HBS Author's Spotlight: Barbara Silkstone - Darcy and Elizabeth Serendipity is featured in the HBS Author's Spotlight Showcase

The Showcase is a special feature of the Author's Spotlight. It is designed to highlight Spotlight author's NEW releases and their soon to be released novels.

The HBS Author's Spotlight SHOWCASES Barbara Silkstone's New Book: Darcy and Elizabeth Serendipity.

Author Barbara Silkstone is the bestselling author of the Mister Darcy Series, the A Wendy Darlin Comedy Mystery series and the Pride and Prejudice and Witches series.

This is Barbara Silkstone’s fourteenth Pride and Prejudice variation – Regency or Contemporary light comedy. She is the author of The Gallant Vicar and The Return of The Gallant Vicar. Silkstone’s Mister Darcy series of comedic mysteries based on Jane Austen’s classic, Pride and Prejudice now includes eight adventures - with more coming!

Silkstone is also the author of The Witches of Longbourn ~ a series of three lighthearted episodes that weave one tale of love and magic with a charming happy ending for Darcy and Lizzy.

Barbara Silkstone is the creator of the popular Wendy Darlin Tomb Raider comedy series, and she is the author of a series stand-alone books including The Secret Diary of Alice in Wonderland.

Darcy and Elizabeth Serendipity

A Pride and Prejudice Regency Variation

Author: Barbara Silkstone

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Regency ~
Darcy remembers the perfect love between his parents and believes it can be his. He trusts in destiny— with a little help from serendipity—to find the love of his life.

Serendipity: A fortunate happenstance or a pleasant surprise.

Elizabeth, informed by the example of her parents’ marriage, refuses to believe in destiny. The concept of serendipity is an affront to her logic. She will not marry except for true love and thinks she can control her own fate if she is very cautious. Will she and Mr. Darcy find their Happily Ever After?

Excerpt from Darcy and Elizabeth Serendipity

The Gentlemen Arrive

The two men slowed their horses to a trot, coming to a stop some distance from their destination. Charles Bingley sat back in his saddle, a boyish grin on his face. “Well there it is, Netherfield Park. What do you think?” He peered eagerly at Fitzwilliam Darcy, who sat erect, taking in the splendid vista.

Darcy took care in choosing his words, as Bingley took his advice to heart. “The prospect from this point gives one a sense of comfort and stability. Those are the first words I would use,” he said. “It is well situated and appears to be of a proper size. Did you say there were twenty-nine rooms? Does that include a ballroom?”

Bingley chuckled. “I never thought I would hear you ask of a ballroom. You abhor dancing.” He regarded Darcy, studying his handsome but oh-so-serious face. “Does that mean you are finally coming out of your shell? Can I count on you to begin living again?” Bingley threw in a teasing comment for good measure and said, “Not that you ever enjoyed a ball.”

It was a blessing for Fitzwilliam Darcy to have a friend such as Charles Bingley for the gentleman was direct yet pleasant in his support. Bingley was always in a cheerful mood, a gift Darcy needed in his life, especially after the events of the past year in which his world had been tainted by folly and vice—not of his own making.

Despite his sister’s pleasant company, Darcy felt lonely from the time he awoke until the time he laid his head upon his pillow. He had kept his heart locked away for too long, and yet he could not bring himself to release it.

Fitzwilliam Darcy may have been one of the wealthiest men in England, but by choice he isolated himself and his sister from society, whether at his vast country estate in Derbyshire or in London where he was surrounded by hundreds of people of his social rank and besieged with invitations by mothers of marriageable daughters desperate for a match. He would have none of it, and the more the ladies of the ton pressured him, the more he retreated.

Except for Bingley and Darcy’s cousin, Richard Fitzwilliam, there was no one he could bring himself to trust, for he had experienced the false friendships of men and the overdone admiration of ladies eager to become mistress of Pemberley.

If only his parents were still alive to continue to shine their love light upon him and Georgiana. Their steady affection nurtured the young Darcy and caused him to grow into the compassionate youth he had become, but then those lights had been extinguished—first his mother’s and then his father’s. Gone. And so he withdrew behind walls of silent scowling for fear of exposing his vulnerable nature.

Needing to snap out of his reverie, he fell back on teasing Bingley. “Of course, once you take up residence here, you will have to adjust to the savage ways of country folk. I hear they eat strangers and occasionally chew with their mouths open,” Darcy said.

