Happy Friday, readers!! I happy to welcome back author Don Jacobson to Austenesque Reviews! As you may have seen, Don has a new book out that he just recently published with Meryton Press titled, In Plain Sight. And guess what, it is a Pride and Prejudice variation that places Mr. Darcy in a unique situation! Don is here to share an excerpt from In Plain Sight. We hope you enjoy!
Hedgebrook Estate, Derbyshire
As epiphanies went, Elizabeth would have to ask Mary or Edward whether William’s pronouncements in the glade were on par with Saul of Tarsus’s visions on the road to Damascus. Like the original, they resonated with such power that her world tilted on its axis. She felt slightly blasphemous as a result.
As a young girl, she had entertained notions of love at first sight. Lizzy was too much her father’s daughter to view such fanciful inclinations with anything but the deepest skepticism.
I do believe that Papa considers himself a victim of “instant infatuation.” That, sadly, has fed five-and-twenty years of cynical behavior on his part. What my heart is telling me now is that this is something thoroughly different. There is a bubble of happiness that has unsettled my core. Perhaps…perhaps…
Here before her knelt a man who, by every measure she had ever been taught, was a danger to her person and an insult to her station. William Smith was not just beneath her but as far from Lizzy’s original class as the distance from the moon to the lowest level of a Welsh tin mine.
None of that mattered.
What had begun in the Netherfield barnyard and renewed itself on the Mimram River Road had evolved during those Dower House days into something more burnished. Like a bronze battering ram, that understanding crashed through Elizabeth’s last reserves.
There was a goodness about William Smith that shone through the scales of his crime—the contours of which she did not know. His nobility, his honoring of her shabby virtue, led her to try to see beyond easy labels.
His earnest gaze swept away all notions, all bias.
Her awareness faded as she replayed each interaction from that first through the waltz to their flight to Egypt beneath the straw piled atop Longbourn’s wagon. Flashes of his jawline as she had nestled in his arms during their dance, his profile as he stared out the window at Longbourn’s fields, and his natural scent redolent of musk that weakened her knees—all carried her from this plane.
The rest of her world receded.
Elizabeth needed to understand this new state of being! How had she arrived here? She felt as though great slabs of a snowy cornice had fractured and slid down to bury her in an avalanche of emotion. Even more profound was the grainy bedrock that was left exposed on the steep pitch above, a new foundation for her future.
She had been stripped down to her essentials. No longer was she Elizabeth Rose Bennet, gentlewoman. She had been broken and reshaped to a mighty purpose, finally to be that which she was destined to be and not what others insisted she should be. She was now simply Lizzy Bennet, a woman in love with a man. That defined her.
Through those sennights of uncertainty in the Dower House to that awful moment when everything collapsed around her head the night of the Netherfield ball, William Smith had been the glue used to bind her together. The scars that crisscrossed her heart were glorious, highlighted in gold, the result of the tender hand of a kintsugi master. All could see and understand the woman she was now.
The purity of her comprehension was glorious!
She pulled in a vast draught of air, so full of the land’s freshness that it was fairly bursting with life itself. ’Twas as if she were a babe, freshly birthed! Fresh from the womb, her eyes opened and ears unstopped. She saw and heard as if for the first time!
Smith had watched those chocolate pools as they lost focus when her contemplations turned inward. Elizabeth stood and floated on elvish feet across the dell to stop and stand above the limpid pool, arms wrapped around her narrow waist, head dipped, hiding those incredible eyes beneath her bonnet’s brim. Her study was so immaculate that Smith assayed that he could have crossed to her side without her noticing, to tuck back in place another errant tendril that had escaped her chapeau’s confines.
At first, William feared that her reverie might lead her to slip and fall on the foam-dampened tufts that lapped over the lip. Yet, he allowed her to be the mistress of her fate, tamping down his old inclinations to protect one and all in his circle.
Time slowed as the woodland sylph inhaled a massive breath.
A single leaf broke free of a branch high above the pool, rode along invisible currents swirling above the waters, and landed on the membrane that separated the two elements.
Its brown spikes shivered reality before the sprig disappeared into the small flume leading down toward the Derwent. With its passage, the universe that surrounded the two poles had forever changed.
Her sigh drew his attention.
Elizabeth had turned to him, her rosy lips parted to reveal perfectly shaped, pearl-bud teeth. Her soprano laughter bounced around their paradise.
