Meredith Esparza at Austenesque Reviews has graciously included A Proper Darcy Christmas in her newest post. We had a lovely chat that is reproduced there about the current new book, past books, future ones and what I would give Jane Austen for Christmas –very revealing!
And there’s an international giveaway copy of the ebook to be won! Merry Christmas!!
The challenges of his first term away at school successfully behind him, Fitzwilliam Darcy anticipated nothing but fun and freedom for the Christmas holiday. Instead, those school-boy cares are left far behind when, upon his arrival home, he is met with the shocking news that his mother, Lady Anne, is deathly ill. Suddenly, boyhood must be left behind. What will now fall to him at only thirteen years of age?
It is Christmas, 1797, and Fitzwilliam Darcy has arrived at the pivotal moment in his journey to becoming the man Elizabeth Bennet meets at the Meryton assembly fifteen years in the future.
Complicating this is young George Wickham, devious already, who is also home from school. Soon, Darcy’s prank-loving cousins, Richard and D’Arcy Fitzwilliam, and their parents will arrive for the family’s traditional Christmas celebrations that Lady Anne insists they carry on.
Especially difficult are the expectations of his beloved parents and the new and interesting temptations that have arisen unexpectedly to tease him away from events at home.
A cadre of young men, all of them quite different–all of them reluctantly stretched toward adulthood in Lessons in Honour by Pamela Aidan.
Lessons in Honour is a variation on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and was formerly published as Young Master Darcy: A Lesson in Honour.
Just in time for Christmas gifting! Merry Christmas!!
The ebook version is available for sale or in Kindle Unlimited at Amazon. The paperback version will take Amazon a little longer to get out. Thank you so much to everyone who has been waiting and encouraging me along the way!
Link to the sale page here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BNG1LJN9
If A Proper Darcy Christmas is your first foray into my Austen World, you might need a few introductions to characters new to the Austen canon that were introduced in the trilogy.
The last ones are
Nelson & Trafalgar
Although they are not people, Nelson and Trafalgar are “personalities” in their own right.
Nelson
Nelson is Darcy’s horse, named after Vice-Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, the British war hero known principally for the naval victory at Trafalgar in 1805. Famous also for his message to the fleet that day “England expects that every man will do his duty,” he was idolized by every schoolboy, including Fitzwilliam Darcy, from his distinguished commands in 1797, when he lost his right arm, through successive engagements culminating in his victory and subsequent death in 1805 at Trafalgar.
Nelson is a seventeen-hand high, black thoroughbred stallion and principal sire of a line of horses bred at Pemberley. He is Darcy’s favourite mount. His temperament is a mirror of his master’s at his haughtiest, but his strength and speed are much admired in the world of horse flesh.
Trafalgar
Trafalgar, named for the famous naval victory, is Darcy’s mischievous dog with more personality than is good for him. Trafalgar, or “Monster” as Darcy often calls him, is a German Short Hair Pointer whose talents in the field might not entirely recommend him, but those of intruding into life in Pemberley’s household are legendary. Long Darcy’s solitary companion at home before his marriage, Trafalgar has adjusted to life with a mistress, and his concerns for his master have widened to include Elizabeth as well.
WELCOME to my Blog and my vision of Jane Austen’s world.
If A Proper Darcy Christmas is your first foray into my Austen World, you might need a few introductions to characters new to the Austen canon that were introduced in the trilogy.
The third one is
Annie Fletcher began her literary life as Annie Garlick in the Trilogy. One of the maids at Longbourn, she helped dress the young ladies and was learning to do their hair. When not tending to them, she was about the house and garden performing any of a variety of tasks that Mrs. Bennet or Mrs. Hill, the housekeeper, might assign her. Her hope in life was that someday she might become a real lady’s maid, a position at the top of the service hierarchy after the housekeeper.
A comely young woman herself, she attracted some attention from the local boys and one hulking brute of a footman in particular. His persistence caught the notice of Elizabeth Bennet, who would do what she could to keep Annie safe and out of his way, but she was not entirely successful.
When Bingley takes possession of Netherfield at Michaelmas, he arrives with his friend Darcy for an unspecified stay, their valets in tow. Fletcher, Darcy’s valet, is not impressed with the “quality” who live in Meryton’s vicinity and despairs of anything interesting that would call forth his inspiration. Then, shortly after their arrival, he sees Annie at church services, and the man who lived only for his art and sartorial reputation is smitten.
Through the servants’ gossip channels, Fletcher learns who this lovely woman is and where she is employed. Some “chance” meetings are devised and a secret courtship ensued.
Then, one Sunday after services, the local brute tries to detain Annie and force his attentions upon her. Having seen more than enough, Fletcher confronts him. The stir this caused among those gathered was enough to attract Miss Binley’s attention and she alerted Darcy that something was amiss with his valet. Darcy’s disapproving frown caused the footman to think better of his future and he withdrew. Fletcher was to hear about it later.
Annie Garlick and Fletcher’s quiet courtship shadowed that of Darcy and Elizabeth, both doing what they could to bring to a happy conclusion what they knew to be in their master and mistress’s best interests. By mutual consent, their own nuptials also depended upon it. So, when Elizabeth and Darcy had their wedding day, Annie and Fletcher did just before and the now Annie Fletcher joined the Darcy household as her beloved mistress’s lady’s maid and an integral part of Elizabeth’s new life at Pemberley.
