Thank you, Anna, for having me as your guest today to talk about my latest release, The Unthinkable Triangle.
But firstly, may I speak of Mrs. Bennet? I must admit that I am rather fond of her. Partly because I am fast approaching the age I think she would have been in the original novel. Married very young and presumably pregnant with Jane almost immediately, she must have been in her late forties when Pride and Prejudice started to unfold. I am also rather fond of her because I simply cannot see her as an evil, scheming mother selling her daughters to the highest bidder, but rather as a realist. Of course her daughters needed to get married, preferably soon and hopefully well. What choices other than marriage or genteel poverty were open to them, should the worst happen and they lose their father and their home?
Lastly, as an author, I am very fond of her, and also of Lydia, because they are wonderful plot devices. A pair of blabbermouths can be extremely useful in moving the plot along, or having the main characters learn of details they would not yet dare disclose to each other – or would not have the crassness to mention themselves.
For instance, in The Falmouth Connection, my last book but one, Lydia makes Elizabeth see that Mr. Darcy might be in love with her. In my latest, The Unthinkable Triangle, Mrs. Bennet orchestrates a journey north that would allow Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy to finally reach their understanding. Moreover, it is thanks to her that Elizabeth finds herself travelling in Mr. Darcy’s carriage, along with her sister Mary, with Georgiana – and with the gentleman himself.
These days it takes mere hours to drive from Hertfordshire to some place or another in the vicinity of ‘Pemberley’. Not so 200 years ago, when a gentleman travelling with his own equipage and a large party of family and friends would take to the Great North Road with the expectation of covering roughly 50 miles in a day, weather permitting. They would have to frequently stop at coaching inns along the way to rest the horses and have them fed and watered, as the travellers partook of their own refreshments.
And then they would proceed at a stately pace again, and spend many hours in the close confines of a carriage. During those hours, in The Unthinkable Triangle, Elizabeth must confront her recently discovered feelings – a daunting task, in such close proximity, as the following excerpt shows.
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The Unthinkable Triangle
Excerpt from Chapter 14
Meryton was far behind now, as the swaying carriages proceeded at a stately pace along the Great North Road.
In the first there was silence. Fed and content, the babe was sleeping in her mother’s arms, and the three other occupants were keen to prolong that desirable state of affairs for as long as they could.
In the second there was a mayhem of Lydia’s, Kitty’s and Mrs. Bennet’s making, which would cease for some ten minutes or so whenever Mr. Bennet determined he could not tolerate it any longer and threatened with bidding the coachman make an about-turn and head back home to Longbourn.
In the third there was no mayhem but, despite appearances, there was precious little peace. One of the seats was taken by the readers – Mary and Mr. Darcy. Presumably mortified by her father’s injunction, Mary took it to heart and forbore to say a word, devoting her full attention to Mr. Gibbon’s History of the Roman Empire. Mr. Darcy’s reading matter, although less ponderous, still lacked the power to engross him fully, and now and then he would close his book and leave it in his lap, his finger holding his place between the pages, until he would tire of staring out of the carriage window and take up reading again, with infrequent glances at the seat before him, where Elizabeth and Georgiana were maintaining a cheerful conversation.
Truth be told, the cheer was all on Georgiana’s side. Elizabeth’s sole contribution was to skilfully drop the necessary words here and there, that would encourage her young friend to share more tales of town and Derbyshire. No one could doubt Georgiana’s excitement and her delight with the company and the travel plans. She was chattier than ever, which was a surprise but no less of a blessing, for otherwise the carriage ride would have been mostly spent in awkward silence.
Elizabeth clasped her gloved fingers in her lap and smiled to Georgiana as she declared her intention to visit the Lakes in the very near future, thus providing the young girl with another topic that would bear lengthy and elaborate descriptions, and giving her leisure to cast a surreptitious glance towards her friend’s brother. She longed to speak to him – she did not dare – and her own unprecedented shyness vexed her beyond endurance.
