Book Blurb:
HERS WAS A CONVENIENT ARRANGEMENT
Lady Claire Waterstone has spent more years out of England than she has enjoying English society. In fact, she feels very odd in making her Come Out with girls four to five years her junior. Claire has never known a “home” of her own. And while several gentlemen are eager to claim her hand, she knows their ardor has more to do with the size of her dowry than true affection. Then she encounters Lord Ainmire Fearghal, an impoverished Irish earl, whose tales of how he sees his land creates in her a desire to share it with him. Claire, therefore, abandons decorum and proposes to Lord Fearghal. However, his roguish charm soon has her wishing for more than a marriage of convenience.
HE BARGAINED FOR HER FORTUNE, NOT HER HEART
Fearghal has only one purpose in marrying Lady Claire: Save his estate. Melhman Manor reeks from inherited debt, and Fearghal requires a wealthy wife immediately. Originally, he thought to leave Claire in London, but his wife soon puts an end to those thoughts, but when she suggests Ainmire’s cousin could be working against Ainmire’s efforts to save his land, Fearghal and Lady Claire strike a different type of bargain – one based in trust and loyalty and the beginnings of love.
Five delightful Regency stories, from USA Today bestselling and Award winning authors, all focused around summer weddings. Lose yourself in the Regency world, and be swept away by love!
***** READ NOW ON KINDLE UNLIMITED *****
This anthology contains:
This anthology contains:
Her Wily Duke by Arietta Richmond ~ A Marquess desperate to protect the Dukedom from his increasingly unstable older brother, a highwayman apparently bent on the destruction of the ducal estates, a young music teacher caught in the middle of it all, a desperate plan which, in the end, leads to love.
Lord Fearghal’s English Bride by Regina Jeffers ~When an Irish Lord, who needs to marry an heiress to save his estates, meets an aristocratic Englishwoman who seeks an interesting life, there is an instant attraction, and a very rapid marriage. But there are those who do not wish them well, and desperate action is called for if they are both to reach their Irish home alive, and save his estate from foreclosure. Will they survive long enough for that attraction to grow into lasting love?
Contradance by Janis Susan May ~ Life looks bleak for Miss Rosemary Coyningham as plans proceed apace for her cousin’s wedding to the Earl she was betrothed to as a child. Once Matilda is married, what will happen to Rosemary? Surely her uncle will no longer wish to have her living in his house? When Matilda’s intended returns from the continent, with a Princely friend, it all gets more complicated… for Rosemary is drawn to Matilda’s betrothed, when she meets him for the first time… and Matilda seems struck with admiration for the Prince… Will there still be a summer wedding?
The Baron Banishes His Rival by Olivia Marwood ~ Lady Anne Calthorpe is delighted when her closest friend and neighbour returns from his studies at Oxford, and even more so when he steps in to protect her from the man who had bullied her as a child – a man who now seems most intent on paying attentions to her. George Marlestone, Lord Houghton, finds his breath stolen when he sees Lady Anne again, and desire for more than friendship fills him. But before he can act on that desire, he will have to overcome the machinations of those who would drive him away from Lady Anne… Will they succeed, between them, in driving off her pursuer, or will their love be torn apart?
Mother of the Bride by Victoria Hinshaw ~ Widowed Amy, Countess of Blakemore is utterly focused on the arrangements for her daughter’s wedding. She needs no distractions, or surely it won’t all get done on time! Then, for the first time, she meets her son-in-law-to-be’s much older half-brother, who proves to be more distracting then she could ever have imagined. William Easton, Baron Hartley, had shown no interest in marrying again, since the mother of his two daughters died. Now, as his half-brother is about to marry, the idea suddenly seems much more appealing. Of course, that might just be because he can’t take his eyes off the beautiful mother of the bride-to-be. But will she accept his suit?
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Now a bit more about my story:
My heroine, Lady Claire Waterstone, has never truly lived in England, so when, first, her mother dies, and, then, her father, she is brought back to England and rushed into the “marriage mart” to find a husband. She is as ill at ease in London society is Lord Ainmire Fearghal, an Irish earl who requires a rich wife, while Claire requires a home.
Once she is in Ireland, Claire is determined to leave her mark on her husband’s estate and the surrounding community, by starting a school and providing his lordship’s tenants with what we might nowadays call “cottage industry.” Enjoy this short scene about some of her goals and about something called Irish moss, and it has nothing to do with that green stuff growing on rocks.
Book Excerpt:
“Would you object, my lady, if I make these used linens and drapes and so forth available to his lordship’s tenants?” Mrs. Galax asked. “The previous Lady Fearghal kept that as a standing order, but she passed some seventeen years prior, and neither Lord Ainmire nor his father thought the gesture necessary.”
“Would they want them?” Claire asked and then quickly remembered the “untouchables” in India and how they wished for the smallest bit of cloth to cover themselves.
