Hello my dear friends! I am so excited to welcome the lovely Frances Reynolds to Austenesque Reviews today! ✨

Frances is here celebrating the release of her new Pride and Prejudice variation – Most Truly the Gentleman. 🎩

And it sounds like such a interesting premise to explore – what if Colonel Fitwilliam arrived in Meryon with Mr. Darcy…what kind of changes would that have on P&P developments? 📖

Frances is here to share an excerpt from Most Truly the Gentleman. We hope you enjoy! 😊

~ Book Description ~

A man of consideration in the world can afford to marry where he pleases… When one has wealth enough for security, the next thing to be sought must be happiness.

When Colonel Fitzwilliam quits the Continent on crutches and accompanies his cousin to Hertfordshire, he arrives determined to enjoy himself—and quite incapable of allowing Fitzwilliam Darcy to brood in a corner while a roomful of charming strangers goes unmet.

The colonel cannot dance. What he can do is talk, and his easy warmth soon draws the truth from the proud master of Pemberley: it is not contempt that fixes Darcy silent in a crowded assembly, but an affliction of the nerves that Elizabeth Bennet recognises at once, for her own father suffers the same. A single honest conversation undoes the insult that ought to have divided them—and that is only the beginning of what the colonel sets right.

With Fitzwilliam at his elbow, Wickham’s lies collapse before they can take root, an officious clergyman is gently steered toward a wife who actually wants him, and a scheming sister’s poison-pen letter is exposed before it can part Jane from her Bingley. Yet for all the colonel manages, one thing he cannot do for his cousin: win the lady himself.

That Darcy must learn to do alone. And a man accustomed to commanding a room by his silence must discover whether he can earn a heart by his conduct.

~ Excerpt from Most Truly the Gentleman ~

Elizabeth found herself without a partner again late in the evening. She was casting about to see if any of her friends were in a similar position when Colonel Fitzwilliam appeared before her and bowed. “Miss Elizabeth,” he said, smiling, “would you do me the honour of taking a turn about the room with me?”

“I would be delighted, sir, thank you.” She had seen him walking with several young ladies over the course of the evening and had noticed him sitting with Charlotte Lucas some little while ago. She thought well of him for exerting himself to entertain the ladies even when he could not dance with them. “Have you been enjoying our little assembly?”

“Very much,” he replied, offering his arm and setting off. “It has been too long since I spent time in the country, and your family and friends have been most welcoming.”

“Country pleasures are something we can offer in plenty,” she replied.

“Miss Lucas recommended to me several paths she believes my horse and I will enjoy. Might you have any you wish to promote?”

“Oh, I ride infrequently and with little skill,” she disclaimed smilingly. “We are five sisters with but one elderly mare between us. Though as my youngest sister does not ride at all I suppose it would be more correct to say four. But as to your question, I will recommend that anyone, on horseback or afoot, ascend Oakham Mount. Though I believe our ancestors christened it so as a joke, it is the only prominence of any note hereabouts, so I shall not trouble you with the details of its location. You will find it easily enough if you look about you!”

“Ah, that must be the hill to the south of Netherfield.”

“Just so. The view from the top is delightful if you have any appreciation at all for the bucolic.”

“I do not know that I do, but then, I do not know that I do not,” he jested. “I shall visit it on your recommendation and report back as to the state of my own discernment.”

“And I shall judge you very harshly if you find anything at all lacking in it,” she assured him in a like tone. Just then, she noticed Mr Darcy moving down the line of the dance opposite Miss Bingley. On the verge of making a comment about it to her companion, she elected to refrain. Upon reflection, they both seemed quite unpleasant and it was fitting that, if they wished to dance, they not inflict themselves upon those who were capable of enjoying the set. Elizabeth did notice that Miss Bingley actually looked pleased for the first time that evening, however.

Colonel Fitzwilliam must have noted the direction of her gaze, for he said, with an apologetic air, “In complete understanding of how ironic it is to say this, I will mention that it would be abominably rude of Darcy not to dance with his host’s sister. He shared a set with Mrs Hurst earlier, as well.”

I do wonder if it is somehow less abominably rude to refuse to dance with anyone else. Perhaps this is one of the customs of the upper crust with which we peasants are unfamiliar, she thought, amused by the notion. “It could become quite uncomfortable were the ladies of the household upset with one of their brother’s guests,” she agreed.

“Just so.”

“I take it from your remark on irony that you are aware that Mr Darcy has not made the best impression upon those present?”

“Miss Lucas mentioned something of it,” he allowed. “And that my cousin had said something unfortunate about you in particular. I shall not apologise for him; it is not my place to correct the mistakes of a man of seven and twenty who has, I assure you, been taught how to behave. But for myself, I am truly sorry that you were made uncomfortable by someone so closely connected to me.”

“I had not known that you were related,” she remarked. “I thought you both simply friends of Mr Bingley. As to the other, I hope I should never blame anyone for the actions of another, no matter the family ties between them.” She inclined her head towards the dance, where Lydia was romping down the line in a hoydenish manner. “A courtesy I most devoutly wish that the world will extend to me. We all have relations for whom we must occasionally blush, do we not?”

“Miss Elizabeth, I believe I may honestly say that the only people I have ever met without at least one trying relation were foundlings.”

“Does one meet many foundlings in His Majesty’s Army?”

“More than you might think,” he replied amiably. “In my regiment there is a sergeant, an excellent fellow, who came to the army by way of the magistrate’s court. He came to that by way of having no family to support him and disliking the conditions in the foundling home enough to leave it at a shockingly early age. Once the army had taught him honesty and discipline, which it does not succeed in doing in all such cases, he became a fine soldier and one with whom I am proud to have served. I hope very much that we shall meet again when this blasted war at last comes to an end.”

“Will he not be under your command when you return?” she enquired.

“It is not at all likely that I shall. I am not fit at present, and it is probable that I shall not be again.”

“I am sorry to hear it.”

“Will you think less of me if I tell you there is some appeal in the notion of making a change?”

“Not at all, Colonel,” she replied sincerely. “It is a difficult, though noble, profession you have chosen. I must imagine that many a soldier thinks with anticipation of the presumably quieter days which will follow his time in the army.”

He chuckled. “His Majesty’s service is not without its quiet moments or its dull ones, but when it is loud and exciting, it is very, very loud and exciting.”

“I think I prefer this sort of noise and excitement,” she said with a smile.

“As you should, Miss Elizabeth,” he earnestly agreed.

I love seeing Colonel Fitzwilliam amongst Meryton society! He is charming everyone and doing his cousin a lot of good! 🤗

I can not wait to see what happens if and when he encounters Mr. Wickham! ⚔️ 

~~~

GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

In conjunction with Frances’s lovely visit, Quills & Quartos is giving away 3️⃣ ebook copies of Most Truly the Gentleman to 3️⃣ lucky winners!!

To enter this giveaway leave a comment, a question, or some love for Frances below!

• This giveaway is open worldwide.  Thank you, Quills and Quartos!
• This giveaway ends September 30th