The Best Part of Love with A. D'Orazio

Good morning everyone. Happy Saturday! I hope you have had a good week. Today, More Agreeably Engaged is the last stop on The Best Part of Love Blog Tour for A. D'Orazio. It has been an amazing couple of weeks with great guest posts, interviews, reviews and excerpts. There have also been some fabulous vignettes and we have one here today! I love vignettes and this one is perfect for closing the tour. Thank you, Amy, for sharing with us and for doing such a great job on your first tour. It's been a pleasure working with you. 

Henry Discovers the Fortune

Pemberley, 1848

They were a loud and merry group that gathered at Pemberley that year; indeed, when they were all together, even the largest dining table could scarcely contain them all. There were scores of Bingleys and Courtenays and Darcys, along with Ellises and du Champs since the marriages of their daughters. The grandchildren ran mad in the Grand Hall — Elizabeth would often scold them for knocking things about but Darcy never quite had the heart to do so. If a broken statue was the price paid for youthful merriment, so be it. He had long ago decided he would much rather be remembered as the good-humoured grandfather than the grandfather with the excellent art. In any case, his grandchildren adored him and he would not have it otherwise. He was never more happy than he was in these wondrous times when Pemberley’s halls bustled with laughter and noise. 

When the ladies withdrew after dinner, Darcy sat with his three sons: Henry, or Lord Courtenay; Thomas Darcy, his heir, and Colonel Edward Darcy. Fine distinguished men, all of them and as dear to one another as any brothers could be. 

“I have a bit of interesting news,” said Henry. “You will all remember the old cipher?”

“The one which concerned the fortune at Warrington?”

“Yes,” Henry said. “I brought it out recently for James.” James was Henry’s eldest and only son. At only ten years of age, he had shown a remarkable aptitude for mathematics and his parents were always seeking little puzzles and codes to divert him. 

“Did he find the fortune?” asked Thomas with a laugh. The fortune which had caused so much trouble to their parents was spoken of often, in the manner of fables and legends. 

“He did not,” replied Henry. “However he found a mistake made by our mother and grandfather Bennet when they deciphered it.”

“Pray do not suggest she made a mistake,” Darcy advised. “Call it an alternate solution if you must but not a mistake.” 

His advisement caused the gentlemen to chuckle; their mother was much beloved but rarely inclined to admit she made mistakes. 

“In any case,” said Henry, “it would seem that there is most certainly a hidden fortune.”

For a moment, everyone ceased moving. Darcy had begun to raise a glass to his lips but stopped halfway there. His jaw dropped, and he lowered the drink with a thump on the table. “Can that be so?”

“My son did not find it — but I did.” Henry lowered his eyes, shaking his head. “I can hardly credit it myself.”

“How much?” Edward was, as always, just slightly too bold, but in this case Darcy did not mind. He was, himself, mad to know. 

When Henry named the sum, he did so quietly and the gentlemen around the table immediately gasped and then doubted the veracity of what they had heard. “How could that be!” “From the purses of simple market folk? No, I cannot credit it!”

“The money is there,” Henry replied mildly. “It cannot be denied. My guess is that Lord Strange must have secured a bit of his own coin there as well.”

“He did raise quite a lot of money for his troops,” Darcy acknowledged. As Lord Strange had become the Earl of Derby back then, it had always been a bit of history that interested him. “He did not, perhaps, spend it all.”

“Warrington was dear to him,” Henry added. “They protected him as best they could. I think my father and uncle must have suspected his lordship’s money was in there too, else they should not have been so keen to go after it.”

“Well, good for Warrington then,” said Thomas. “And good for James. It will be to his benefit after all.”

“No,” said Henry. “No, I do not think it shall after all.”

The gentlemen looked at him with varying degrees of surprise marking their faces. Henry grinned and in that grin Darcy saw the little boy who had once sat at his feet and played, who had been so good-natured his life long, and he knew some proud moment was about to transpire. 