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For those of you who have not read the Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman trilogy,
WELCOME to my Blog page and my vision of Jane Austen’s world.
If A Proper Darcy Christmas is your first foray into my Austen World, you might need a few introductions to characters new to the Austen canon that were introduced in the trilogy.
The second one is
Lemuel Fletcher
Lemuel “Lem” Fletcher is Fitzwilliam Darcy’s valet, the first servant chosen personally by Darcy, rather than by his father, shortly after graduating from university. Fletcher came into service a bit later in life than most valets but made up for that deficit quickly with his talent for and discerning taste in fashion that he would cleverly adapt to his employers’ personalities and positions, whether they were aware of it or not.
At the open of the Trilogy, Fletcher had been with Darcy for seven years and four things were quite apparent in that work: his faithfulness to Darcy, his extraordinary prescience, his facility with Shakespeare to communicate with Darcy about matters from which a servant is usually barred, and his unquenchable desire to make his mark and be recognized in his profession, the sartorial world of the Regency.
As for Fletcher’s prescience, there is nothing beyond its origin than being a very observant person and having a retentive mind, especially when he makes it his business. Fellow servants, tradesmen, other men’s valets, all of these sources furnish gossip and bits of information that a good valet would find to the advantage of his employer.
Darcy presents to Fletcher the perfect canvas for his art, but continually frustrated him by his insistence on understatement and simplicity. This does not prevent Fletcher from introducing elegance and discrete amounts of current fashion into his wardrobe. He concentrates his main efforts on the tying of Darcy’s cravats, which could not be seen until most all dressing was complete and could be rejected only with a great deal of time wasted. Eventually, Fletcher reaches the pinnacle of neckcloth knots when his creation “The Roquet” is acknowledged by no less a person than Beau Brummell, as outshining his own at the Melbourne’s Soiree.
Fletcher’s facility with Shakespeare came from a source that he was able to keep secret from Darcy for most of his seven years with him. The truth was, Fletcher grew up on Shakespeare. His parents were the heads of a small-time Shakespearean company that travelled the smaller cities and towns of the English countryside. He broke away from the company amicably in his late twenties to follow his dream of becoming a valet, but a heritage in the acting community was not a recommendation to the classes he looked to for employment. Therefore, it was a “deep, dark secret” for which Fletcher offered Darcy his resignation when it was discovered. Darcy, of course, discounted it, and Fletcher’s future in the Darcy family was secured.
This blog, Traipsing After Jane, sums up my philosophy and furnishes the guidelines for each book I write – authenticity and faithfulness to Austen’s characters while creating new challenges for them to meet and opportunities for them to grow.
That being said, if indeed A Proper Darcy Christmas is your first foray into my Austen World, you might need a few introductions to characters new to the Austen canon that were introduced in the trilogy, Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman.
The first one is
Lord Dyfed Brougham, Earl of Westmarch
Dyfed Brougham, or “Dy” as Darcy calls him, is Darcy’s best friend from university days. They met early on as refuges from pursuit by unscrupulous mother’s and older women of their own class who preyed on young, rich gentleman. Both Darcy and Dy were excellent students and friendly but serious competition between them was part of their friendship. Then, during their last year at university, Dy’s attitude seemed to change and he would disappear for a week or so at a time. Darcy would tax him with these absences but never get a satisfactory response. Eventually, for the sake of their friendship, he let it drop.
After university, Dy completely disappeared from Darcy’s life for several years. Then suddenly, he reappeared, attending all the exclusive social functions of the Ton which, in the past, they had both distained. But, to Darcy’s disappointment, he was not the same serious, brilliant Dy but a caricature who dubbed himself “Society’s Fool.” They resumed their friendship, but it was now only a tepid one.
As the events of the Gentleman trilogy unroll, Darcy discovers that Dy has been, in actuality, an agent for His Majesty’s government all these years, first as a cryptographer and later a field agent. He is still the brilliant man he was seven years before, but his current assignment is to keep tabs on what is swirling about in the circles of Society, not all of whose members are loyal British subjects. As Dy says, “You would be surprised what a fool hears. No one pays him any attention.”
In the course of the trilogy, Dy Brougham helps Darcy out of a number of scrapes and corners him into a serious self-examination that will help him become the man that Elizabeth loves in Pride and Prejudice.
But then, an issue arises between them: Dy confesses that in the process of his watch over Darcy, he has fallen in love with his sister Georgiana. Darcy is gravely alarmed—their age difference and Dy’s constant danger is not a life he wished for Georgiana and he strikes an agreement with his friend. Dy must say nothing of his love for two years while Georgiana comes out and is established in Society. Until then, he may be her friend, even a mentor, but not a lover. Two Years!=…
Watch for it at Kindle Unlimited, and soon in
ebook and paperback editions at Amazon.com
The first draft of my novella, A Proper Darcy Christmas (formerly A Pemberley Christmas, 1813) was finished at 8:30 this morning! I’m on target for a November release! Cover reveal soon!!
Traipsing After Jane 