1860-1920), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
As I mentioned in the Saturday Broadsheet, Mr. Bingley Plans a Ball is the May free read for Followers on Ream and Patreon. So, today, for this Story Connections post, I am sharing the first chapter of that novelette with the image above. If Bingley has his way, Mr. Darcy will be with him at Netherfield. However, as you can see below, Bingley has currently returned to Hertfordshire alone to do some scheming on his friends behalf — right after he secures his own happiness, that is.
En Svinesti, Carl Bøgh, (1869) Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Do these pigs look like their listening to a delightful tale of adventure to you? They do to me, and that is why I chose to pair this painting with the excerpt below.
The Beginning of Prudence is set in the springtime at Rosings and in one fun scene near the end of this novelette, a pig and Colonel Fitzwilliam take a stroll, and that is the scene that I have chosen to share below.
Now, I wonder which pig in the painting is Betsy? I think it might be the one lying down on the left side and looks to be talking. 😉
Enjoy!
P.S. The Beginning of Prudence is free to read for followers on both Ream and Patreon this month. Of course it is also available to purchase at your favourite ebook retailer.
Images taken by me (Leenie Brown) at Uniacke Estate Museum Park, Nova Scotia
Today’s excerpt takes place in the study at Longbourn so I thought I’d gather a few images of different desks and desk items I’ve taken pictures of over the years when visiting various historical houses. However, I found that I only needed images from one historical house.
These pictures were taken at a Sunset and Shadows a few years ago at Uniacke Estate Museum Park. That evening, those in attendance were allowed to go behind the ropes and into the rooms. We were even allowed to peek inside drawers (that’s how I got the top middle picture) and cupboards. It was wonderful getting to see and photograph the rooms from different angles.
Uniacke Estate was built as a summer home between the years 1813 and 1816. The study is a small room with lots of interesting things in it. More things than I have pictured. The gentleman who owned the home, Richard John Uniacke, was, at one point in his career, Nova Scotia’s attorney-general. So, as you might imagine a study would have been an important room for such a man. And the shelves were lined with many legal books.
I have no idea if Mr. Bennet had any books in his study that would also have been on Mr. Uniacke’s shelves, but I do think he would have loved the little room with it’s desk, chairs, walls of books, and scientific equipment.
It is Mr. Bennet’s study in which the following prologue to Not an Heiress is set. This prologue lays the foundation for the scheme that will play out in the book.
I must warn you a little bit about this book. If you like your reading to be squeaky clean. This one is not that. It’s clean, but it’s closed door/fade to black clean. The hero and heroine do fall into a compromising position or two over the course of the story and we know that impropriety has taken place. There is no sex on the page but there is off the page and before the couple is married.
And if you expect all good-girls like Mary Bennet who read sermons to always be good and beyond the temptation that is presented by a handsome officer, then, this book is going to disappoint you because even good-girls can fall prey to desires when circumstances are arranged to leave no means of escape. 😉
However, if you like a different sort of Lady Catherine who is fun, that you’ll find in this story.
Not an Heiress is set in the spring around Easter a few years after Darcy and Elizabeth are married and is a sequel to Discovering Mr. Darcy in which Lady Catherine with the help of Colonel Fitzwilliam scheme to see Darcy and Elizabeth happily married. In this book, it’s Richard’s turn to find his happily ever after via a trap laid by his aunt.
A Meeting by the Stile, Heywood Hardy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Isn’t this a beautiful picture. I love this artist’s painting of horses and people. I could sit and look at them, admiring the details and dreaming up stories, for quite some time. 🙂
I thought that the name of this painting made it perfect to pair with the first chapter of Two Days in November since there is a gentleman on horseback and a meeting at a stile.
Two Days in November is a story that takes place over two days in November. They are the days after Jane and Elizabeth have left Netherfield, when Collins comes to Longbourn, and when Darcy and Elizabeth meet on the street in Meryton.
But it is Darcy’s discovering Elizabeth at the stile and hearing her sister’s tragic story of a love that was lost which turns his mind in a better direction than it was set upon going. I hope you enjoy reading about how this meeting at the stile begins. (It doesn’t finish until the end of chapter 2. 🙂 )