“Most be handy with a needle and their children require clothes, especially during the winter,” the housekeeper shared.
“Assuredly, I hold no objections. If they have a use for the worn sheets and drapes, I am not opposed to you presenting them what is left.” She asked, “Do the children attend school?”
“No, my lady. Most work the farms along with their fathers. The land be all they know.”
“Yet, how do they recognize someone who means to cheat them if they cannot read the signs nor the bills presented to them?” Claire asked in shock. “Has not Lord Fearghal addressed this matter? How is a future to be achieved if one’s feet are planted in the mud of the past?”
“In truth, I not be confident that his lordship has thought much on it. His father invested in one bad scheme after another. Yer husband, ma’am, inherited an empty dream. He has fought for years to revive the estate. From dawn and into the night.”
“I would like to see a school for the children, even if they learn nothing more than their basic sums and common everyday words. I shall speak to his lordship when he returns. I was also thinking of other means for the cottagers to earn money. There are sections of England where many of the households specialise in producing a particular food, like blueberry jam or lemon curd or even lace making. You said many of the women were good with a needle. Do any make lace?”
“I doubt if they would ever see the thread required, but I imagine many of them could be taught,” Mrs. Galax said with a look of contemplation on her features. “Can people earn money in such a manner? There are machines that can turn out yards and yards of lace a day.”
“But not all of it is of good quality. There are women of society who turn their noses on machine made clothing and lace and buttons. They want what they have always had: A piece of lace on their dresses that is one of a kind.”
“Well, is that not something?” Mrs. Galax said in appreciation.
“Some areas of England are known for their confectionaries, such as the Dorset House shop on Fleet Street in London or those of the Cadbury brothers. I understand there is a food in Ireland that those in England have forgotten. Lord Fearghal called it ‘carrageen pudding.’”
“Yes, it is also called ‘Irish moss,’” Mrs. Galax said. “Now would that not be something to be able to best the English in such a manner.”
Carrageen Pudding (This information comes from the website British Food: A History. I am quoting much of it.) In truth, the only thing I knew of carrageen was it can be found in low fat yogurt to help thicken it. I was warned against it years ago. Therefore, I am depending on someone more knowledgeable than I.
“Carrageen pudding is a set dessert akin to jellies, blancmanges and flummeries, but it is made from the gelatinous seaweed carrageen, also known as Irish moss. It used to be gathered in Yorkshire and South-West England, going by the name ‘Dorset Moss’. … flavoured it the traditional way with sugar, lemon and brandy. … there was something of a Lemsip about it. … it wasn’t the flavour that put people off; it is more gummy than a gelatine set dessert, and doesn’t dissolve cleanly in the mouth. As John Wright puts it: it doesn’t have an acquired taste – it barely has any – ‘more of an acquired texture.’ … I refined the recipe, adding some whipped cream to give it a mousse-like texture and flavoured it with elderflowers.
“Carrageen is a common seaweed found throughout the coasts British Isles, except for parts of Lincolnshire and East Anglia.2 It is found in rockpools, is branched and a dark red colour. The wonderful food writer Theodora Fitzgibbon describes it as ‘a branching mucilaginous seaweed found on all rocks in Ireland’, which does not sound appetising, I realise. She goes on the comfort the reader, telling us that ‘it does not taste at all marine when properly prepared.’3 It is picked and dried in the sun, typically in April and May, and during the process it lightens from a dark red-brown to a creamy brownish beige, tinged with a pink-red hue.
“To prepare carrageen, it is reconstituted in cold water, drained and then simmered in fresh water. It quickly turns viscous, bubbling away like the contents of a witch’s cauldron. The gloopiness is caused by the release of a trio of closely-related carbohydrates together called carrageenan.2 To extract it properly, the whole lot has to be squeezed through some muslin (cheesecloth). These carbohydrates are not digested by the body, and are therefore an excellent source of soluble fibre. Indeed, carrageen has been used as a treatment for a range of stomach and digestive complains and it ‘is considered extremely salutary for persons of delicate constitutions’.4“
These are also the references included in this article if anyone is interested:
References
- Hartley, D. Food in England. (Little, Brown & Company, 1954).
- Wright, J. River Cottage Handbook No.5: Edible Seashore. (Bloomsbury, 2009).
- FitzGibbon, T. Irish Traditional Food. (St. Martin’s Press, 1983).
- Leslie, E. Miss Leslie’s Complete Cookery: Directions for Cookery, in Its Various Branches. (Summersdale Publishers Limited, 1851).
Giveaway: Comment on any or all of the six posts featuring Regency Summer Weddings Anthology for a chance to win an eBook copy of the book. The giveaway ends on Friday, July 5. Winners will receive their copies of the book then. Good luck to all!
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