February 8, 2025

Happy February to you all! 

I hope you’re surviving the winter if that’s the season you’re in or enjoying the summer if that is your current season. We are expecting a snow event this weekend. We had a rather dry January with bare ground for most, if not all, of it. It was also warmer than expected at times, but then we also got some seriously frigid temps, too. It hasn’t been too horrible a winter for me, but that doesn’t mean I’m not eagerly looking forward to spring. 🙂 

I got snagged by a nasty cold last month and lost a few days of work to that. However, I actually recovered from it far faster than expected, so that was encouraging. My hubby is still fighting the lingering cough and my youngest son is now sniffling and coughing, so it’s making the rounds at our house. 

I am still working on writing Sweet Extra #5, None So Accomplished as Mary. I hope to have that finished in a couple of weeks. (I’m currently sharing chapters of that novelette on Patreon with my paid patrons as I write.) 

Remember that my Sweet Extras are always gifted to my subscribers. In the past it has been just my email (Substack) subscribers and patrons on Patreon, but I can now email to just subscribers on my blog, too. 

So this time, if you subscribe to my Substack, Patreon, or Blog (leeniebrown.com) via email, I’ll be able to share a freebie with you, too. 

I don’t expect that to be ready until sometime in March. And that gives you time to read How to Marry an Accomplished Lady if you haven’t already done so, since this book follows that. 

Other than that writing project, I have been continuing to work on making audiobooks and sharing them on YouTube (and sharing a link to download a copy with my paid patrons).

My most recent addition to YouTube is Morning Mist, a Nature’s Fury and Delights novelette inspired by Sense and Sensibility. It contemplates how things might have been different if Marianne had met Colonel Brandon before Willoughby and in a more romantic (at least in her mind) setting.

My next big writing project will be for my other pen name, and I have not decided on what the next Leenie book will be just yet. I’ll play around with some ideas for that and get it set up as I am working on my Annilee Nelson book. 

There is a new section of the Harriet and the Colonel story at the bottom of this newsletter, so make sure you keep scrolling until you get to that. It’s turning into a slightly longer project than I thought it would. I’m interested to see exactly where it leads. 

Now, let’s get on with the rest of the book news. 

Enjoy! 

Leenie

On Patreon

This month’s free read for all Patreon members (paid and non-paid) is…

Book Deals

And Then Love is only available on Amazon, but The Nature Fury and Delights Anthologies are on sale everywhere with all currencies reduced.

Leaving Kindle Unlimited

The Willow Hall Series will leave the Kindle Unlimited program in April. So, make sure you have it downloaded before April 21 if you want to read it using your KU subscription.

SOMETHING NEW TO READ

And now for another installment of Harriet and the Colonel. 

If you’ve read Oxford Cottage, you might recognize this scene because it’s in that novel but not in exactly the same way it is here. In this version of the scene, I’m telling it from Harriet’s point of view and not the colonel’s. You’ll also likely notice the same thing again next month since the scene from Oxford Cottage continues in the next section of Harriet and the Colonel’s story.

Chapter 4 (part 2)

Harriet crept softly to the door of the small library that was connected by a secret door to her brother’s study. She stood at the door for a moment taking in the dusty clothes the colonel wore along with his mussed hair and unshaven jaw. If weariness were a person, this is what it would look like. It made her heart hurt for him.

“Colonel Fitzwilliam?” she said softly. His eyes were closed, and if he were napping while he waited for her brother, she did not truly wish to be the cause of waking him. No matter how much she wished to speak to him.

“I am not sleeping Miss Phillips. I am thinking.”

“Has something happened?” As if she did not already know that it had. His legs were stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankles. His hands were clasped at his waist with his elbows resting on the arm of the chair. His head rested on the back of the chair, but, as she stepped into the room, she could see that his face was not relaxed. Lines of worry hung around his eyes and spanned his forehead. It was enough to confirm her suspicions even before he answered with a simple, “yes.”

“Do you wish to speak about it?” She brushed a lock of light brown hair from off his forehead and ran the back of her fingers along the stubble of his jaw.

He sighed. It was a sound of great sorrow. “I wish for answers, and I must see your brother for those.” His eyes remained closed, but he grabbed her hand and placed a kiss on it before releasing it.

“Are you sure you do not wish to speak of it to me? I am intimately acquainted with your current assignment.” He opened his eyes and looked at her in question. “Penny was my maid after all.” She moved to the chair nearest to him. She would tell him later what she knew beyond that he was looking for clues as to why Penny ended up floating in the Thames.

“It has gone beyond a mere maid being ruined –” He paused for a half-second as if he did not wish to mention her maid’s death. “As if that were not bad enough,” he concluded before heaving another sigh tinged with anguish.

