Although this video is not new to YouTube, it is new to me. I just came across it when doing a search for something to share today, and it made me think of an Austen character that I have written as a romantic hero who was no such thing in the original story. 😉
I’m talking of course of Wickham in my story Through Every Storm. He and Lydia had fun falling in love and flying too high (as the lyrics say) when they were young. However, eight years have passed between when they were forced to marry and when the storm that will either shatter or cement their marriage begins. And what Lydia needs in this story is a “man going down” — someone who can find the strength to not only weather the storm himself but help her through it as well.
Une noce chez le photographe, c.1879, Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Below are the final paragraphs of Listen To Your Heart. If you don’t want to see the ending before reading the rest of the book, look away now. 😉
Anne’s stomach did a little flip as she reached the bottom of the stairs, and they faced the door to the drawing room where Mr. Collins and Richard, as well as a few assembled guests, awaited her.
“Are you well?” asked Darcy, noticing her pause.
She nodded, a smile suffusing her face. “I have never been better.” She waited while her mother slipped into the room and took her place next to Mr. Cranfield. Then it was time for her to join Richard in front of the garden doors where he stood propped on his crutches with Mr. Collins. She pulled back slightly on Darcy’s arm. He looked at her, his brows furrowed.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For helping me find my own happiness.”
“You’re welcome, but I did very little to assist you.” He looked at her face and then Richard’s. “Happiness often follows when you listen.”
“Listen?” She looked up at him in confusion. “To what?”
He smiled at her and tipped his head toward Richard. “To your heart,” he said as he began leading her into the room. “Always, listen to your heart.”
From The Lady’s Monthly Museum. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
She looked at the faces which stared back at her in disbelief. “I am not fit for bedlam, if that is what you are thinking. I know it is a sudden turnabout, but a turnabout it is. I have made my choice and am moving forward. How is it you said it, Richard? The past is in the past? And that is where it shall stay.”
“And you are certain of this, Catherine?” questioned Lady Matlock. “You are not just taking the role expected of you for the sake of the family?”
“Good heavens, no!” Lady Catherine shook her head. “I have spent far too many years doing as the family expects. Is not a lady in her dotage allowed to do the unexpected? In three weeks, I shall hand over the care of Rosings to the younger set and shall begin to take my ease.”
Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons The cottages and the village life of rural England. 1912. Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
The spitting rain had left muddy trails down Darcy’s greatcoat as it mixed with the road dirt. Keeping to the right branch of the road as the gentleman had instructed, Darcy found himself riding up a path toward a stone cottage. “I think this is the cottage,” said Darcy.
I’m breaking the every-other-week posting rule again for a very special reason. I have, for the foreseeable future, reduced the price of one of my books to $0.99*.
To give you a taste of the tone of much of this book, I am combining the song and an explanation of the book that I shared (along with a chapter from the book) back in August 2016, with the excerpt from the story which I shared as I was writing it back in July 2015.
Fair warning: Don’t Let Her Be Gone is a sad one that always tends to leave a tear in my eye, which is fitting since Through Every Storm does the same to me when I read it.
The link in the previous paragraph is for the version I listened to on the radio and is sung by Gord Bamford, a Canadian country music singer. I have shared his video below for those who might be able to see it as I can, and I have shared another version of it by Jared Blake below it that I know works in the US. (Zoe Burton checked the link for me. 🙂 Thanks, Zoe!)
I will admit that when this song started playing regularly on the radio, I did not like it. In fact, I can remember whining to a friend that it was “so sad.” But as it played over and over each day as I made supper or did the dishes, I grew to like it — which is a lot like the characters in this week’s featured novella, Through Every Storm.
Lydia and Wickham are easy to dislike. Everyone dislikes them, don’t they? They are horrible, rotten, self-centered individuals….right? Perhaps they were. 😉 However, my challenge in writing this novella was to make them likable. Yes, you heard that correctly, I wished to redeem the unredeemable, so to speak.
But what if after several years of marriage, Wickham has both matured and come to love his wife? What if that wife loves her husband deeply but has not matured as much as he has and still holds on to some scars from her youth? What if she does something which is stupid and justifiably unforgivable by her husband? What if she discovers the truth behind his reason for marrying her — that he was paid to do it? How does a family, for they have two children, weather such storms?
That’s the story you’ll find in Through Every Storm.
It, like the song this week, is sad, but it, unlike the song, ends on a very sweet and hopeful note. I think you’ll be surprised by the characters. I know I was. I came to love them — yes, actually. 🙂 And I’m not alone. I have heard from readers who have also (shockingly) found themselves liking Lydia and Wickham.
There are two places in this story where Wickham finds himself thinking “please don’t let her be gone.” The first time is in chapter one which can be previewed here: Through Every Storm. The second can be found in chapter 9, which is where this excerpt is from:
She took another step away from him. “You fear for my reputation now, but you did not then. Why, George? Why now but not then?”
“Because it matters now, and it should have mattered then.”
“Oh, yes!” she shouted. “It matters now because you know of the children and because your business would suffer!”
Her fists were clenched at her sides, and his stomach roiled at the look of disgust on her face. Desperation clawed at his heart. He was failing. No, he had failed. That which mattered most to him was about to push him out of her life, and he had no idea how to stop her. He could hold her ─ force her to remain ─ but she would only be there in body. He saw her turning from him and grabbed her arm. “Lydia, please. It is not like that.”
She yanked her arm away. “You are not really going to try to tell me that you care for me, are you, George? For I can guarantee, I’ll not be falling for your pretty words again. I’ll not be played the fool any longer.” Tears flowed down her cheeks as she turned and ran from him. She could not bear to hear him say he loved her when she knew it was not true.
Wickham wanted to run after her, to make her understand how much he had changed and how much she now meant to him, but he could not. His feet were rooted to the ground, and he could not seem to draw a full breath. He stood watching her, his heart aching a bit more with each step she took.
“Papa?” A small hand grasped his.
His knees buckled and he sank to the ground.
“Papa?” Louisa grabbed his face and looked at him.
He saw the fear in her eyes and smiled at her. “I am well. I just need a rest.”
She scrunched up her face and looked at him carefully. “You are not well. Mama is not well. And I am going to get help.” Before he could stop her, she had spun on her heels and was running.
“Louisa, come back,” he called as he pulled himself to his feet and soon overtook her. He snatched her up, crushing her to him. “Where are you going?”
“To get Aunt Kitty. She can make Mama feel better, and if Mama feels better, then you will feel better.” She thumped him on the chest. “You should have told her you loved her.” She thumped him again. “You should have told her. Why did you not tell her?”
“She would not have believed me,” he said softly as he stroked her hair.
“You still should have told her.” Her little body trembled as she gulped air between sobs.
[from Through Every Storm]
Now, isn’t that a cheery way to start the week? 😀 I promise my stories always have happy endings, even this one.
P.S. (Can you add those to blog posts?) If you’re on my mailing list, you should have found a surprise in your inbox this morning.
$0.99 is USD, CAD, AUD, NZD, EUR, GBP
*The link in the intro is to the song on Spotify. This is not an affiliate link. It is just my way of attempting to help out the artists whose music I share.
