Music Monday: The One, Northanger Abbey

Good Monday to you!

It’s time for a writing news update, a lovely music video, and a story excerpt.

Twirish246. “Catherine & Henry Tilney || The One || Northanger Abbey.” YouTube, YouTube, 18 June 2015, youtu.be/l4dFFK3vt64.

Writing News:

I have finished the last edits on Confounding Caroline and will be working on setting up a pre-order. I’m hoping to have that completed by Thursday.

Tomorrow is my day at Austen Authors, and I will be sharing an excerpt from Confounding Caroline as well as an interesting anecdote I found while doing some research for that story.

This Thursday, Delighting Mrs. Bennet will begin posting! I have four posts for this story written and scheduled. I hope that I will have time to get the fifth post written before it is needed. However, I must put writing that story on pause for a while since…

Master of Longbourn MUST be published in June, and I am still not done writing it. Yikes! It is getting very close to finished. I can feel the excitement of the ending coming soon. I’m hopeful that it will be complete by the fifteenth. With the end coming so soon, there will likely only be this week’s excerpt and maybe one that leaves you wondering next week, but that’s it. Then, there maybe a little gap of excerpt-free Mondays, or I might share bits of Delighting Mrs. Bennet as I plan to work on that after Master of Longbourn is finished. I have been finding it challenging to keep up with two stories during the week, especially when they are alike. (Both Delighting Mrs. Bennet and Master of Longbourn are sequels to Darcy and Elizabeth stories, and quite frankly, I struggle to keep those Darcy and Elizabeth stories straight. 🙂 ) Due to finding working on two stories simultaneously to be tricky, I am going to try shifting how I do the stories. I’m also going through a period of evaluation as I look at how I am doing things and trying to see what needs to stay and what could maybe be changed up. Why? Because 1) I like to shake things up now and again to prevent boredom and 2) I think I am finally reaching that point of must slow down before it is too late 🙂 (I’m so bad at that LOL)

 I think that is all the writing news, so now for that…

EXCERPT FROM Master of Longbourn: 

Using the candle he held in his hand, Collins lit a second one that was in the lamp on the table next to where Mr. Bennet had been sitting earlier that day. He looked around the room, which Mr. Bennet had told him he was to make this room his second refuge. His first was his room, of course. There he could lock himself away without there being much chance of being disturbed, but here, he was more accessible, and here is where Bingley had very firmly insisted he should read each evening. Bingley had wished for him to sit with the others in the sitting room, but Darcy had pled his case and convinced Bingley that the study would be better for reviewing what needed to be learned. 

Collins tipped his head and eyed the book on the desk. He wanted to go over it again. He was certain he could remember nearly everything Mr. Bennet had told him about the tenants listed in it. He glanced at the door. No one was with him, he could peek at it. He crossed to the desk, placed his hand on it, and just as he was about to lift the cover, shook his head and retreated to the chair near the lamp without the book. He did not want to have to tell Bingley or Darcy tomorrow afternoon that he had spent another evening studying, for both gentleman had thought it best if he spent one evening consuming the novel he had promised Kitty he would read.

He sighed as he settled into his chair, and taking up his book, he placed it unopened in his lap while he pondered the lovely Miss Kitty Bennet and watched the shadows chase each other in the flickering dance of the candles’ flames. Perhaps in the new year when Bingley had his ball, he would dance two sets with her. Perhaps by then, she would even be accepting of his addresses or at least by then he would have learned enough from Darcy and Bingley to be able to present them.  By spring, he might even find himself in a position to make her is wife. That thought could not be made without a smile finding its way to his lips.

“May I enter?”

Evelina clattered to the floor as Collins started at the sweet voice that called to him from the door.

“Your father is not here,” he responded as he bent and retrieved the book.

“I know. I was just with him,” Kitty said, “and then I saw the light under the door and thought it might be pleasant to sit in here if I am allowed.”

Collins nodded. “If you leave the door open.”

She smiled and pushed the door open just a bit further before crossing the room and pulling a chair from in front of her father’s desk to where Collins was sitting.

“Allow me to help you.” Collins jumped up from his seat.

“I can manage,” she said with a pointed look.

“But it is not right. I should provide the service to you. It is what a gentleman does for a lady.”

Her lovely lips puckered into a contained smile. “You have done as you ought. You offered your assistance, and I refused. It is likely I who has not done as is proper.”

He stood beside his chair, waiting and feeling very useless and awkward as she arranged the chair as she wanted it.

“I am certain you did nothing improper,” he muttered.

Even tugging a chair into place and twisting it this way and that, she moved with such grace. How she managed to look so utterly enchanting while doing such a thing was a puzzle he would like to have the opportunity to ponder over and over again as he watched her do whatever it was she chose to do.

“You can be seated,” she said with a laugh as she took her seat. “We are cousins. There is no need to be so formal, is there?”

His brow furrowed. Was there? They were cousins, but to him, she was more than just a relation. However, he could not tell her that. Not yet. He was not ready. He still had lessons to learn. He only knew how to tie his cravat in two different knots and his hair was, according to Bingley, in need of attention. He ran his hand through that mop of brown on his head and shrugged.

“I suppose there is not. However, it is what I have always been taught, and it seems strange to do anything else.” He settled into his chair once again. The candle’s flames were still causing the shadows to dance, but he could not be persuaded to watch them when the object of his former imaginings sat so near.

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