Greetings again, Maria Grazia, and thank you infinitely for
hosting the My Mr. Darcy & Your Mr.
Bingley blog tour—it’s first stop, too, you brave lady! It is a pleasure to
be back at My Jane Austen Book Club. Hard to believe we met here four years
ago, for the debut of The Red
Chrysanthemum! You have requested I share an unpublished vignette from my
new novel with your readers, and since you and I both adore Colonel
Fitzwilliam, I offer this little scene. (I’ll just mention I gave the dear
colonel the Christian name Alexander in my third novel, A Will of Iron and my best friend loves it so, I’m likely to stick
with it, rather than the ubiquitous “Richard”.)
To set the scene, we have the Colonel heading to bed
in the room saved for him at Darcy House. He and Darcy suffered a less than
enjoyable evening at the London theatre in a box adjoining that used by the
Gardiners and their guests, Jane and Elizabeth Bennet. It is about ten days
since the contretemps between Darcy and Elizabeth at Hunsford. The colonel has
been scolding Darcy, but has now retired from that particular field of battle.
