February 10, 2024
On February 2, Shubenacadie Sam did not see his shadow, which means he predicts an early spring, but then, between his lack of shadow seeing moment and Monday morning, we got 2.5 feet of snow! Which is better than some parts of Nova Scotia that got 5 feet! But it’s still quite a bit and does not seem to support Sam’s forecast. Needless to say, I’m even more skeptical of groundhog prognosticators now than I was before. LOL I found this meme on Facebook and thought it was perfect! So I swiped it to share with you.
I hope your February has started out with better weather.
You may have noticed an email from me in your inbox this past Wednesday. I had thought that I wouldn’t email all of my in-between Broadsheet Substack posts, but I keep forgetting to uncheck that box. So, I think it is just best, as we go forward, that I let you know that on Wednesdays and sometimes other days, you will get additional emails from me.
These will be about what’s happening in my writing life (What’s Up Wednesday Videos) and Story Connections (which match an excerpt from a book with a picture). Other sorts of emails might be announcements about my books, sneak peeks, quick updates, etc.
I’m excited to share even more of my writing life with you! As always, if you don’t want to read something that shows up in your inbox, just delete it. I won’t be offended. :)
Below you will see all of the regular Saturday Broadsheet details about books that are on sale, an opportunity to read and review via Booksprout, and an all-new sweet story vignette.
Enjoy!
CURRENT PROJECTS
This upcoming week, I will (finally) be spending some time figuring out what writing project to tackle.
IN THE TEAROOM
took her turn in the The Sigh-worthy Romance Tearoom this month. She shared about a new book and some life challenges.eBOOK DEALS
These are the deals you will find on my Book Promotions page HERE. « Go here to find links to stores, etc.
Confounding Caroline is FREE via the Kindle store from today until February 14.
His Beautiful Bea is still a first in series FREEBIE until March 31.
His Father’s Last Gift is $0.99 USD, CAD, AUD, NZD, EUR, and GBP (with all other currencies also reduced) until February 29.
Want to keep the ebooks you buy, then get them on Smashwords. While books that an author moves off of other retailers may disappear from your library after a while, that won’t happen with Smashwords. At Smashwords, you get the book file (epub) to keep. This month, to celebrate Valentine’s Day, I have put a 50% off coupon on the full Touches of Austen series box sets. That’s six sweet romances to enjoy.
Follow me on Ream to read this book for FREE this month.
CURRENT BOOKSPROUT BOOK
Currently, the first Touches of Austen boxset is available to read and review. I will be adding the second box set for reviews by the end of the month. (Yes, these are the same books that are on sale at Smashwords with the coupon above.) There will be no new Booksprout book offered after that until May.
To make sure you get notified of any book review campaigns I have on the go, please follow me on Booksprout here.
If you’ve reviewed books for me before and would like to be part of my review team, you can request to join that team here.
SOMETHING NEW TO READ
As I mentioned at the beginning of this newsletter, last weekend, it snowed. For three days! All that inclement weather that kept us at home all weekend sparked the idea for this original sweet vignette. I think that Maude needs to be concerned about more than the weather. :)
Maude Andrews turned from the window towards the door of the sitting room when her coachman arrived at said door. The weather did not look pleasant. Rain had turned to snow not long ago, but not before leaving a shiny surface on everything it had touched. “Do you think it is feasible to leave?” she asked him.
“I’m afraid not, miss. ‘Tis too slippery for man or beat out there and will only grow worse. There is ice clinging to everything.”
She sighed and shook her head. She had been afraid of that when Emily-Amelia had spotted the first snowflakes and her current observations had deepened the fear. Maude and her new friend, Miss Emily-Amelia Jacobs, had been having a most pleasant conversation when the rain had started, and though Maude had commented on needing to leave, her friend had been reluctant to allow her to do so before it was absolutely necessary.
“Oh, that is lovely news!” her new friend cried in direct opposition to how Maude was feeling about the situation. “There is no need to fear. My brother and I will take care of you all. If you see Mr. Martin in the hall, please send him to me,” she said to Maude’s coachman. “He will know best where to have you and all you have with you wait out the storm. I shall see to Miss Andrews and her maid.”
“That is very kind of you, ma’am.” The coachman bowed before exiting the room.