He was intent upon his book, so she allowed her glance to linger. Dark tousled hair, a few long, wavy forelocks falling over the wide brow. Eyes cast down, lidded as though closed, with only the flicker of dark lashes to prove it was not so. Lips pressed together, presumably in concentration, making the chin jut ever so slightly forward. Strong jaw above the neckcloth and the pointed corners of the collar, no longer perfectly aligned, as they had been this morning. Cheeks vaguely shadowed. A very straight nose, the nostrils widening all of a sudden, with a deep intake of air. And then the lips again. Perfectly formed. Still tightened.
Did he kiss Miss Wyatt when he had offered for her?
She had no answer to that question. Likewise to another: what alerted people when they were being watched? A sixth sense, or whatever else it might have been, prompted Mr. Darcy to glance up so suddenly that he caught her staring. Someone who had nothing to hide might have met his eyes squarely. Those who still had their wits about them would have looked away casually and slowly, as if their mind was elsewhere and they were simply staring blankly into space. Sadly, the sensible alternatives occurred to her when it was all too late. When her cheeks were already flaming as though set on fire, and her eyes had darted in panic from his face.
She did not look his way again, not for a long time, and Georgiana was surprised to note that she was getting monosyllabic or rather odd answers to her questions. Across from them, Mr. Darcy turned to stare at the Bedfordshire countryside again.
There was at least another hour and a half till their next stop. And to their destination – one hundred and twenty-two gruelling miles.
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Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. There is an international giveaway of a Kindle copy if you would like to find out more – just leave a comment for the chance to win. The giveaway ends on Sunday, October 18.
Best of luck, thank you for visiting and many thanks again, Anna, for welcoming me as your guest.
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Thanks, Joana! It was a pleasure having you on the blog today!
Stay tuned for my review of The Unthinkable Triangle. In the meantime, check out my 5-star review of one of Joana’s previous novels, The Subsequent Proposal. You can also connect with Joana here:
https://www.facebook.com/joana.a.starnes
http://www.twitter.com/Joana_Starnes
http://www.joanastarnes.co.uk
© 2015 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.
Loving all the excerpts that I’ve read so far! Can’t wait to read this book!
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I’m so glad to hear that you liked the excerpts, Dung Vu! Thanks for visiting and commenting and good luck, I hope you’ll get to read the rest of the book and that you’ll like how the story unfolds.
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It sounds so interesting 😀
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Ever so pleased that the excerpt caught your eye! Thanks for stopping by to read and comment and good luck in the giveaway.
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Mrs. Bennet is a great favorite of mine. She has 5 daughters. So of course much of her time is going to be occupied trying to find husbands for them all.
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Mine too, Mary. I think it’s so unfair that sometimes she is portrayed as Cinderella’s evil step-mother 🙂 A modern-day mother would have no sympathy from any of us if she were to expect her daughter to marry someone like Mr Collins. But what else could her daughters do but focus on marriage, any marriage? Otherwise they ran the risk of ending up as poor as Miss Bates or as miserable as Jane Fairfax in Mrs Smallridge’s house, governess to her spoiled children. Thanks for your lovely comment and for stopping by to read the post.
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No wonder Georgiana is so chatty with no young female friends – haven’t found out yet what part the Bingleys play in this book
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They do play a great part, Susan and they come in handy, because after their marriage Elizabeth often comes to stay at their house in town, 200 yards from Mr Darcy’s own front door. And that can’t be such a bad thing 😉
Good luck in the giveaway and lovely to see you here.
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I’ve always liked Mrs. Bennet, though Lydia is a bit tough to take for me.
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I can see why, spoiled brat that she is. But call me a hopeless naive, I’ve always thought that she might have got better if someone had taken the trouble to teach her some good sense and proper behaviour. After all, she was only 15, and how many mouthy and rude 15 year-olds haven’t we seen, who eventually grow into very decent human beings 😉 ? Of course, no such hope for Mrs Wickham, married to that selfish cad she doesn’t stand a chance, poor fool.