If he did not wish to discuss her maid’s death, she would not either. “Has another been ruined?” she asked quietly.

“Yes. Georgiana’s maid, Hannah.”

“Has she,” Harriet paused as she searched for a way to ask this without mentioning the topic he had just moments ago avoided, “disappeared?”

“No, she has not disappeared.” His emphasis of the word she was accompanied by a speaking look that caused Harriet to move to the edge of her chair and lean towards him.

“But others have?”

Richard covered his face with both of his hands and groaned. “Yes.”

She wanted to ask who, but she could not for the door to her brother’s study opened. He arched a quizzical brow at her before turning his attention to the colonel. His expression was not overly welcoming of her, but, at least, he did not attempt to toss her from the room. Likely because he suspected she would not be moved, and he was right about that.

“Fitzwilliam. I see by the grey clouds that hang about you that this is not a social visit.”

Richard pulled himself out of the chair and smoothed his clothes as much as he could before bowing. “No, Lillesley, it is not.”

Edmund gave him an appraising look. “You could not bother to arrive in clean clothing?”

Could her brother be anymore obnoxious? Could he not see that his friend was not well? That there was something seriously wrong? She scowled and shot him a displeased look when he glanced her way.

“There is not time” the colonel answered. “I am on the road again in mere hours.”

“Then you had best sit.” Lord Lillesley motioned to the chair Richard had just vacated. “In that chair. There is no need to soil another.”

Again, Harriet shot him a scathing look when Richard apologized for the dust he was leaving on a chair. Did he always treat the colonel like this? What had happened to their friendship? Surely, his new position as Lord Lillesley had not gone to his head so much that he now looked down on the colonel. It never seemed that way in social settings.

Edmund’s eyes flicked away from her quickly. Perhaps her look had found its mark?

“It is nothing.” His tone had shifted to something more familiar and acceptable to Harriet’s ears and heart. “You and your men are always leaving a fine layer of dust in this room. A hazard of the job, so to speak.” Lord Lillesley drew a chair near where Richard and Harriet sat. “What brings you to London? Were you not to join Samuels and Fredericks in Hertfordshire to watch Mrs Younge?”

“Morley and Blythe took over their posts the day before yesterday; however, Mrs. Younge is no longer in Hertfordshire but in town. She has been let go without reference from Darcy’s employ.”

There was an angry note to Richard’s words, and Edmund looked as if he were attempting not to fidget nervously. His eyes flicked from the colonel to Harriet and back. It was a tell-tale sign that there was more to this story than even the colonel knew.

“Georgiana’s maid has been ruined,” said Harriet. “But she has not disappeared.”

Her brother swallowed visibly as he cocked an eyebrow at the emphasis that she had put on the word she. “But someone has?” he asked her.

She nodded, just as Richard threw a question at her brother.

“What do you know about George Wickham?”

Edmund eyed Richard carefully and then settled back into his chair. He may have been affecting a relaxed pose, but Harriet was positive that he was not completely relaxed. And from the way Richard was watching him, she suspected that he also did not believe her brother’s façade.

“He is the son of the late Mr. Darcy’s steward,” Edmund said. “He is a known profligate with a penchant for gambling and not paying his debts.”

Richard leaned forward and watched her brother carefully. “Did you know he was an associate of Mrs. Younge?”

Harriet sucked in a quiet breath. What had her brother done? Please, do not lie, she repeated over and over again to herself as she waited for her brother’s answer.

He gave a sharp nod of his head. “Yes.”

Harriet closed her eyes and shook her head as Richard fairly leapt from his chair and began stomping a path across the room while muttering oaths.

“And you did not bother to give me that information before you insisted Darcy hire Mrs. Younge?”

Harriet was certain her sister likely heard that question as it flew with great force from the colonel’s mouth. Something dark like betrayal seemed to hang around the edges of the room, and she knew that her brother was probably happy to have her present. For he knew that with her present, there would be no exchanges of blows. 

“I did not see why her cavorting with such a lowlife held any bearing on her placement.”

Harriet pressed her lips together. He was trying to cover his action.

“Wickham hates … hates Darcy. He is not so very fond of me either, but he had vowed to harm Darcy.”

Dread settled in Harriet’s stomach. Had her brother truly placed the colonel’s cousin in harms way?

“How was I to know about this, Fitzwilliam?”

“You know about everything, Lillesley. Do not tell me you had not heard of the animosity between him and my cousin.” Richard’s eyes were hard, and his hands were balled tightly into fists at his side.

Yes, her brother was fortunate to have her present.