“I am grateful for your hospitality, but I do feel dreadful that you are forced to give it. If I had listened to my mother speculation about the grey skies and simply sent my regrets that our meeting would need to be on a different day, none of it would be necessary. Indeed! If I had stayed for only a few minutes as is proper, I would be well on my way towards home.” Home was only eight miles away.
“And where would that put you? On a road that is too slick for safe travel. No, that would not do.” Emily-Amelia gave a firm nod of her head. “Things are just as they should be, and I am quite delighted to have your company. As you know, I’ve been feeling quite bored since returning to the country – even if it is a new place to me and my brother.”
Oh, yes, Maude had heard a great deal about how Emily was missing both the grand ballrooms and intimate gatherings of the season, but when one’s uncle dies without so much as a “if you please” and leaves the whole of his fortune to one’s brother, one must leave the frivolities of the season behind and do her duty as hostess of her brother’s new home. Especially if one is a lady named Emily-Amelia Jacobs who has no other relation to see to her care save said brother.
She had arrived one month ago, and she still wore half-mourning, but that had not stopped her from driving into the village that lay nearly halfway between here and Maude’s home two weeks ago to purchase some brightly coloured ribbons and a bit of lace to festoon her non-mourning dresses while they waited for her to be allowed to return to them.
Her state of half-mourning had also not kept her from calling on Maude at her home last Monday and convincing Maude’s mother that this visit today was not just acceptable but quite the proper thing to do. Maude was quite certain that whatever Emily-Amelia put her mind to happened whether it wished to happen or not.
“The coachman and his grooms have been directed to lodging. Did you have a room in mind for the young lady, miss?” Mr. Martin, the Jacobs’ butler, had arrived to receive his directions.
“I believe the pink one that is just down from my room would be perfect.”
Maude’s brow furrowed. If the room was just down from Emily-Amelia’s, did that mean she was being given a room in the family portion of the house instead of the guest wing.
“The pink one?” Both the butler’s tone and the rise of his eyebrows showed that he was as surprised by Miss Jacob’s request as Maude was.
“Oh, yes. That way, there will not be so many scattered fires needed. I do think it is best if we keep as much of the heat centralized to one local rather than having bits of it here and there, for the result will surely be discomfort for all, and it is a very cool and damp day.”
The butler did not look completely complacent with the explanation, but he simply nodded and repeated, “The pink room,” before adding, “And shall I inform your brother of the arrangements?”
“Of course. He must know, and I suppose the housekeeper and cook will also need to be made aware.” She leaned toward Maude when Mr. Martin had left the room. “I have never had the charge of a home as large as this one. It is rather daunting, but I shall soon have it all figured out. I do apologize for putting you in the room right next to mine, but I do not know what the financial state of things are or how much fuel there put by for heat and if it will last until warm weather returns. It has been so dreadfully frigid as of late, has it not been?”
“You have put me in the room next to yours, not a few doors down?”
“Well, yes, I did sort of make you believe that it was not directly next to mine on purpose. I did not wish to have you completely shocked and unable to express yourself in front of the staff. They are still attempting to get used to my ways.”
“I see.” Maude could imagine it would take some time to get used to Miss Jacob’s ways if they were ones which seemed to go the opposite direction of what was normal.
“We are going to be good friends – almost as close as sisters – or so I hope,” Emily-Amelia explained. “Therefore, it seems almost proper to have you staying next to me.” Her face scrunched. “You will not abandon me because of this, will you? I know it is not how my mother ever would have done things, and that means it is not precisely the proper way.” She sighed. “But proper ways are not always the most efficient. I wish Mother was here to argue that point with me, but I am certain, my brother will have a thing or two to say in her stead. He is a prodigiously good brother, but I fear he is a trifle more old cloth than new, and as one knows when patching a dress, the two do not always work well together.”
It took only about five minutes from the time Mr. Martin had left the room for Miss Jacob’s brother to enter, and when he did, the mere sight of him had Maude drawing a quick deep breath and reminding herself not to gape. He cut a very imposing figure, but not in a frightening way. It was more like he had stepped out of a portrait in a grand house. His attire was impeccable. His hair lay just as it should. His face had just the right amount of contour and angles. And she could not imagine him being able to stand upright while wearing his hat in a small tenant’s cottage without his hat touching the ceiling. This was not a gentleman who was designed to be anything less than the owner of a modest estate – indeed, a modest estate would not do him justice. Nothing smaller than the room in which they sat now seemed appropriate for him.