“That money came from the town,” he explained. “Whether from their labours or their loyalties, it was theirs and though they are long gone now, I would like the descendants to obtain some benefit from it.”

As his brothers and father looked on, Henry said, “I shall establish a school with a large library for the children in the town to learn to read and write. All of them, such as are able, shall be able to come and learn and the tutors shall be employed by Warrington — none of the families will need to part with a farthing for it.”

“A capital idea,” said Darcy. “I have always said that I cannot comprehend the neglect of a family library.”

“You have indeed, sir,” Henry replied with a smile.

And so it was that the legacy in Warrington Castle was used to establish the Bennet School in Lancashire where generations of children thenceforth, from the highest to the low, could learn to read and write and, eventually, learn mathematics and science.

*****

I don't believe there could have been a better way to end this blog tour than with a vignette like this one! I hope you all loved it as much as I did. 

Book Blurb:

Avoiding the truth does not change the truth.

When Fitzwilliam Darcy meets Miss Elizabeth Bennet he has no idea that she — that indeed, the entire town of Meryton — harbors a secret. Miss Elizabeth, a simply country girl from a humble estate, manages to capture first his fascination and then his heart without him ever knowing the truth of her past.

When she meets Darcy, Elizabeth had spent the two years prior hiding from the men who killed her beloved first husband. Feeling herself destroyed by love, Elizabeth has no intention of loving again, certainly not with the haughty man who could do nothing but offend her in Hertfordshire.

In London, Elizabeth surprises herself by finding in Darcy a friend; even greater is her surprise to find herself gradually coming to love him and even accepting an offer of marriage from him. Newly married, they are just beginning to settle into their happily ever after when a condemned man on his way to the gallows divulges a shattering truth, a secret that contradicts everything Elizabeth thought she knew about the tragic circumstances of her first marriage. Against the advice of everyone who loves her, including Darcy, Elizabeth begins to ask questions. But will what they learn destroy them both?

Author Bio:

Amy D’Orazio is a former breast cancer researcher and current stay at home mom who is addicted to Austen and Starbucks in about equal measures. While she adores Mr. Darcy, she is married to Mr. Bingley and their Pemberley is in Pittsburgh PA.

She has two daughters who are devoted to sports which require long practices and began writing her own stories as a way to pass the time she spent sitting in the lobbies of various gyms and studios. She is a firm believer that all stories should have long looks, stolen kisses and happily ever afters. Like her favorite heroine, she dearly loves a laugh and considers herself an excellent walker. 

Contact Info: 

Website  
Goodreads Author Page
Facebook: Amy D'Orazio
Instagram: amydorazio

Pinterest     

Blog Tour Schedule:  If you missed any of the stops,  I hope you will visit today and leave a comment if you choose. Thanks.

  6 Jan My Jane Austen Book Club; Guest Post, Excerpt, Giveaway

  7 Jan Just Jane 1813; Review

  8 Jan Babblings of a Bookworm; Vignette, Giveaway

  9 Jan Every Savage Can Dance; Guest Post, Excerpt, Giveaway

10 Jan Tomorrow is Another Day; Review

11 Jan Savvy Verse & Wit; Character Interview, Giveaway

12 Jan Half Agony, Half Hope; Review

13 Jan Austenesque Reviews; Vignette, Giveaway

14 Jan Darcyholic Diversions; Author Interview, Giveaway

15 Jan Delighted Reader; Review

16 Jan From Pemberley to Milton; Review  

17 Jan A Covent Garden Gilflurt’s Guide to Life; Guest Post   

18 Jan Obsessed with Mr. Darcy; Review

19 Jan My Kids Led Me Back to Pride & Prejudice; Vignette, Giveaway  

20 Jan Diary of an Eccentric; Review

21 Jan More Agreeably Engaged; Vignette, Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thank you to everyone who took part in the blog tour. Thanks to all the readers who visited, commented and participated. Good luck to all of you in the giveaway! I hope you will get the chance to read the book soon.