Surely it was not for lack of choice. Women flocked to Mark—his blond hair, that air of innocence coupled with strength. With Ash’s wealth behind him, with his own fortune established, he was as eligible as ever.
“Why haven’t you married?” Mark asked. “You’re thirty-four.”
Because he’d always been able to slake his wants elsewhere. Until Margaret, when the wanting had begun to run deeper. “I am—I have—that is to say—”
“Of course not. You wouldn’t marry just anyone. Not for money. Not for convenience. Not for position or power. You’re afraid of the virtuous maidens who so kindly disclaim all their own wants and desires. You want a woman who wants, too, someone who will never, ever neglect your children. You won’t marry until you are certain that whoever you pick will be as far from our mother as you could possibly get. And I don’t blame you. Is it any surprise I’m doing the same?”
They had never talked about their mother. Mark had always been so…well, so damned good, believing in charity and chastity. Ash had wondered sometimes if his brother had even noticed how deranged their mother had become, or if he’d simply accepted her edicts as right.
“I didn’t realize you had noticed Mother was…off.” he said lamely.
“I’m a virgin,” Mark repeated. “Not an idiot.” He rubbed his palms together and looked into the distance. “Mother was a complicated woman. The damnable thing about her was, she was right. She was always right, about everything. One should succor the poor and the needy. One should do good. But…” Mark sighed. “But one should not do so at the expense of one’s loved ones. Too right can be just as bad as too wrong.”
It almost hurt to look at his brother. He seemed almost incandescent.
“And so, yes. I remain chaste. Yes, I want a wife. But I want a true helpmeet, a woman who I know will stand by my side. I want a lioness.”
Ash felt a lump in his throat. He would never have called Margaret a lioness; she was far too cultivated to be compared with any wild creature. But she defended the ones she loved with a ferocity that he yearned for. Even when he’d pressed her she had not once backed down.
“I want,” Mark said simply. “And when I find the woman I want—when I find my lioness—trust me. I wouldn’t waste my time arguing with you, if I could be out winning her.”
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Unlocked Enhanced Content
Q. Lady Elaine in Unveiled has some class issues, but these are never really addressed in Unlocked. Why is that?
A. Actually, when I first had the idea of writing something like Unlocked, I had vaguely planned to pair Lady Elaine with Lord Rawlings, Ash’s friend who appears for only a very short space of time. I had thought that Elaine’s nose-in-the-air privilege would give me something like the conflict I needed to write the book.
It didn’t. I needed a conflict between the hero and the heroine that would force Elaine to examine what she’d become of herself.
Truthfully, I didn’t think I would write a novella—mostly because I thought I wouldn’t be asked to write one, and in early 2010, when I wrote Unveiled, self-publishing was not yet a commercially viable option.
A year later, I got around to writing Unlocked. All these things about Elaine from Unveiled were set in stone—her overuse of italics, the class prejudices, even her age. I might have changed this all in Unveiled if I’d realize they were going to cause me issues in Unlocked. So. There you have it.
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On Mountain Climbing
Q. What gave you the idea to make Evan Carlton a mountain climber?
A. I read something written by Sir Edmund Hillary, who, along with Tenzing Norgay, was part of the team that first climbed Everest. This was an article about the many, many deaths on Everest, which in part have come about because of the commercialization of the climbing on Everest.
In any event, he talked about the fact that in his day, you would never, ever hear that there was a team on the mountain in trouble and just shrug it off. You’d never walk past someone in need of aid. It didn’t matter if it would jeopardize your chances of summiting. Everyone assumed that human life was precious and that if you had a chance of preserving it, you’d give up everything else to give it a go.
That little quote by him gave me this idea for a man who found his honor and sense of self-worth out in the middle of a glacier.
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Unclaimed Enhanced Content
Q. You’ve called Mark your rock star hero. What drew you to that concept?
A. When I wrote Unveiled, my editor told me she (and the marketing department) were nervous about the possibility of a virgin hero. I told her to let me try it, and if she thought the book didn’t work, I’d change him.
I wanted to make sure that I got to keep Mark as a virgin, and so I made him All The Things: popular, respected, adored by women. I told my editor he was like a rock star because I wanted her to focus on that.
It worked.
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Some pictures from Shepton Mallet
Market Cross: © David Jenkins
The Shambles (Today): © David Jenkins
The Market in 1903:
The Shambles Mark would have seen (1903): Frank James Allen.