“My apologies,” Maude muttered as her face grew warm at having been caught admiring Mr. Jacobs. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”
He fiddled with his coat and then ran a hand over his hair.
“There is nothing out of place,” Maude admitted. “I must apologize for staring at you when you entered. It is just that you look very much like your sister only a great deal larger.”
He chuckled. “We are both grateful that I was the twin blessed with size rather than the other way around.”
Her eyes darted from him to Emily-Amelia. “You are twins?”
“Did my loquacious sister not mention that?”
Maude shook her head. “No, she did not. I was led to believe that you were Miss Jacob’s older brother.”
“There seemed little reason to mention it,” Emily-Amelia inserted. “And he is older than me by an hour.”
“That is not very big difference in age,” Maude protested.
“It is the difference between one day and the next.”
“We were born at night,” her brother explained. “And I was born before midnight while Emmie was born after.”
“I see. That is quite unusual.”
“Yes, well, as you must know by now, my sister tends to be unusual.” He gave his sister a stern look. “The pink room?”
She nodded. “It seems best to keep all the fires in one central location to let them help each other in keeping us all warm.”
He sighed. “She has not offended you, has she, Miss Andrews? I would like to be well-thought of in the neighborhood.”
“I am surprised but not offended.”
“Good. I believe I have heard that your father holds a good bit of sway in the community around these parts.”
“I have heard the same,” Maude replied with a smile.
“I would hate to have him think we treated his daughter ill.” He rose from the chair that he had sat down in after she had greeted him.
“My brother is all that is proper,” Emily-Amelia assured Maude. “Are you not, Artie.”
Mr. Jacob’s eyes closed and he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Must you?”
“Yes, I must.” She turned to Maude. “His name is Arthur Edward Jacobs, but I have always called him Artie, just as he has always called me Emmie.”
“Could we shorten it to Art?”
“Do you hang on the wall?” She batted her lashes at her brother. “And no, Arthur is too long.”
He sighed. “You will come to discover, Miss Andrews, that my sister is very good at proving her point and getting her way in most things. She is not spoiled. She is just very good at what she does.” He gave his sister a look that said he was not particularly pleased by her talent.
“I assure you that I have already figured that out. It is why I am here today when neither my mother nor I were certain that calling so soon after the loss of your uncle was a good thing, and it is why I stayed longer than I had planned to stay.”
He chuckled. “Well, then, I suppose I don’t feel quite so bad since I am not the only one who she is able to bend to her will on many things.” He held up a finger. “Not all. But many.” He gave a bow. “Until dinner.”
“Do join us before that for a glass of wine,” Emily-Amelia called after him. “He is handsome, is he not?” She waggled her eyebrows at Maude.
“He is.”
“He has never courted anyone. He has called on a few ladies, but none have captured his attention.” She straightened her skirt and very pointedly did not look at Maude. “You said you did not have a beau.”
“Oh, no,” Maude groaned.
“He is handsome and very kind and all that is good,” Emily-Amelia hurried assured her. “And I like you very much. I think we shall be great friends… and very good sisters.”
Maude shook her head. “I will not contradict you about whether your brother is kind and good, for I have only just met your brother, and I will not say that I am not inclined to consider him. But please, do not force things. If it is going to be, just let it be.” Maude was not the sort of lady to turn down a possible match with a handsome and wealthy gentleman, but she was the sort who decried matchmaking in a most passionate fashion. Currently, she did not like the smile Emily-Amelia was wearing. “If you wish for us to be good friends, and for that to happen, it is best to not do any arranging.”
Emily-Amelia’s expression grew serious. “We should go find you something to wear to supper. I think you and I are about the same size.” She rose, and Maude followed suit. “I will show you your room and then, we will go to mine to find something for you to wear.”
“Thank you, Miss Jacobs.”
“Oh, please, call me Emily-Amelia or Emily – you can even call me Emmie if you prefer, for we are going to be dear friends.” As she started up the grand staircase she threw as mischievous look over her shoulder at Maude and added, “And quite possibly, sisters.”