Alexander on Highbury Society
Good morning friends. Thank you for taking the time to sit with me for a moment, and thank you for the opportunity to visit this modern creation — your blog. I am always amazed by the progress of industry and technology.
Let me tell you a bit about some of the people I have chanced to meet here. They are an interesting crew, one and all, and I have found both interest and diversion in their company.
The first is Mr. George Knightley. I was recommended to him by my friend Darcy, who deems him one of the few intelligent men in England. He is, indeed, a fine and gentlemanly bloke, friendly and generous, as well as educated and with an excellent understanding. Despite my much lower social standing, he took to me as a friend and treated me as an equal, and I, in turn, like him a great deal. I was sorry to have to consider him a suspect in my investigations, but one must put aside personal biases in my line of work.
Of course, one cannot ignore Miss Emma Woodhouse. She is young, very pretty, and very wealthy, and she reigns over Highbury society. She seems to enjoy involving herself in their affairs of others, and claims a particular talent for match-making. Alas, she seems to have set her eyes on none other than me! One cannot help but feel the compliment, for she may have whomever she likes, but it is also disconcerting. There are a great many undercurrents in the society which I have seen, and I have little wish to become embroiled in this web. Further, my friend Mary Bennet now seems to have become part of it all, and she is not too happy to see me here, nor to see me with Emma Woodhouse always at my side!
Mr. Elton is the local vicar, a handsome but rather proud man who seems to aspire to things greater than his station. He has married a wealthy but unpolished woman, and she and Miss Woodhouse have engaged in a quiet war over who shall now be the first lady of Highbury's society. If it were not so annoying, it would be amusing to watch. As for Elton himself, he has proven unpleasant and unhelpful in my investigations, but I fear I must importune him further, for I have more questions for him.
There is an interesting little family in the village by the name of Bates, a mother, daughter and granddaughter, all living in genteel poverty in a small apartment above a shop. The old lady is in her declining years, but her daughter, Miss Bates, is a voluble font of information, most of it quite useless. She is a well-meaning woman, but with little sense. Her niece, however, is quite the opposite. This is a lovely young woman by the name of Jane Fairfax. She is about twenty-one and very elegant and accomplished, having spent much of her youth with a family friend. But this friend is now married, and Jane is back in Highbury. She is quiet and reserved, but I suspect great depths behind that placid surface. I wonder what she has hidden from us all.
The other family of interest in town are the Westons. Mr. Weston is a gregarious man in his middle-forties, who has recently married Emma Woodhouse's former governess. They are charming people and most excellent company. But Mr. Weston has a son by a previous marriage, a young man named Frank Churchill, who is only a year or two older than Emma and Jane Fairfax. He was raised by an aunt and uncle, and has only recently come to visit his father and meet the people in the town where his father lives. He is open and full of every enthusiasm, but I do not quite trust him. I cannot yet say why. I believe there to be some strange connection between him, Emma and Jane. And now he has started paying undue attention to my friend Mary. I am... disturbed.
Well, enough of this. Here is a short excerpt from my adventures in this charming little town. But, as we all know, appearances can be deceiving, and there was more to Highbury than what met the eye.
Excerpt
Mary Bennet and Alexander Lyons have both been invited to the Highbury ball. Alexander has accepted Knightley's offer to lend him some suitable clothing for the event.At any other time, Alexander would have thanked the man profusely and then refused the honour, preferring to dress as what he was: an unimportant son of a country doctor who made his way, with some success, in trade. That his stock in trade was his mind was irrelevant: he worked for his bread and made no pretensions to anything else.
This time, however, something compelled him to accept the offer, just as he had accepted the previous evening for dinner at Hartfield. He had elected to wear the same coat as before; it was plain luck that he had found the item amongst Knightley's offerings, and more so that the coat had fit so well. The valet had needed to perform only a very few alterations to make the item look as if it had been cut for him, for which he thanked the wizard of a man profusely.