When I wrote that the Shambles in Shepton Mallet had seen as many centuries of service as the public house, I was actually toning things down a little. The shambles that were in Shepton Mallet in Mark’s time were probably older than the public house. Frank James Allen wrote a little article about the Shepton Mallet Shambles in 1903. This is what he had to say:
“A shamble was a stall used for the sale of meat; and the application of the name exclusively to a meat-stall seems to imply that the shamble had some characteristic form, distinct from those of other market stalls… The word is nearly obsolete in its medieval sense; it has got transferred to the place where the animals are slaughtered, and a slaughter-house is sometimes called by the ungrammatical name ‘a shambles.’ In several towns…there are buildings or streets which retain the name of “shambles”; but as far as I can ascertain, these are not real shambles, either in form or in function. There is, however, at least one instance of shambles yet standing as they stood in the Middle Ages, having retained their name and usage until our own times,—and that is at Shepton Mallet, Somerset.”
Allen went on to explain that you can tell from the construction and the curvature of the timber that the shambles at Shepton Mallet dated from around 1450.
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The Church in Shepton Mallet
© David Jenkins
At this point in time, it’s almost impossible to see the church from Market Square, and so Mark today wouldn’t have been able to compare Market Cross with the church spires even though they’re only a few minutes distant. But the intervening buildings that block the view are all relatively new.
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About Virgin Heroes
Q. What special challenges are there to writing a virgin hero?
A. For this book? Convincing my editor to let me write one in the first place. Beyond that, it was all virgin jokes. So much fun!
In general? I don’t know. I don’t think there are any special challenges. I don’t know why a virgin hero should be any more difficult to write than a virgin heroine. I find it harder to write men who’ve slept with hundreds of women. They couldn’t test for STDs back then, and they had almost no barrier methods worth speaking of. That squicks me out. Virgin heroes? Meh. Simple.
(True fact: yes, they had condoms, but did you know they reused them? Say it together: Ewwwwww.)
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What’s going on with Jessica?
Q. Jessica’s reflections on not feeling anything suggest that she’s experiencing some form of depression. Do you think that’s accurate?
A. Yes. When the story starts, Jessica is dealing with the aftermath of a serious depression. I could go into what caused this—a ser
ious illness, a physical attack on her body that robbed her of the right to choose what happened to her, a miscarriage that ended a pregnancy, and a postpartum depression in its own right.
She’s battling a depression that stems from both emotional and biological causes.
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The Virgin/Courtesan Contrast
Q. So, Mark’s a virgin and Jessica’s a courtesan. Was that extreme contrast part of the vision from the very beginning?
A. Oh, yes. Absolutely.
I think this series was conceived of as, “Pick two natural enemies and then shove them together…” That’s why we have Ash and the woman whose life he ruined in Unveiled, and a magistrate and a criminal in Unraveled. There are other ways that Jessica and Mark are opposite as well. Mark has (for the most part) basically been adored by the world, and Jessica has been reviled by it. Mark is inherently optimistic; Jessica is dealing with depression.
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Mark and Jessica Walking
Q. Mark courts Jessica by going on walks with her. Why is that?
A. First, being outside with another person is one of the only ways that you can spend time alone with a member of the opposite sex in complete propriety. (For instance, Lizzy and Darcy walk together alone in Pride and Prejudice).
Second, they didn’t have miniature golf, and small towns wouldn’t have had balls or regular assemblies or any of the other options.
And finally, I just had a lot of fun writing scenes where Mark and Jessica took walks. Maybe too much fun.
I explain why here:
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Mark and Jessica Take Walks (0:44)
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The Walk to Glastonbury Tor
Glastonbury Tor: © David Jenkins
It’s a really reasonable walk to get a view of Glastonbury Tor from just outside Shepton Mallet. I know; I’ve done it. If you’re ever there, go to the Tourist Information and Heritage Centre and look for the walking guide produced by the Mendip Ramblers, and you can find Friar’s Oven yourself.
I found the story about Guinevere in a book of ghost tales from the area. I didn’t make that one up.
But I have my own cautionary tale to tell about the road to Glastonbury Tor: Beware the cows.
Oh, those cows. In order to get to Friar’s Oven, you’ll have to pass over a few fields where cows reside. I wrote about my experience at the time:
As I started across the field—and as the cows, 20 yards away, began to amble towards me, I told myself, “Courtney, the cows are just curious. They are coming closer to have a look. Or perhaps, they are just coming this way because they are hungry. In any event, cows are not dangerous. You have nothing to worry about.”
There were a lot of cows. Cows are very big. I realize that is a stupid thing to say, but one can comprehend that a cow is a massive animal, and then one can know that a cow is a massive animal. So here I am, these cows walking towards me in one giant herd, thinking to myself that cows are completely safe, even though they weigh thousands of pounds and could stampede me to death without even noticing I was there.
The cows began to run towards me.
Now, I realize that cows are not exactly considered fast animals. Horses are fast. Cheetahs are fast. My little dog, who I miss very much, is fast. Cows? Are rather on the slow side. But so is Courtney, and besides, Courtney is sitting there saying to herself, “Don’t run, it’s a bad idea, don’t run.” I don’t actually know if that’s true for cows. It’s true for bears, though, and as you may have noticed, I am a city girl.