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Still torturing him I see, Joana! Torture by carriage journey is a new one one me, I have to say. It sounds like you’re doing to same to Elizabeth, too, in this excerpt.
I’m so looking forward to reading this in it’s entirety, eventually. I just love the way you write for both Darcy and Elizabeth. Holding out in case of a giveaway win right now, but will buy it if that doesn’t work out.
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LOL Anji! ‘Torture by carriage journey’ 😀 I loved that! Yes, nothing like long hours in close proximity to put the pressure on. And I thought it was about time for Elizabeth to be at the receiving end, Darcy has been through enough already!
Lovely to see you here, your comments always put such a huge grin on my face! The blog tour goes on till the end of the month with 7 or 8 more giveaways, so fingers crossed 😉 I hope you’ll read this story soon and that you’ll like it.
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Lovely description of the carriage ride. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you!
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Thanks so much for the kind words and for stopping by to read the excerpt, Barbara! Wonderful to see you here 🙂
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This one is at the top of my wish list. Can’t wait to read it!
Thanks for another great excerpt!
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I’m so pleased you liked this excerpt too, Pam and I hope you get lucky 🙂
Thanks for following the blog tour and for all your lovely comments!
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this scene is so interesting, I need to know what happened before this one. And who has a baby???? An ebook would be so lovely!!!!
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I’m ever so glad you liked this scene, Julie!! An awful lot happened before this scene, but it’s easy to answer the baby question (it’s Jane’s). Thanks for stopping by to read and comment and good luck in the giveaway.
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I have been following your progress and have enjoyed the different pieces of your book that you have released. Thanks so much for the teasers.
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My absolute pleasure, Patty, I’m ever so glad you liked them. Good luck in the giveaway, I hope you’ll like the full story too.
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I love the descriptions when Elizabeth is looking at Darcy …. realizing that she likes him and seeing him differently and noticing different things about him. Who is Miss Wyatt!? Oh my, can’t wait to read !!!!
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What goes round must come round, Nicole 😉 In the excerpt I posted at Austenesque Reviews Darcy was the one looking, noticing, longing – so I thought it would be only fair that Elizabeth should feel the nip of the green monster too. I’m ever so glad that you enjoyed the excerpt! Thanks for visiting and good luck.
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What an interesting take on P&P. I’m sure we’d enjoy it very much, thanks for the chance to win a copy.
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Many thanks for the kind words and the vote of confidence 🙂 Good luck and thanks for stopping by to read and comment.
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Just dropping in – again to say I loved this book and posted a review. 5 stars
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Thanks SO MUCH, Sheila, for your lovely comment. I’m over the moon that you loved the book and your wonderful review made my day!
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Loving this blog tour!! 😀 Thanks for the giveaway!
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My pleasure, Maria! I’m so glad you liked the blog tour and the excerpts. Good luck in the giveaway and thanks for taking part.
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Thanks to all who entered! The winner is blodeuedd! Congrats!
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Congratulations. Enjoy.
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I stumbled across this page as a sidebar on another page. This is an interesting take on the P & P story. I’ve read a three of “sequels” the best being A Death Comes to Pemberly by P. D. James. I never saw Mrs. Bennett as an evil stepmother type, just totally crass in her efforts to find husbands for her daughters. Lydia is another character altogether, she is a real piece of work, totally a loose cannon in that family. She seems to have no conception of the effect her trashy behavior can have on her sisters’ prospects. Gentlemen really did consider the behavior of siblings whether or not they would “offer their hand” Mr. Bennett’s comments about his wife (thought not in so many words) reveals that he was swayed by “looks” when he married his wife, probably ignoring her silly, gossipy personality. This looks like an interesting story, you seem to have captured the “voice” of eighteenth century authors. However, I get the impression that this is only available on e-books which I don’t read. I wish you a lot of luck with this.
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