The Darcy Legacy Blog Tour: Guest Post, Excerpt + Giveaway

The weekend is upon us and what better way to relax and enjoy Joana Starnes's newest release. If you have not read The Darcy Legacy yet, you are in for a treat as Joana has embarked on a virtual tour to introduce this Pride and Prejudice variation. This is her maiden visit to My Love for Jane Austen so let's give a warm welcome to her. Don't miss the chance to win one of the many prizes sponsored by the author.

Guest Post

Thanks, Lúthien84, for having me as your guest today, on the blog tour for my newest book, The Darcy Legacy.

I have often wondered how Elizabeth and Mr Darcy's courtship would have evolved, were it not for that ill-judged and so ungentlemanlike 'She is tolerable, I suppose...'

This is an angle I explored in The Darcy Legacy. What if their acquaintance did not start on the wrong foot? What if Mr Darcy did not hurt Elizabeth's feelings and her pride at the Meryton assembly — and if he did blunder, it was in a way that she could find rather amusing? (If you've read my guest post on Candy's blog yesterday, you know what I mean).

What if they discovered they had some things in common? What if, instead of making stilted conversation with a new acquaintance, Mr Darcy would grow sufficiently comfortable as to present his pleasant and more than a little intriguing side to Elizabeth? In short, what if she had good enough reasons to fall for him from the start?

The following excerpt hints at possibilities. Please read on, and I hope you'll like it.

Excerpt

       Miss Lydia and Miss Kitty promptly ran off towards a swing hanging from the tallest tree without stopping to excuse themselves, and proceeded to take turns in it with shrieks of delight, leaving their sisters to show the visitors around the garden. Bingley was rather less than pleased, Darcy noted, to amble at his side rather than arm in arm with Miss Bennet, who was walking ahead with Miss Elizabeth. Nevertheless, he went forth with good grace, until he stopped to look up and exclaim:

       "What a lovely treehouse!"

       He might have chosen a manlier epithet, Darcy thought, but praise be, he did not call the construction admirable. Whether or not he had paused out of genuine interest or in an endeavour to manoeuvre himself into offering Miss Bennet his arm was hard to tell, but Bingley continued:

       "The youngster who had the run of it strikes me as a lucky little fellow. It must have afforded hours of amusement."

       "It did," Miss Elizabeth replied. "I speak with good information, as I was that lucky youngster."

       Bingley's eyes widened into a ludicrous picture of disbelief.

       "You?"

       For his part, Darcy was rather more adept at keeping his surprise in check, but he was no less astounded to find that she would make so little effort to portray herself as demure and ladylike, but openly declared herself a tomboy. It was as if she did not know or did not care that a languid manner was de rigueur in her more sophisticated counterparts. Perhaps sophistication was not within her reach. Or perhaps the tomboyish air was a different sort of affectation. But nay, that was probably unkind. The playful twitch of her lips was wholly artless when she replied:

       "Just so. I have always favoured the outdoors. The treehouse also happened to be a perfect spot for reading."

       "Was it? Up there?" Bingley rather ungentlemanly continued to give voice to his incredulity.

       "An uncommon choice, I grant you," Miss Elizabeth conceded, then indicated her younger sisters, who were still making a considerable racket. "As you can see, our house can be rather boisterous at times. The treetops — not so much."

       "Might I ask what you were reading?" Bingley asked, sidling closer to her elder sister.

       "Oh, anything and everything," she said with a careless little gesture.

       "Do you know, Darcy," Bingley said, taking another step towards Miss Bennet as he kept looking up — it was a mercy that he did not trip — "I think I chanced upon your treehouse once. But I imagine you did not need to take refuge there to read. Pemberley must have been sufficiently quiet."

       Aye. Too quiet, Darcy inwardly acknowledged. His treehouse was never used as a reading room, but had served in turn as a quarterdeck, a mountaintop or a castle turret, over hours of imaginative amusement with Fitzwilliam — and with one who later chose to make designs upon his sister's happiness and fortune, a grim thought intruded, and brought a grim scowl with it.

       An affectionate soul, but never one for tact, Bingley was quick to offer:

       "Oh, I beg your pardon. I thought they were happy recollections."

       Darcy forced them all aside, good recollections and bad, and smoothed his countenance into the expected blandness.

       "They were," was all he said.

       A vast deal more tactful than Bingley, seemingly, the second Miss Bennet saw fit to change the subject.

       "So, where do you hail from, Mr Darcy?" she asked.

       "Derbyshire. Pemberley, near Lambton," he told her, convinced she already knew. The gossips of Meryton must have gained enough information from Bingley's servants, and widely distributed it. But the wide smile that curled the corners of her lips seemed to be artless yet again, and her surprise genuine.

       "Lambton? How extraordinary."

