Like all authors, I love creating characters. In my particular case and with my previous novels, the main characters were created by Jane Austen. Of course, I expanded on most of those characters and tweaked their personalities as time passed, so they are quite altered in many respects from how Jane originally wrote them.

Certainly this is true for Georgiana Darcy, she being the Darcy who is the subject of Miss Darcy Falls in Love. As I thought about Georgiana and characters in a general sense, I decided it would be entertaining to write a character study for some of the unique persons who inhabit the pages of my latest novel. Just to make it really fun, I am going to start with the contributing players first and lead up to the stars.

Zoë and Yvette de Valday: 19-year-old identical twin daughters of the Vicomte and Vicomtesse de Valday of Lyon, France. Zoë and Yvette befriend Georgiana while she visits their home, the friendships lasting for their lifetimes.

Frédéric de Valday: 17-year-old brother to Zoë and Yvette. He too will befriend Georgiana and remain a lifelong friend.

An excerpt is best to describe the three de Valdays. This is how they are introduced to readers in Chapter 1:

A clamor in French from the hallway broke her reverie, seconds later the door bursting open and three figures tumbling into the parlor.

“Dearest Georgiana, finally! Hiding away already, are you? Frédéric insisted that we hunt you down and rescue from your solitary daydreams!”

The speaker was a young woman of nineteen. She was short, barely reaching Georgiana’s shoulders, with a voluptuous figure finely accentuated by an exquisitely tailored gown of purple velvet. Her lavender-tinted eyes blazed vibrantly amid a round face. Mischief and impertinence were etched upon her entire countenance from the tiny tapping foot to the mass of tightly coiled ebony curls audaciously escaping jeweled pins. She was in all ways a vision of supreme, sensual loveliness that could wrest the breath away from everyone who beheld her, male or female. Her name was Zoë, and her lush beauty was so ineffable that it was impossible to imagine that another could match it.

Yet the woman standing near her was indeed a match.

Her twin, Yvette, was nearly a duplicate. It was only the small mole located just to the right of her upper lip that easily revealed her unique identity. The combined essence of these two extraordinary creatures was a captivating assault upon one’s senses. The blessing from the Maker in allowing the creation of two entrancing offspring would presumably then exhaust any hope of further divine favor upon their parents, but this was not the case.

Frédéric, nearly eighteen, was as stunning and forceful a presence as his elder sisters. With his curls styled foppishly about his face, his enormous deep-blue eyes, and his plump mouth, he had a slight feminine air to his look that was aided by his shorter stature and stout fleshiness. But this was only at first glance. As soon as he moved or spoke a word, the effeminate vision was swept away by a personality, voice, and bearing that exuded confident masculinity. The three de Valdays were bewitching and somewhat exhausting, but Georgiana adored them already.

Aren’t they fascinating? Wait until you get to know them. Magnifiqué! I tend to veer toward writing flamboyant characters. What that says about me I refuse to acknowledge! And speaking of flamboyant, or more like eccentric, allow me to introduce you to….

The Marchioness of Warrow: Born Beryl Darcy, Lady Warrow is the sister of James Darcy, Sr., the grandfather of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, and therefore Georgiana Darcy’s great-aunt. Thrice married and widowed, her second husband was the Earl of Essenton. Their son is the current Earl of Essenton and Mr. Sebastian Butler’s father. Are you with me so far? This means that there is a familial connection between Georgiana and Sebastian (the hero of this novel), although the cousins never met until adults. Lady Warrow’s third husband was a marquis, obscenely wealthy, childless, and so enamored with his wife that he ensured his possessions passed to her and that she held her title suo jure, or in her own right. Lady Warrow is elderly but spry, captivating, lushly beautiful, charming, sensuous, and more than a little naughty! She is on intimate terms with everyone from the Prince Regent and Archbishop of Canterbury to dignitaries in many European countries. Widely traveled, morally challenged, fiery, and fiercely loyal to her family, she is a woman to be admired and adored, but never to be crossed!

Baron Caxton: The man who vies for Georgiana’s affections is the quintessential alpha male taken to extremes. Nephew to the Duke of Grafton, Baron Caxton is rich and highly esteemed amongst the English elite. A graduate of Oxford, his choice to teach violin at his alma mater and then the famed Conservatoire of Music in Paris is purely out of a desire to travel and share his mastery with other great musicians. Morally upright, decent, honest, and severely straight laced, the baron has a pristine reputation. He is also rawly male, supremely handsome, and blessed with a charisma that is overwhelmingly sexual and mesmerizing. Women – all women – fall instantly under his spell. Yet until Georgiana Darcy he has never wanted a woman enough to tap into his magnetic power. How can she resist?

Here is another brief excerpt to convey what I mean:

Georgiana was bemused. Yes, she thought, that is the word for it: bemused. Or maybe bedazzled was an apt description for how she felt. The lights seemed brighter, the music especially melodious, the dancing more enjoyable, and the food ambrosial. Everything was exquisite as never before. The air surrounding her sparkled magically and tingles bounced over her skin.

Yet there was an unreal quality to the sensations within and perceptions without. It was not disturbing exactly. It was merely strange. Strange and wonderful, she amended as her silk-clad hands brushed over the baron’s gloved palms, his thumb miraculously managing to squeeze and caress her knuckles in the seconds before the steps of the quadrille pulled them apart. Flawlessly, he sidestepped to engage the lady next in line, executing a fluid chassé while never looking away from Georgiana. She could not claim to be an adept judge of a man’s behavior nor did she possess the vanity to assume men were instantly attracted to her; nevertheless, if asked, she would be forced to blushingly agree that Lord Caxton appeared to be as bemused as she.

This was their second dance together since arriving at the ball. The first, a waltz, had left her breathless and dazed. A portion of that response may have been a result of lively dancing on a crowded floor with lights blazing overhead. Undoubtedly the steady stream of conversation and questions while twirling at a fast pace augmented the breathlessness. Lord Caxton appeared relentless in his pursuit to learn as much about her as possible. This was quite flattering, of course, as was the intensity of the dark eyes that rarely left her face unless it was to scan over her figure—a fact she pretended not to notice even as heat flooded her skin—and the way he drew her closer to his body than was strictly necessary for a proper waltz. The latter greatly shattered her typical composure, and it was with some relief that she greeted the dance’s conclusion.

Now you have been introduced to a handful of the more colorful characters in Miss Darcy Falls in Love. There are a host of characters equally marvelous, but Sandy may balk at the length of this post if I talked about all of them! So, I am going to continue the analysis on other blogspots in the days to follow. Tomorrow I will be at Reviews By Molly talking about Georgiana Darcy, among others. Visit my website for the details and to learn more about all my novels.

Thanks for having me today, Sandy. I will be checking back for any comments and to say hi. One lucky commenter will receive a copy of Miss Darcy Falls in Love. (U.S. and Canada only, please) Good luck in the giveaway!