by Lynn Morris
Mirabella watched him with great affection. “I think that two-year-olds are the most adorable of all, but then I think that same thing at every age my children reach. Each and every year of each and every child is a blessing.”
“So they are,” Josephine agreed. “But you know, it’s also wonderful to see couples like Barbara and Denys, who don’t have children but seem to have a rich, full life and happy marriage all the same.”
“And like Lewin and Anne,” Giles said. “The more I get to know her, the more I like her. Now there is a woman that’s full of surprises.”
“To say the least,” Mirabella agreed. “Do you all recall the first time we met her? We thought that she was very sweet, but on first acquaintance she seemed so very shy.”
“We were right, but we were wrong,” Harry said. “She is sweet, but she’s not at all shy, she’s as bold as a tigress. Can you believe that she actually rode a camel?”
Lewin had remained the ultimate career soldier, serving with distinction and finally achieving the rank of colonel. After duty in India, he had returned to England five years previously and accepted a position as adjutant to the secretary of state for war and the colonies. He bought a small cottage in Clerkenwell, just east of the City of London. There he met Anne Meynell, the daughter of a watchmaker. She was thirty years old, and of course was considered an elderly spinster. Two years later, after her father died, Anne sold the business and married Lewin, and the two proceeded to go all over the world, as Lewin’s position often gave him the opportunity to travel with various envoys, diplomats, secretaries, and undersecretaries. In the last three years they had been to India, Egypt, Cape Colony in South Africa, and various islands in the British West Indies.
“Where are they off to this time?” Mirabella asked. “I forget.”
“To Mauritius,” Josephine answered. “Apparently there’s some dustup there between the sugar planters, and one of them is a distant connection of Lord Grey’s, so he must be attended to immediately.”
Mirabella sighed. “It’s been too many years since I’ve studied globes. I’ve heard of Mauritius, of course, but I have no earthly idea where it is.”
Giles said, “It’s one of the Mascarene Islands.”
“What?” Mirabella said blankly.
“Mascarene Islands. Mauritius, Réunion, and Rodrigues.”
“There he is again,” Mirabella said to Harry and Josephine. “Showing out. As if we care that you know everything about the entire world, Giles.”
“That may be a slight exaggeration.”
“Oh, you are still so infuriating, even after all of these years I’ve tried to train you.”
Giles grinned, his old crooked, mischievous grin. “But you’re still madly in love with me just the same.”
“Yes, I am,” Mirabella said serenely.
Another thunderous crash sounded from the other side of the conservatory, accompanied by loud groans, shouts, and outraged cries. Alexander’s cheerful face popped out between a lemon tree and a citron tree. “No worries,” he shouted. “It’s quite all right, really, a minor setback in the prosecution of the war.”
“No bones broken, no one bleeding?” Harry called.
“No, sir.”
“Very well, carry on.”
Josephine rolled her eyes. “Of course, as long as there are no major injuries. So, Mirabella, Giles, how are your plans coming for your trip to Italy next month? Are all of the arrangements finalized?”
Because of the children, Giles and Mirabella hadn’t been able to go to Italy as they had always planned. Now that the fast, relatively comfortable, and safer steamships were crossing the Atlantic, and because Edmund was now six years old, they had decided to take their bridal tour, now commonly called a honeymoon. Josephine and Harry had generously offered to take care of the children for the three months that Giles and Mirabella planned to spend in Rome, Venice, and Florence.
Mirabella’s eyes sparkled, the same deep royal blue of her youth. “We had made all the arrangements, yes. But I’m afraid your brother-in-law flatly refused to give his permission for us to go.”
Josephine said, “John? Why on earth would he object to you touring Italy?”
“I’m surprised you’re asking that question, Josephine, I would have thought you’d grasp it instantly. It’s not the tour of Italy he’s forbidden, it’s the sea travel. It’s not at all the thing for ladies in my delicate condition.”
Josephine said excitedly, “Oh, Mirabella, how splendid! After all these years, thank the Lord!”
“Congratulations, old boy,” Harry said to Giles.
“I may catch up to you yet, Smythe,” Giles said.
Harry was such a close friend that he’d heard all of Mirabella’s and Giles’s stories. He asked Mirabella slyly, “So, is it to be a boy or a girl this time?”
“I have decided that it will be twin girls to make up for Edmund having the cheek to be a boy,” Mirabella replied with a thoughtful air, “and then I could start all over again with the next one which, of course, will be another boy. After that I plan to get back to my original schedule and have girl-boy-girl.”
“That’s only ten,” Giles complained. “If I’m to best Smythe we must have at least a dozen.”