"It was merely a tuck at the waist and at the sleeve, sir," Hodges had replied, but Alexander was duly awed, nonetheless. He was scarcely able to sew on a button himself.
To go with the mid-blue coat, he had selected a pair of ivory silk breeches and a dove-grey waistcoat with a thin blue stripe. He had, in his own wardrobe, suitable stockings and shoes, and Hodges had insisted upon travelling into Highbury with Mr. Knightley to attend to the final details of Alexander's appearance and tie his cravat. As he had discovered some months before when waited upon by Darcy's man, there was a selfish luxury in being so served, and he made certain to enjoy the novelty of it.
He was pleased with his decision. Highbury might not be London, where the first circles gathered to play and amuse themselves, but it had its share of elegance and wealth, and for a moment he was invited into those circles. Here, for tonight at least, he was not Alexander Lyons, country oaf and perennial stranger, but Mr. Lyons, honoured guest.
What he had not been quite so prepared for, however, was the attention paid to him by Miss Woodhouse. The previous evening at her home, he had been surprised but not alarmed, for he was a novelty amongst the familiar. Tonight, however, he had quite expected her to toss him a perfunctory 'Good evening,' and then dash off to tend to some matter that only she could fix and to fawn over and regale a hundred other men, all more wealthy, handsome, and important than he.
Imagine his shock, therefore, when all of her admirable charms were turned upon him and nobody else! She took his arm and showed him the hanging draperies, the flowers, the tables laden with food and drink, the special design of chalk on the floor for the dancing, and so many other details, asking his opinion on each one and looking at him as if his approbation were the most important thing in the world to her.
Although her assumed role as hostess carried with it some obligation on her time, every moment not otherwise claimed led her to his side. She danced with Churchill to open the ball, and then again with various well-placed members of the local society, but made a great showing of the empty slots on her dance card, which he most graciously offered to fill. They danced two sets together, and the look upon her face was one of triumph!
Yes, he ought to be pleased indeed, to see her shine as she did in her beautiful gown and her elegant hairstyle. He was not, as a rule, a man to notice much about a woman's garb other than to assess it for evidence in a case, but he could not help but notice how the reddish pink of the skirt and trim brought out the soft glow of her blush and how the delicate tendrils of hair, usually swept back so harshly into a plain knot, drew attention to her eyes. He had heard her lament that she was the plain sister, the one who could never compare to the others in looks or personality, but this unplanned stay in Highbury had revealed a new side to Mary, one where she could step out of her usual role and become the beautiful young woman she had hidden for so long.
Book Blurb
Alexander Lyons is sent to Surrey on an investigation, and at his friend Darcy's request, heads to Highbury to make certain Mary is comfortable and safe. But no sooner does he arrive than one local man dies, and then another!
Soon Alexander and Mary are thrust into the middle of a baffling series of deaths. Are they accidents? Or is there a very clever murderer hiding in their midst? And can they put their personal differences aside in time to prevent yet another death in Highbury?
Author Bio
Riana now lives in Toronto with her family. When she is not writing, she can often be found playing string quartets with friends, biking around the beautiful province of Ontario with her husband, trying to improve her photography, thinking about what to make for dinner, and, of course, reading!
Giveaway
Thank you for sharing an insight into characters that populate your novel, Riana. It is a pleasure to see that Mary Bennet is blossoming into a beautiful young lady. We all wish that she will find a suitable husband who will appreciate her. Might that be Alexander Lyons? We shall have to wait and see.In the meantime the author is gifting five e-books of Death in Highbury throughout the tour. So make sure you fill in the Rafflecopter form below to be entered in this international contest. Another method is to email Riana and she will add your name to the drawing. You have until midnight EST of next Saturday, 27 February 2021 to do so.
That was fun! Nice to get a different 'perspective'.
ReplyDeleteThank you for excerpt. I cannot stop smiling learning Mr Lyons attention is drawn to Ms Mary Bennet. How he did not regard her as the plain Bennet sister. I wonder if Ms Mary notices it ?
ReplyDelete