by Mary Jo
This week, Kensington has reissued my early romance, The Bargain, which got me to thinking about the long journey this story has. It started life as my third Signet Regency, The Would Be Widow. I was very much a neophyte at the time, and several of my writing traits first appeared here.
To begin with, I connected the story to my first book, The Diabolical Baron, by making the hero of The Baron the best friend of the hero of the Widow, and a key player in the story. Without even realizing it, I had started writing a community, and that has served me well as those books turned into a de facto series, and series are really popular now!
Secondly, this was the first book where there was a difficult man who proved unexpectedly interesting at the last moment, so naturally I had to immediately write a book about him. (The man was Rafael Whitbourne, the Duke of Candover, and his book was The Controversial Countess, later revised as Petals in the Storm, about which more anon. Reggie Davenport in The Diabolical Baron was a similarly problematic character who ended up with his own book: The Rake and the Reformer, now The Rake. But I didn't write that for another year or two.)
The Would Be Widow is a perfect title for this story: a young woman needs to marry by her 25th birthday in order to secure her inheritance and she doesn't want to marry at random when she has her eye on a man she really wants, and he seems interested in her, too. It's not long after Waterloo, so she visits a London military hospital to see a friend, and is struck with the brilliant idea of marrying a dying man, which will fulfill the terms of her father's will while soon freeing her to pursue the man she wants.
So she proposes a bargain to the gallant, mortally wounded Major David Lancaster: if he
I don't recall just where I got the basic idea for the story, but I was vastly pleased with it. (Much later, I learned that a Kathleen Woodiwiss novel called Shanna had a somewhat similar premise. Proof that there are no really original ideas.)
While I felt it was a good story, I never expected it to have such long legs! It was published and later reissued as a Signet Regency, then I revised and expanded the story into a historical romance that was renamed THE BARGAIN.
Spring 1812
Charlton Abbey
The fourth Earl of Cromarty was buried with all the pomp and dignity due his rank. The village church bell tolled solemnly as he was laid to rest in a misty rain, all of the male members of his household dressed in black and suitably somber. The late earl had been a handsome, forceful man, fair of mind and quick to laugh. His tenants had all been vastly proud of him.
Chief mourner was the earl’s only child, Lady Jocelyn Kendal. At the post-funeral gathering, she performed her duties with impeccable grace, her pale perfect features still as a marble angel under her sheer black mourning veil. She and her father had been very close.
This would be Lady Jocelyn’s last official act at Charlton Abbey, since her Uncle Willoughby was now the owner. If she resented the fact that she had been transformed from mistress to guest in her childhood home, she concealed her feelings.
Though a few elderly ladies might think her independent streak would be considered headstrong in a less well-bred girl, none of the men minded. At twenty-one she possessed more than her share of beauty and charm, and as she moved about the great hall men looked after her, and briefly dreamed.
The last ritual of the long day was the reading of the will. The family lawyer, Mr. Crandall, had come down from London to perform the duty. It was a lengthy task, with numerous bequests for honored servants and special charities.
Lady Jocelyn sat immobile in the crowd of listeners. A mere daughter could not succeed to her father’s honors, but she would still inherit a substantial part of her father’s fortune, enough to be one of England’s greatest heiresses.
The new earl, a solemn-faced man without a tithe of his late brother’s dash, listened gravely. Once it had been assumed that the fourth earl would remarry and get himself a male heir, but his experience of matrimony appeared to have soured him on that state. He had been content with his only daughter, and Willoughby was the beneficiary of that choice. Though the new earl sincerely mourned his brother, he was human enough to be glad for his elevation to the title.
The will presented no surprises—until the end. Lawyer Crandall cleared his throat, and glanced nervously at the statuesque beauty in the front row before starting to read the final provisions. “And for my beloved daughter, Jocelyn, I hereby bequeath and ordain…”
The lawyer’s sonorous voice filled the room, riveting the listeners. When he finished, there was a murmur of startled voices and inhaled breath as heads turned to Lady Jocelyn.
She sat utterly still for an endless moment. Then she leaped to her feet, sweeping her black veil from her face to reveal blazing rage in her fine hazel eyes. “He did WHAT?”
For this reissue, Kensington asked if I could come up with a bit of new content. Editors don't seem to realize how difficult it is to do this if the original story is tightly plotted--it's like grafting peacock feathers on a sheep. But being an agreeable author, I thought about it, and came up with--an epilogue! So this edition of The Bargain has an epilogue that adds a bit of follow through.
But it continues to surprise me how the story of Jocelyn and David in all its variations resonates so strongly with readers, many of whom have told me the book is on their keeper shelf. This is part of the mystery of writing: we authors haven't a clue how readers will react to our stories! I know that some of my books that I love gather no special attention, while some that I think might not be as strong as I'd like are acclaimed. Definitely a mystery!
I don't worry much about such things--I just keeping inching onward through new stories, hoping for the best. But if you haven't read The Bargain and are curious, this new edition is available now. I've illustrated this blog with all of the covers the story has had, including the one for the audiobook version I produced last year.
As a special extra, between now and Sunday night, the ebook edition of the book that follows, Petals in the Storm, is sale priced at $1.99 from now through Sunday night at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. This is the story of Rafe Whitbourne, who first appears in The Bargain and became very interesting right at the end. I love an intriguing man who needs work. <G>
I'll be giving away a free copy of The Bargain to one person who comments between now and midnight Sunday. So comment away! Have you read the book already? Do you know why some books resonate with you and others don't? I'd love to know!
Mary Jo