Aunt Emmeline laughed. “And stand in the shade of your talent? No, thank you. That is all behind me now. Imogen’s grandmother must be above criticism.” She had abandoned both the stage and the name MacLean after the birth of her first grandchild. When Darcy and Elizabeth had told her they planned to name their baby after her if it was a girl, she had grown teary and begged them to consider Imogen instead. “My Imogen adored little children and would have liked nothing better,” she had said, and they had been happy to agree. Aunt Emmeline had utterly devoted herself to baby Imogen from the moment of her birth, to the point where her nurse occasionally complained of having little to do. It was heartwarming to see this new side of Aunt Emmeline, who was now once again proudly Mrs. MacLaren.
Soon there would be another baby for all of them to love. This one would be born at Pemberley in the summer. And then next winter Duncan MacLaren would officially become part of the family when he married Georgiana, unless Darcy decided to relent and permit them to marry earlier. After their utter devotion over the last two years, no one thought it even remotely possible Georgiana would change her mind.
Darcy gazed around the room with pleasure. His instincts had told him that marriage to Elizabeth would make his life complete, but he had never pictured how it would include building a family around him. For so long, Georgiana had been all he had, and she was so much younger that he still felt alone much of the time. Elizabeth had brought him Imogen, who was not only the most beautiful but easily the cleverest toddler in England; the motherly presence of Aunt Emmeline; and MacLaren, the younger brother he never had. Because of Elizabeth, he had regained the cousins he had lost, too: this new and happier Jasper, and Richard, no longer with half his spirit left behind in India, was again the content cousin Darcy had depended on in his youth. Richard’s lovely Sarojini had become a friend to Elizabeth, and their children adored Imogen.
And then there was Elizabeth, his dearest, loveliest Elizabeth, the center of his life and the guardian of his heart. She had taught him to laugh and to love, to value that which was honest and true over that which was fashionable and powerful. The road to winning her had been a hard one, but by God, it had been worth it.
Elizabeth looked up at him, a slow smile warming her face, as if she had guessed what he was thinking. And now he could look forward to the other part of the gift she had given him, her beloved self. Their family was a great satisfaction to him, but soon they would all leave or retire for the night, and he would be alone with Elizabeth again. That was the best part of all.
Historical Notes
MY DEPICTION OF SIR Walter Scott’s poems and novels playing an enormous role in changing the popular view of Scotland and the Highlands is true to history. After Scott published Waverley in 1814, the Prince Regent invited him to dine with him in London, and the discussion I’ve portrayed in the Epilogue really did take place, sans Duncan MacLaren and Jasper Fitzpatrick. Scott later encouraged Prinny, by then King George IV, to visit Edinburgh in 1822, and stage-managed the visit to promote the rebirth of ancient Scotland and the Highlands using pageantry and his theatrical connections. Scott was a tremendous patron of the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, making appearances to read his poetry and later writing plays for them, although not by the time of this story. Scott did not become a baronet until 1820, which is why he is simply “Walter Scott” rather than “Sir Walter Scott” in this book.
George IV’s visit to Edinburgh was the occasion that established the tartan as a symbol of Scotland, and one of the king’s first requests in Scotland was to try some Glenlivet, which was then an illegally brewed Highland whiskey.