So, hundreds (well, tens) of cows are running towards me, and I’m thinking, “La la la, cows are safe, la la la, I am not going to run away from cows because they are completely safe, la la la.”
Then the cows started to surround me. No, really. They flanked me on both sides, and they were running to do so. There was tossing of heads. There was direct eye contact. There was lowering of heads in my direction. I don’t have a lot of experience with cows, but none of these things sounded good for Courtney. At this point, I realized that while these fine beasts are about half cows, the other half are calves, and I started to rethink my chant of “cows are safe.” Sure, cows are safe, but aren’t all mothers supposed to be vicious? And… I had beef yesterday. They could smell it on me.
I was still not running. I was walking very, very, very quickly. Luckily, the field was not wide, or I am sure the cows would have done for me. I got to the stile on the other side and scrambled across.
Then I turned around. The cows were all staring at me. The word “bovine” usually is coupled with “placid” and “unperturbable.” Not these cows. Every single placid brown cow eye was narrowed in my direction, promising dire retribution should I return.
I stood on the other side of the fence, my heart pounding. And then I looked at the cows. They looked at me. I shook my fist at them, and said the only thing that came to mind: “Bad cows!”
Actual Picture of Very Bad Cows: © Courtney Milan, 2010
—Originally posted on my blog in 2010.
I promised revenge on them. This is how I did it: I gave them an amazing view in the book. Obviously, I need to work on my revenge skills.
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About the Title
Q. Why is this book called Unclaimed?
A. On the most basic level, I suppose you could say it’s because Mark has never had sex, so he hasn’t yet been claimed. Meh.
But I think that all of the titles in this series represent something good that happens to both the hero and heroine. In Unveiled, both Margaret and Ash have to let each other see themselves. Margaret has to stop being afraid of losing her position in society. In Unclaimed, Jessica has been territory, marked by other men. I think the scene where she masturbates, and is able to feel like her sexual response no longer belongs to anyone else, is one of my favorites in the book. It’s the point where she stops being claimed by others. Mark, too, needs to stop feeling that he owes others simply because he wrote a book about chastity. For them both, unclaiming themselves is a good thing.
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Mrs. Turner’s mental illness
Q. What was Mrs. Turner’s mental illness?
A. Honestly, I’m not sure I’m capable of diagnosing her in fiction. But I can tell you what it wasn’t—it wasn’t Mr. Milan’s favorite sexually-transmitted disease. (For the record, his favorite disease of all time is rhabdomyolysis.)
I’ll let him explain to you why he has a favorite sexually-transmitted disease.
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Mr. Milan talks about syphilis (1:24)
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About Amalie
Q. Amalie is never physically present in the book, but her importance to Jessica is obvious. What was their relationship like when Jessica first came to London?
A. Amalie is about seven years older than Jessica, and so I suspect that their relationship started off as mentor/student rather than as friendship, and then over the years grew into more. I always imagined they started off something like this:
Jessica: YAY! I’m here in London and this is AWESOME and I don’t have to listen to my dad at all and I don’t miss my family ONE BIT NO NOT EVEN A LITTLE and all these men want me. Plus, parties!
Amalie: …
Jessica: THIS CAN NEVER GO WRONG. Why doesn’t every woman do this?
Amalie: …
Jessica: I mean, aside from the ruined forever thing, which is kind of a bummer.
Amalie: Pregnancy.
Jessica: Uh… Wait. Tell me more about that.
Amalie: What’s to tell? You seem like a smart girl. You’re using sheaths and sponges, right?
Amalie: And besides, if you get pregnant, I’m sure the contract you have says he’s going to take care of you.
Jessica: Er…
Amalie: And even if it doesn’t say that, I bet you’re putting away a portion of the money he gives you every month, aren’t you?
Jessica: These things you are saying… They sound so oddly calculating. He loves me. What more do I need?
Amalie: Of course he loves you. But do you think he’ll stop loving you if you have money in the bank?
Jessica: Why are you telling me these things? I’m your competition.
Amalie: When we take up this position, we leave behind our families—our mothers, our fathers, our sisters. We can’t look back. To them, we’re dead. Worse than dead. You’re not my competition. You’re my sister.
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Mark and religion
Q. What is Mark’s relationship with religion?
A. I grappled with how much religion to include in this book. This is not an inspirational romance—and I am hardly the author to write the inspirational version of this story, because whatever my confused religious leanings, I am on the wrong side of the pond to be Anglican. Given the time and place when Mark lived, he would be. And given his inclinations, Mark would not just be a perfunctory Anglican. He had to be a man of deep religious convictions. I didn’t see any other possibility. The question was how to convey that in his character without making people feel that it was preachy.
The Turner Series Page 103