All pain, all fear, flowed away in the face of her happiness. Smith immediately understood that she had broken free of the last chains that had bound her to her ancient life. With that, he knew that she had accepted who he had been, how he had been broken and reshaped, and that she would have to wait for him.
That she would wait for him.
***
The moment stretched into eternity, so timeless was the glade. As if in a dream, Lizzy had returned to his side, to hold her hand down before him, urging him to stand, to accept her embrace. Lips raised and lowered established the communion that had been incipient for months but now was confirmed in seconds. Then she drew back to demurely tattoo her thumbs upon his shirtfront.
Elizabeth patted a hand upon his chest, a smile playing upon her swollen lips.
“I know, dear man, that you have been bound by your existence these five years gone by.”
“Nearly six,” his voice rumbled next to her ear.
“Six then. You have had considerable time to contemplate that which led to your downfall.
“Much of what you have learned has become ingrained like this stain that darkens my hands.” Lizzy held up the offending members.
She continued, “My revelations are much younger, mere infants when compared to your lofty conclusions.
“I must give voice to them or I shall surely burst.”
She stepped back from him and gathered in their hiding place with an all-encompassing sweep of her arms. “Think about the beauty hidden here, just yards away from a farm field. If you had not escorted me here, I never would have discovered it…or you.
“Is that not the way of all things?
“The world is hidden in plain sight: all its wonders and its horrors waiting to be revealed. The sadness of it all rises from the fact that some do not see and others choose to ignore what is before them.
“My father raised me to observe but not to see. And if I, perchance, moved past looking at a scene, I learned to forget lest remembrance upset my world.
“In my quiet moments, I can cast back into the mists of my memories to see where my privilege blinded me to the plight of others. I recall a scene where a line of men shuffled in the dust along Meryton’s byways. It shames me to realize that one of those unfortunates was you.”
He made to reach out to her, but she darted from his grasp to settle like a frightened bird on a fallen tree trunk, its moss deep green.
She comforted him to relieve his worried look. “This love, my love”—she giggled at her wordplay—“is still new to me. I had accounted myself a fair-minded woman. You have done nothing to offend me.
“But I have come hard against the confines of my parochial vision. This is a rude—and new—shock for me. I had taken pride—foolishly, it now seems—in my ability to sketch the personalities of others. How ironic that the shape of my nature was opaque to me.
“We can count ourselves amongst the fortunate ones. Far too many of our compatriots—yours of old and mine of more recent vintage—are trapped in the miasmas of their prejudices and pride.
“The reason they are so hindered is that they have accepted that others have the right to dictate their station and behavior. They will grasp, clasp at the weakest of straws and the foulest of lies to feel more secure in their location upon the rungs of a hierarchy that demands a self-reinforcing affirmation from its adherents.
“And the biggest falsehood, propounded by those at the highest reaches, is that all can rise to the top through the dint of their goodness. The truth is that, for most, elevation comes only through that same grasping corruption you earlier decried.
“In such a world, my dear William, you and I are the lucky ones.
“We have dropped so low that our station does not matter. Nobody will pay attention to our actions. Nobody will care to see us. You and I can be as invisible as the rest of England in its millions, all but the Ten Thousand.”
Elizabeth stood and glided over to him, her hands clenched into fists. Then she raised them and opened her fingers, their marks contrasting with her face’s pristine skin.
“We no longer have to worry about what we might gain or lose by not playing along with society’s expectations, by not threatening the established scheme.
“Nothing can be misplaced except each other, and I promise you, I have waited nearly to my majority to find you.
“Our loss…another’s curse…is a blessing.
“We are finally free.”
I’m full of questions! What have Elizabeth and William been through? Why does Elizabeth need to wait for him? What obstacles are in their way?
Connect with Don
GIVEAWAY TIME!!!
Meryton Press is generously giving away 8 ebook editions of In Plain Sight in conjunction with this blog tour!! Woot woot!
Commenting on this post and entering through the rafflecopter widget on this blog enters you in a chance to win!
- This giveaway is open worldwide. Thank you, Meryton Press!
- This giveaway ends June 28!
Thank you to Janet Taylor, Meryton Press, and Don Jacobson for making this blog tour possible! Be sure to check out the rest of this tour!
I just finished reading this yesterday and highly recommend it. Quite different from canon but still very enjoyable.
I am so happy you are pleased with my “take” on the eternal binary’s quest to come together.
