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