Protecting Miss Darcy – Leenie Brown

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.

The Last Rose of Summer and The Harp-Lute

Below are two videos that highlight an instrument that was just being developed and becoming quite the “hot new” thing during the early 1800s. It is called a harp-lute.

This first video is of a lady singing “The Last Rose of Summer” while playing the harp-lute. I thought the video was such a good one to inspire the imagination of what music in the drawing room might have looked and sounded like.

And the second video is an informational video telling a bit about the history of the instrument and showing how it is played.

The story I have chosen to pair with today’s musical selection is Protecting Miss Darcy. The excerpt below is from a conversation Alfred Langley has with his aunt (Lorcan Langley’s mother, hero of Cherishing Kitty) about the prettiest flower in the garden. 🙂

That’s right, Alfred, you just keep telling yourself that Georgiana is only your friend. No one is believing that besides you and Georgiana. 😉

Find Protecting Miss Darcy, Cherishing Kitty, and the full Marrying Elizabeth series here.

MAILING LIST PATREON

Oboe Concerto in C major – 3. Rondo: Allegretto (Joseph Haydn)

I thought today, we would take a look at another instrument that might have been in Georgiana’s music room (the oboe) and some music from a composer who not only wrote music for oboes, but also for piano. I’m sure Georgiana might have had some sheets of his music in her music folder.

The first video (above) introduces you to the oboe that was in use in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The second video (below) is a short piece that was composed by Haydn for the oboe. Can you imagine the delight and enjoyment that Georgiana and her brother would have gotten from going to a concert and listening to something like this?

This excerpt is from a book (Cherishing Kitty) that stars Kitty Bennet, but her dearest friend in this series is Georgiana. Therefore, Georgiana plays a role in Kitty’s journey to happily ever after.

Here they are talking about Georgiana’s upcoming season. Georgiana’s story (Protecting Miss Darcy) follows Kitty’s story and leads up to her season.

Georgiana does begin her study of character with Mr. Alfred Langley… and spoiler alert… she also ends it with him. The path from here to there, however, is not a pain-free one. 🙂

Find Cherishing Kitty, Protecting Miss Darcy, and the full Marrying Elizabeth series here.

MAILING LIST PATREON

The Saturday Broadsheet (September 5, 2020)

Summer has come to an end for us at Brown Cottage because my husband has gone back to work and school will be starting. (In addition to having his own cleaning company, he works for the school board as a custodian.)

Last Friday, we took a day trip to Victoria Park in Truro, NS. On the way, we stopped at Mastodon Ridge to play a round of mini-golf. I came close to beating my husband but, as always, he won. 🙂

They have a Flinstone’s style car in front of a Flinstone style house. We’re sitting in that car for the selfie picture. My husband is holding my hair since it was WINDY on the hill and my hair kept blowing into my face and his.

We’ve had a very dry summer, so the falls at Victoria Park were no more than a trickle. However, the walk to get to them was lovely. It was a sunny and warm but not hot day — perfect weather actually.

And now, we are settling into the school year work hour routine. This means I will be starting to do a few more posts on my blog than I was over the summer. However, I learned to love the less intense schedule, and plan to do my best to keep from becoming overly intense again. I’ll tell you more about that below.

Let’s get on to all the writing and publishing news.

Screenshot: PMD Pinterest Board

You will recognize some of the images on this screenshot of my Pinterest board for Protecting Miss Darcy (PMD) because they are pins of the images I have shared here on Wednesdays. However, mixed in with those Wednesday images are other images and/or articles that helped me visualize what I was writing. (Like that pearl necklace or the stockings with flowers on them.) I’ll let you guess which two images on the screenshot above helped me with this week’s (final) chapter of PMD. 🙂 I think I will be pretty obvious. They are front and center.

~*~*~

He was gone and back so quickly that Georgiana suspected that the gift he held had been waiting next to the door.

“It is nothing overly extravagant, but I think it is fitting.” He opened the box he held in his hand, revealing a small flower pendant made of five diamond petals and a diamond center on a gold chain.

“Oh, it is lovely!” She ran a finger over it.

“That is not all.”

Her eyes lifted from their study of the beautifully delicate necklace he had presented to her to his face.

“Take the necklace.”

She did.

“This is for your hair.” He took a small bag from his jacket pocket. Then, he took the box from her hand and replaced it with the bag.

Georgiana peeked into the bag. “Is that…?” She could not believe what she was seeing. “A bee?”

[from Protecting Miss Darcy, Marrying Elizabeth book 6]

~*~*~

Marrying Elizabeth, books 1-5

MAILING LIST PATREON