       Failing to see what was so extraordinary about it, Darcy asked, "How so?"

       "One of my aunts was born and raised in Lambton. A charming and most welcoming village."

       The coincidence was extraordinary, Darcy allowed, so his guarded manner softened by a fraction.

       "I take it you have visited it."

       "Indeed. My uncle and aunt once took me with them on a tour of pleasure to the north of England. Sadly, it was rather a long time ago, and I remember little."

       "You probably remember the bookshop in Lambton," Darcy observed, given the disclosures about the uses for her treehouse.

       "I know there was one, and that we visited it," she said. "But I must own that I was less of a voracious reader at the time, and I have far more vivid recollections of a different place — a lovely shop on Angel Street, with a window full of unsurpassed delights."

       A warm smile stole upon Darcy's lips without his notice.

       "Mrs Allen's sweetshop, was it?"

       She gave a musical little laugh.

       "Of course. What else? I must say, that lady's almond macaroons and cherry confits still remain the best I have ever tasted."

       Darcy's smile grew wider.

       "I agree. I will be sure to let Mrs Allen know when next I see her that her confectionery made such a lasting impression."

       "Pray do, and convey my thanks. Oh, and my compliments for her lavender drops. I have not found their like anywhere else."

       Darcy could not fail to endorse that opinion too.

       "My sister missed them greatly when she left Derbyshire for town. She found some consolation at Gunter's, eventually. His lavender cachous were deemed a fair substitute. But she still urged me to call upon Mrs Allen with a sizeable order, every time I came to see her at Mrs Rossiter's school."

Mrs Allen's sweet-shop might very well be artistic license. It was in Victorian times that the sweet shop well and truly flourished (and you can read more about that here). As for Gunter's, it was as far removed from a homely village shop as could be, and not only in geographical terms (we can easily see that in this delightful post at Jane Austen's World).

Mrs Allen's shop would have been of a very different kind. It might have looked a little like the Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop (but without the teddy-bears 😉 and perhaps with a wider assortment of home-baked goodies).

(Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop, Bakewell, Derbyshire — Photo J Starnes)

Catering for the many visitors that had begun to travel to the north of England in quest of the picturesque, Mrs Allen might very well have sold Bakewell tarts, sugared buns, plum cakes, scones, tea cakes, the macaroons and confits Elizabeth mentioned, and maybe a good selection of boiled sweets too.

Given the age difference between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, it's not possible to imagine them as two ten- or eleven-year-olds bumping into each other (literally) while their eyes were glued to the delights in Mrs Allen's window. Darcy would have been almost eight years older. But wouldn't that make a rather sweet picture and open several intriguing possibilities of its own?

Book Blurb

Pemberley's ancient halls harbour many secrets. Which one will affect Fitzwilliam Darcy and the love of his life?

How is Mr Bennet to enjoy the comforts of a well-stocked library, when his wife's premature demise had left him with the task of finding suitable matches for their daughters? And what of a misleading encounter on a muddy lane in Hertfordshire, that renders a country-town assembly rather more tolerable than some might have thought?

Shades of mystery, meddlesome relations — not least a drenched Adonis — raillery, old errors and a very recent union make for a challenging courtship when Fitzwilliam Darcy is not on his own ground. Yet when love is the reward, challenges make it more worth the earning.

Book Links

Amazon  |  Amazon UK  |  Kindle  |  Kindle UK

Author Bio

Joana Starnes lives in the south of England with her family. Over the years, she has swapped several hats — physician, lecturer, clinical data analyst — but feels most comfortable in a bonnet. She has been living in Georgian England for decades in her imagination and plans to continue in that vein till she lays hands on a time machine.

She is the author of eight Austen-inspired novels: From This Day Forward ~ The Darcys of Pemberley, The Subsequent Proposal, The Second Chance, The Falmouth Connection, The Unthinkable Triangle, Miss Darcy's Companion, Mr Bennet's Dutiful Daughter and The Darcy Legacy, and one of the contributing authors to The Darcy Monologues, Dangerous to Know and the upcoming Rational Creatures (due in October 2018).

Author Links

Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Facebook  |  Twitter

Giveaway

The ever generous Joana has brought along some amazing gifts for followers of the tour. But before we get into the details, please allow me to thank Joana for agreeing to appear on my blog and share an enticing excerpt. It's certainly refreshing to have a glimpse of Darcy, Elizabeth and Bingley though it seems that Jane is very quiet in this scene. Claudine Pepe, thank you for inviting me to participate in this blog tour.

The author is providing ten e-books of The Darcy Legacy, twenty Audible codes to listen to her audiobook and a US$25 Amazon gift card. So fill up the the following Rafflecopter form to enter this international competition which closes at midnight Pacific EST on Monday, 16 July 2018.

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