“Well, as the Lord so memorably said to me once, ‘After all, we don’t have to decide today,’” Mirabella said.
The rear door of the conservatory opened, and Giles and Bella came in. Arm in arm, they hesitated in the doorway, and two puddles quickly formed around their feet, for they were both dismally sopping wet. Giles swallowed hard, then propelled Bella forward until they were standing by the table. “Mr. Smythe, Mrs. Smythe, please accept my most humble apologies. We were at the stewpond, and I begged Bella to let me take her out in the punt. Unfortunately I’m not a skillful punter, and I upset the boat. It was all entirely my fault, and I’m terribly sorry.”
Giles and Bella had that look of dread on their faces that all children assume when they know they have done something that is going to get them into deep trouble.
They couldn’t believe it when it happened, and they never knew why it happened. Their parents glanced at each other, and then burst into laughter.
Reading Group Guide
Mirabella finds fulfillment in outside interests: her gardening and her love of music, particularly opera. Do you have a hobby or special interest that enriches your life? If not, have you asked the Lord to show you how you might renew your mind (see Ephesians 4:23) through the wide and varied gifts he’s given each and every one of us?
Lady Mirabella Tirel lives a life of wealth and privilege that few of us will ever know. Still, she’s conscious of her blessings, and is grateful to God for them. Do you take special care to acknowledge the blessings that God has given you? Do you faithfully thank Him every day?
When writing historical fiction, writers often help the readers immerse themselves in the period by including current events in the plot. In 1813 to 1814, the period in which A Sapphire Season is placed, the Napoleonic War was a constant, overriding topic in England. Did you find that my touching on the war (by making Lewin a soldier, giving brief summaries of the Siege of Badajoz, making references to Lewin’s duties) helped you to more fully involve yourself in the book? Or did you find such peripherals a distraction?
Mirabella’s closest confidant is her Aunt Tirel. Mirabella is able to tell her most secret, heartfelt longings to her aunt. Do you have a friend who “sticketh closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24)? Have you asked the Lord to bless you with such a friend? More importantly—and of much more difficulty—have you asked the Lord to make you that kind of friend for someone in need?
One of the hardest tasks a writer has is to describe a setting, whether it’s an outdoor scene or a house or a single room. In A Sapphire Season, sometimes I described a room in detail, while at other times I tried to give a more general, but visceral, impression of a place. As a reader, which do you prefer? Details or impression? (Note: Through the years I’ve fou
nd that there is no question such as this pertaining to ladies’ clothes—the answer is always “Details!”)
In this book, the ultimate Christian theme is “Thy will be done.” Through a wrenching and difficult process, Mirabella must come to this surrender in one of the most important decisions we make in our lives, that of marriage. But what of the lesser decisions, even the day-to-day choices we make or petitions we make to the Lord? Most of us haven’t reached the point in our walk where we make every choice according to the Lord’s perfect will, or always qualify the things we ask for by adding, “Thy will be done.” Please join me in prayer today, and every day, that we will know the joy of this final surrender.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
—Matthew 6:10
Also look for this Regency romance by Lynn Morris
The Baron’s Honourable Daughter
When her stepfather suddenly dies, Valeria Segrave must take charge of her grieving mother and the vast estate that now belongs to her six-year-old half brother, the new Earl of Maledon. Each day brings a new struggle as she tries to establish her authority with servants, stewards, and solicitors—all men. As a young woman with no blood relation to the earl, she is all too easy to dismiss.
Valeria must rely on the assistance of her stepfather’s distant kinsman, Alastair, Lord Hylton. He is handsome and noble, and Valeria senses that she never measures up to his expectations for a refined lady, making the burden of gratitude to him hardly bearable. Even when Valeria leaves the country estate for the glittering London Season, where she gets into a series of escapades, Lord Hylton is always there to witness, criticize, and correct her behavior. But if Alastair insists on engaging in a battle of wits and wills with the lively Valeria, she’ll stop at nothing to prove that he’s met his match.
Available now in print and electronic formats from FaithWords wherever books are sold.
Also by Lynn Morris
The Baron’s Honourable Daughter
Available from FaithWords wherever books are sold.
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Epilogue
Reading Group Guide
A Preview of The Baron's Honourable Daughter
Also by Lynn Morris
Newsletters
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Lynn Morris
Reading Group Guide copyright © 2015 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Cover design by JuLee Brand
Dress design by Linda Coulter
Cover photography by Dean Dixon Photography, Getty Images and Shutterstock
Cover copyright © 2015 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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ISBN 978-1-4555-7562-6
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