In my new book Once Upon a Kiss, it is the autumn of 1815 and the sleepy village of Hawcombe Prior is about to be roused from its innocent tranquility. Curtains will soon be twitching in a frenzy and it may not be safe to walk the lanes alone. And why?
Because the five, imaginative young ladies of the local book society have got their hands on a romance! As one elderly resident warns, that can only end in trouble.
For the Book Club Belles— Justina, Catherine, Rebecca, Diana and Lucy— true life is considerably less exciting than the world they find in the pages of novels, but all that is about to change. As they become absorbed in the story of Pride and Prejudice, some are already dreaming of their own “Mr. Darcy” when a mysterious, very proud gentleman coincidentally moves into the grandest house in the village. It seems as if he walked right off the pages of that book.
Only Justina Penny is unimpressed. She prefers Wickham to “that old windbag” Darcy and would much rather be reading a bloodthirsty horror story. In fact, she’s been waiting impatiently for Elizabeth Bennet to “crack the fellow over his fat head with a chamber pot and be done with it”.
The appearance of Darius Wainwright is not received by her with any greater enthusiasm. While her fellow Belles swoon over the haughty, ill-tempered fellow, Justina is determined to ignore him. Well— she will ignore him, as soon as she’s put him right about all his faults, of course. Somebody ought to do so, and it’s clear he’s been allowed to get away with his rude, obnoxious, uncivil behavior all his life. Not in her village, he won’t!
Darius Wainwright has never read Pride and Prejudice and so he knows nothing of his similarity to a fictional character. When Justina keeps mentioning Mr. Darcy his response is a bewildered “Mr. Whocy?”
Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite novels by Jane Austen. (Don’t tell me, you guessed!) It is really a story about first impressions— Austen’s original title for the book, as you probably know. In Once Upon a Kiss first impressions play an important role too. For both Justina and Darius their primary encounters lead them to assume the worst of each other.
Justina sees Darius as a pompous fellow too proud to get out of his own way. He has a very stern demeanor and he is aware of it. Quite often it is deliberate, because he’s anti-social and prefers the company of his clocks (he likes to mend them and make certain they are working exactly on time). But despite his efforts to remain in peaceful isolation, he’s taken on various burdens over the years, including the raising of an orphaned niece. He also runs a successful business. So, like Darcy, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes for Darius. Only someone brave enough to pry beneath his forbidding frown, would ever know how much he cares about his niece, how hard he works at his business and how that chilly reserve really masks a shy, awkward young man, uncertain around pretty women, and fearful of getting his heart broken.
Both Darcy and Darius are men of duty and honor. They are wealthy, reserved and, to a certain degree, distrusting of new places and people. Neither like to dance, or as Darcy says “we neither of us perform to strangers.” Of course, by the “we” Darcy refers to himself and Elizabeth, but this is also true of Darius Wainwright.
They are both wealthy, both the target of fortune hunters, and both men think they have it all figured out. Until they meet women who aren’t afraid to point out their faults and argue with them. Women who set their carefully ordered world asunder.
But Darius is not a carbon copy of Darcy. He is a little more wicked and rather mischievous. Darius has an inner romantic — a poetic spirit that has never been allowed out to play until he meets Justina and plans an elaborate ruse to entertain her.
In his youth he was teased for having big ears and being tongue-tied in company. Since then he’s grown into his looks and conquered a nervous stammer, but the memories of those unhappy years remain. He never veers from his strict timetable and manages every part of his day, never departing from the safe and familiar. He even has all his waistcoats cut to the exact same pattern and in the same cloth, so he doesn’t have to waste time making a choice.
When he meets Justina all that starts to become unraveled and the very “buttoned-up” Mr. Wainwright slowly loses his buttons. Literally.
I think my Darius Wainwright has quite a few more “issues” than Mr. Darcy. Somehow I can’t imagine Mr. Darcy perspiring as much with nerves, or of his clothes meeting with quite so many mishaps.
And— back to that hint of wickedness again— my Mr. Wainwright has a streak of the ruthless businessman running through his veins. He doesn’t hesitate to use a few sly bargaining tricks to get what he wants from Justina on more than one occasion. Oh, he might feel guilty about it later, resolve to apologize and promise himself it won’t happen again. But he can’t seem to behave himself around her.
I can’t imagine Mr. Darcy resorting to those cunning methods to win a kiss from Miss Elizabeth Bennet, can you?
But then, maybe Austen didn’t tell us the whole story.
