Pride and Prejudice Variation Series

Watercolor Flowers

Images for the above video were sourced through Depositphotos. Video background was created using Animoto and Canva.

I decided to share the images for this post in a bit of a different fashion today, and you have some options. You can press play and listen to the rest of this post being read to you, or you can press play and turn off the sound to see the images before you read the post below. It’s totally up to you how you wish to enjoy it.

While Georgiana’s sketchbook in Protecting Miss Darcy contains only sketches, I couldn’t resist sharing these pretty watercolor flowers that I found, so that, just like Lily (Alfred’s niece), you could “page” through them.

In the excerpt below, you’ll hear a bit about an incident involving a flower and bee and, hopefully, you’ll enjoy watching Alfred come to a surprising conclusion.

Meet Philip Dobney

Painting of the parish church of St James the Greater, Stirchley, Shropshire, seen from the southeast. Circa 1850. John Holmes Smith, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I liked sharing a full chapter last in the previous Story Connections post, that I decided to do it again. 🙂 I’m also sharing the full chapter to give you a good understanding of who Philip Dobney, the hero of And Then Love, is — just in case you haven’t already met him. If you have, it’s always fun to revisit an old friend.

Philip, as well as Lucy, in this story are good friends of Fitzwilliam Darcy. They’ve grown up together, so the friendship is of long standing. Philip is the person to whom the living at Kympton fell when Wickham refused it.

The fact that Philip is a parson is why I picked the painting above to share with this post today. I thought it was a pretty little church, even if it is in Shopshire and not Derbyshire. 🙂 I also liked that it includes a graveyard because that is the setting for the excerpt below that sets up why Lucy needs Philip’s help.

Oh, and one more note about the setting of this story. It begins at the time when Wickham is petitioning Darcy to give him that living he refused. Between him and Lucy’s uncle (who is far worse than Wickham), there’s most certainly going to be some trouble in this story.

Enjoy!

Never Mind (Frederick Morgan)

“Never Mind”, from a Pears Annual, 1884, Frederick Morgan (1856-1927), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I saw this picture and thought of two little girls who end up becoming the responsibility of their uncle in Sketches and Secrets of Summer. Maggie is the oldest and five. Rose is the youngest and three. Rose is also the more cautious of the pair, while Maggie is a good bit more independent.

Both of them adore Miss Bennet (aka Mary), and so does their uncle, though he hasn’t figured that out by the time they make this call at Pemberley in the story.

Portrait of a lady in a white dress (Marie Wandscheer)

This young lady looks ready to spend the evening at some soiree, but her expression is not one of delight. I think both of those things are fitting to pair with my book A Scandal in Springtime.

In this book, Kitty is spending time at her aunt and uncles home in town and attending some of the events of the season with her sister, Elizabeth (aka Mrs. Darcy). As she goes through her short season in town, Kitty is not always cheerful — mostly due to the excessive amount of talent that the always-proper-until-he-met-her Mr. Linton has for saying or doing something wrong. 🙂 (The poor man has Darcy beat in the how to offend a Bennet lady category!)

The excerpt I chose to share below is one of those times when Mr. Linton is making Kitty irritated, to say the least. I chose this time of his doing that because the lady in the painting is holding a rolled up paper, and Kitty has just attended a literary reading.

Oh, and one more thing before you read the excerpt: The Mr. Crawford who is mentioned is Henry Crawford (from my Other Pens series), who happens to be engaged to Mr. Linton’s sister.

Enjoy!

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.