Very few kilts appear in this story for the simple reason that they were rarely worn during this period. Kilts were common wear in the Highlands until the Jacobite rebellion, after which they were proscribed by the English in the Dress Act of 1746 which made the ‘Highland Dress’ illegal with severe punishments. This act was not repealed until 1782, by which time an entire generation of Highlanders had grown up without ever seeing or wearing a kilt, nor did they possess any. Only a very few took the trouble to return to what seemed like a hopelessly old-fashioned form of dress. The kilt did not regain popularity until after the pageantry of George IV’s visit, when kilts were required dress for the Grand Ball held by the peers of Scotland. Scott reminded those who attended “that the king had ordered a kilt and set the condition that, unless in uniform, ‘no Gentleman is to be allowed to appear in any thing [sic] but the ancient Highland costume.’ At this, lowland gentlemen suddenly embarked on a desperate search for Highland ancestry (however remote) and a suitable tartan kilt from the Edinburgh tailors, who responded inventively. This can be seen as the pivotal event when what had been thought of as the primitive dress of mountain thieves became the national dress of the whole of Scotland.” Even most Highlanders had to borrow kilts from soldiers in Highland regiments, which had retained them as part of their uniform even during the proscription. (Wikipedia, Visit of King George IV to Scotland)
I confess to bending history when I referred to Elizabeth wearing a tartan scarf that established her as a MacLaren. The idea of particular tartan patterns ‘belonging’ to particular clans was a Victorian invention. Prior to that, certain colors of plaids were more common in particular areas than others owing to the availability of dyes, but there would have been no ‘MacLaren plaid’ in 1813. This erroneous concept has become so common in historical fiction that excluding it would risk drawing reader disbelief, so I used it anyway.
The Highland segment of this book is set in the Trossachs in the vicinity of Loch Ard, a region which borders the territory of the actual MacLaren clan, as opposed to my fictional one. I chose to fictionalize the MacLarens because they were considered landless and chiefless at the time, giving me more latitude with creating my fictional MacLarens. Today you can still find an island in Loch Ard with the ruins of a castle on it, although it was Castle Murdoch rather than Castle Lochard, and it was uninhabitable in 1813. Locating a castle on an island, as was also the case in The Lady of the Lake, was common in the Highlands; there were three of them on Loch Lomond alone.
Thank you for joining me on my exploration of Regency Scotland!
About the Author
ABIGAIL REYNOLDS MAY be a nationally bestselling author and a physician, but she can't follow a straight line with a ruler. Originally from upstate New York, she studied Russian and theater at Bryn Mawr College and marine biology at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. After a stint in performing arts administration, she decided to attend medical school, and took up writing as a hobby during her years as a physician in private practice.
A life-long lover of Jane Austen's novels, Abigail began writing variations on Pride & Prejudice in 2001, then expanded her repertoire to include a series of novels set on her beloved Cape Cod. Her books have won multiple awards and several have been national bestsellers. Her most recent releases are Mr. Darcy’s Enchantment, Conceit & Concealment, Alone with Mr. Darcy, Mr. Darcy's Noble Connections, and Mr. Darcy’s Journey, and you can find her other books listed on her Author Page at Amazon. Her books have been translated into seven languages. A lifetime member of JASNA, she lives on Cape Cod with her husband and a menagerie of animals. Her hobbies do not include sleeping or cleaning her house.
Visit Abigail’s website at Pemberley Variations
Acknowledgments
AS ALWAYS, IT TAKES a village! Special thanks go to my amazing critique partners Susan Meyers and Shannon Rohane, not only for making this a much better book, but also for keeping me from giving up on it when I really wanted to. Nicole Clarkston provided essential equine information for the description of Georgiana’s horse. My boatload of beta readers found an even larger boatload of errors in the final draft, and my thanks go to Jennifer Altman, Nicole Clarkston, Debbie Fortin, J. Dawn King, Susan Mason-Milks, Rena Margulis, Dave McKee, and David Young for their helpful feedback which improved the book tremendously and reduced the number of typos and inconsistencie
s. My German translator, Nicola Geiger, deserves a gold medal in Spotting Missing Conjunctions and Prepositions. I can’t thank all of you enough!
Also by Abigail Reynolds
The Pemberley Variations
What Would Mr. Darcy Do?
To Conquer Mr. Darcy
By Force of Instinct
Mr. Darcy’s Undoing
Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy: The Last Man in the World
Mr. Darcy’s Obsession
A Pemberley Medley
Mr. Darcy’s Letter
Mr. Darcy’s Refuge
Mr. Darcy’s Noble Connections
The Darcys of Derbyshire
The Darcy Brothers (co-author)
Alone with Mr. Darcy
Mr. Darcy’s Journey
Conceit & Concealment
Mr. Darcy’s Enchantment
The Woods Hole Series
The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice
Morning Light
A Matter of Honor Page 41