I do hope that Edward is not Mary’s husband or future clergy husband
Hey there…there are only a few characters in this book who are “true to form.” Collins is one. Oter men of the cloth reflect the modernity that is washing over the country. The early chapters in Book 2 (Meryton, 1811) present the first crux in the mews in front of the Netherfield barn. There the convicts are gathered for Michaelmas Sunday services. Mary has convinced Mr. Bennet (who dragooned Elizabeth to accompany them as he was loath to have his middle daughter in this crowd) to allow her to attend to as the your priest whose ministry is the millworkers and prisoners. He has no parish. This is the man devout Mary, torn between the old ways and yearning for the new, finds has captured her heart.
Phew! I’ve only just started reading this so obviously still have this chapter to come, but it’s certainly whetted my appetite!
I’m enjoying what I’ve read so far (well enjoying isn’t quite the word but I’m pleased with the Wickham result!)
I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.
Thank you for sharing
There are two more excerpts to come in the blog tour. They are from earlier chapters. I am trying to avoid presenting the novel out of sequence, but this later entry screamed “Meredith and Austenesque Reviews!”
By way of context and explanation…I wanted to break the model of ODC resolving their differences and finding the heights in the last 10 pages of the book. To me, the interesting story was how did were the obstacles laid before them (as a couple…I feel like Chris Harrison and his Fantasy Suite note) so that their understanding could be realized. Thus, I moved the ultimate scene back into the novel and reserved the last (maybe) 25% for the resolution. I look forward to your thoughts on the entire work!
Sorry for the typos. Still working first cuppa.
Good Morning…Las Vegas here…so a bit later than the early risers on the East Coast. I am so happy that this site is on the Blog Tour for In Plain Sight. I am excited to converse with you about the book and the excerpt. Thanks for stopping by!
I very much enjoyed this scene between William and Elizabeth! Now I’m wondered how soon or how they long they took to get to this point. I look forward to learning more!
See my reply to Glynnis above. The chapters framing this particular scene do establish context, but this entry is found in the middle of Book 3 (Lambton, 1812). It is a slow burn to get here with rollercoaster moments. Thank you for stopping by!
Don, you have come a long way in your writing of JAFF. I love this book! It is such a change from the usual Darcy/Wickham/Elizabeth/Fitzwilliam character driven genre. Characters have grown in mind and spirits. Your are a favorite writer of mine and I LOOK for your authorship when I search for something to read.
You have hit soething which I have noticed about myself. My writing has evolved and changed in the past five years. My earliest efforts, of which I am pride, are different in tone and depth. Thank you so much for your plaudits! I am a fan of Daniel Silva stories where characters are sketched in such detail that the reader fully understands why they act the way they do. I recall an effort of mine to comprehend Wickham’s behavior with his reverie in “The Countess Visits Longbourn.” I promise I will try to live up to your confidence in me.
Don, I am a librarian here in Texas, in a small (pop, 5000) area, just now regaining people after being closed due to covid. JAFF is my guilty pleasure to read. Daniel Silva is one of my favorite writers too. Allon as a character has come a long way in his books too.
I don’t think you can go back to the Old Darcy/Elizabeth now!
Offering something new and not derivative was my mission.
Yer killing me, Don. Every single time I read an excerpt of this story … I want to cry. Elizabeth said it best… [I’ll use your own words] ‘She had been stripped down to her essentials.’ Don, you absolutely stripped us down to the essentials. OMG! I love this story. I hope when people read it they don’t try to speed read it. This is a deep, DEEP story and it tears/rips back the layers of societal prejudice, social status, the true elements of what makes us human… I want to cry. This is an amazing story and I hope EVERYONE reads it. I’ve never read anything like it and it moves me every time I read an excerpt. I don’t know if I will make it to the end of the blog tour. LOL!! I wish you all manner of success on this launch.
Thanks to Meredith for hosting [hello to your Mr. Bingley]. Thanks to Don and his publisher for the generous giveaway… good luck to all in the drawing… you need this book. Blessings to everyone… stay safe and healthy.
I know you followed the development of this tale on fanfiction.net. Your commentary was always so insightful. I do hope that you appreciate that you helped me create a stronger book
Example: I really had not considered giving Caroline a worthy comeuppance…until you wrote something to the tune of “I hope she gets hers.” I had planned to let Miss Bingley vanish after she did her dirty work, maybe to refer to some sort of downfall in dialog. Now, her ending offers the balancing required by the universe. As Darcy and Elizabeth rise, Caroline and her husband sink. This makes a better book.
The varying reactions to the book points to another essential you caught…as it took me five months to write it, I would hope that readers spend time exploring the inner selfs and dialogue of not only the main characters, but also the supporting (not secondary) cast. Without them, Darcy and Elizabeth’s journey, while clear, would be less meaningful.
Thank you for your continued support and feedback.
This is such an interesting premise! By coincidence, it just went on my TBR earlier today. From what I’ve read of Mr. Jacobson’s work, he seems just the person to attack class issues in a P&P variation. Looking forward to this book.
In this journey, I did use the class question to build the inversion that I felt would allow us greater insight into both the Darcy psyche as well as the Elizabeth personality. I did go beyond that…as you can see in the excerpt above. At another point, I have Lizzy exult that she and William are now so far beneath the notice of others that they are free to love without consideration of society’s reaction.
I look forward to reading your thoughts on the unified work.
The excerpt brings up lots of questions. Look forward to finding out more.
Hey there…hopefully I am whetting your appetite for the complete story! More excerpts to come in subsequent stops.
I still have the last chapter to read and will finish the book today. This is a long, compelling story with lots of meat on the characters. The story reveals a new take on Darcy and Elizabeth and is well worth the time spent to read it. Well done Mr. Jacobson!
Thank you so much. It dos my heart good to hear the validation of the work! I really wanted to find a vision of the couple that was consistent with my belief that what I write is #Austenesque fiction.
Thank you for hosting, Meredith. I’m still so happy that it all worked out! lol
Don, I loved this scene in the book. Thank you for sharing it here.
My pleasure!
This excerpt serves to entice the reader even more. So many questions are left at the end of it! Congratulations, Don, and thanks, Meredith.
Questions awaiting answers that are on the way…although I am going to head back toward the front of the book with my next excerpts in the tour.
Beautiful…one of my favourite scenes.
“The world is hidden in plain sight: all its wonders and its horrors waiting to be revealed. The sadness of it all rises from the fact that some do not see and others choose to ignore what is before them.”
Please do not enter me in the giveaway. I am waiting on the paperback.
I do love that scen, although I find I had a lot of fun writing the scene between William and Lizzy in the library at St. Margaret’s vicarage. Thank you for being one of my “team” on my writing.
Loved the excerpt!
I am so happy you did. Look forward to hearing more from you as the book moves through the blog tour. Thank you for visiting.
Gorgeous scene! This one gives me goosebumps. Congratulations on a thrilling story, Don!
This sounds like a wonderful book; far more than a simple romance. I enjoy reading in depth characters; who face situations out of the ordinary and grow as a result
Oh how emotional and lovely!
Lovely excerpt. Thanks for the chance to win a copy!
You are so welcome. I am happy you enjoyed this heart-lifting scene. There are others, but also those which can challenge.
Thank you. This is a thoroughly compelling excerpt – it completely drew me in. What led to this point? Where will it go? I anxiously await. And thank you for the the opportunity of a giveaway.
I offer this excerpt here because it so fit Austenesque Reviews’ “personality.” This is about half-way through the final book (Lambton, 1812) . Subesquent excerpts in the tour will go back into ook Two (Meryton 1811). Look forward to your thoughts.
I don’t think I’ve ever read an excerpt that has me wondering so much as to what has occurred with my favorite couple. Mr. Jacobson you have a beautiful way with words. Thanks for the giveaway and I look forward to reading more. –Leslie
You are more than kind. Thank you for your compliment on my writing style. I try to paint word portraits so the scene builds in front of you in your minds eye as if you are in a motion picture theater. Alsthough I have not released this excerpt, the late-night encounter between Lizzy (intentional use of the diminutive) and William in the St. Margaret’s Vicarage library where she uses her chin to poke him in the chest to make her point is likely my favorite set of images. Good luck on the giveaway!
I cannot imagine all Elizabeth and Darcy have gone through, but I know that Don writes incredible plots (The Bennet Wardrobe) that I have no doubt that In Plain Sight will be interesting. Thank you for the excerpt and giveaway.
It has been a long road from Meryton to Lambton. There is more to go after this. Thank you for your kudoes on plot development. I hope you will also find all of the characters surrounding ODC interesting, too!
Thanks for the execrept. This is so deep. I had t o re-read it!!! Same here, wanted to know why wait, what happened and what is keeping them from their final fate.
That is the problem with excerpts. This is Chapter 35 in a 49 chapter book. Much must be done before the couple can step into the light. And, much has happened to put them in the place they find themselves.
On my TBR list. Intriguing concept and can’t wait to read.
I hope you will discover much to your liking in the book. There are many layers like an opera cake. Look forward to your review.