Bingley broke into an even larger smile. “Did I mention that perhaps you read too much? It sounds like your literary tastes have gone to the Brothers Grimm. I insist you spend as much time as possible with me here at Netherfield enjoying the fresh air and rolling hills. Promise me you will throw yourself into this new life or at least try it on for size.” Bingley cracked a smile. “I can almost guarantee my new neighbors will not eat you.”

“You ask too much, Charles!” Darcy surveyed the vista and felt the tension seep ever so slightly from his shoulders. “Is this estate what you really want? Why here in this particular hamlet?” he asked, reining in his chestnut stallion as the horse grew restless.

“It is time I settled down. I have not been able to do that in London. Hertfordshire was suggested to me by my solicitor as it is close enough to the city but offers a measure of safety which will allow me to start a family,” Bingley spoke without taking his eyes off his new home. There was an expression of pride upon his face.

“You? A family?” Darcy said. “You shall not convince a single one of those pretty London ladies to give up the excitement of Town for the dull life of a country squire’s wife, no matter how cheerful a companion you are.”

“Then my sister Caroline shall be mistress of Netherfield until I fall in love, marry, and live happily ever after.”

Darcy envied his friend’s optimism, for more and more he had come to doubt his destiny was one of a happy marriage. His parents had set a high standard by which he compared all other marriages and found them lacking. He could not imagine himself being so fortunate as to find a love as true as the love his parents shared. He longed to find a lady who could breach his walls and reopen his heart.

One thing was certain in his mind. He was sure he would not find the perfect woman for his exacting tastes by prancing through a thousand sets at Almack’s Assembly Rooms with plumed and perfumed ladies. It would happen because it was destined to happen much as his father had described to him, by serendipity, a happy turn of fate, a lovely coincidence, or by a pair of fine eyes.

The romantic side of Darcy wanted desperately to believe that he would know her the moment he saw her; and yet he sensed this extraordinary woman was not one to hobnob with the ton, nor would she be a simple country lass of low status.

Approaching thirty years, he had yet to feel that instant magnetic attraction his father had once described. If anything, he felt repelled by the aggression and artifice of the women he met.

In truth Darcy’s father and mother had imbued in him a burning desire to replicate their marriage. Young Fitzwilliam discerned from the time he could toddle around the family rooms in Pemberley that the love his parents shared warmed every nook, and drove away every shadow. His mother had only to approach and his father beamed. When not in view of the servants, they would embrace, laughing and kissing. This was the image of a true happy marriage that Darcy carried in his heart.

As he neared manhood, his father shared with his son what he had learned about love and destiny both from his avid studies of the writings of William Shakespeare and his own life experiences. “There is no way to deliberately avoid your fate, my son,” he said, “but you can be accidentally misguided, so take care that you remain alert to the serendipitous clues destiny will lay before you. For fate is a prankster and may tease your eye, but not your heart.”

The memory of the elder Darcy’s lecture passed quickly through Darcy’s mind. He mumbled a response to something Bingley said, hoping he had answered correctly for he was finding it hard to concentrate. It was as if his father stood at his shoulder, edging him toward his fate.

“You will know your true love the moment you meet, for you will be like two magnets drawn together and instantly inseparable,” his father said, recalling the moment he lay eyes upon Lady Anne Fitzwilliam. He laughed knowing how quickly young Darcy took instructions literally and how easily he shared thoughts with those he held close. The boy was so different then from the man he had become.

“Please remember to control your natural exuberance, for nothing frightens a clear-minded lady so much as a man who pleads his case using destiny as reasoning. Keep your heart close until she accepts you,” his father cautioned.

And so applying the elder Darcy’s instructions, young Darcy did close his heart and mask his face to hide all emotions for fear of making a mistake. An aloof manner became the calling card by which he was always identified as the most handsome gentleman in the room but unbearably pompous. His posturing became a shield from the ladies presented to him, which was only as well since they commonly proved to be silly chits with an eye to his income of ten thousand a year and, more often, unsuccessfully hid their avaricious designs beneath layers of fine silk.

Darcy had no intention of developing the skills required for light conversation, and he spoke only when necessary. He detested small talk as it required polite listening in return, which was akin to torture for him. There had yet to be a lady presented to him who did not gossip or chirp on about fashion and folly.

Lady Anne Darcy did not survive the birth of Darcy’s sister, Georgiana. With his mother’s death, the light was extinguished from the elder Mr. Darcy’s life as if snuffed by a gust of wind. Young Darcy often worried about the burden one person placed on another making them into their entire world. At times when this knot of concern looped through his mind, he determined it best to avoid love and marriage, as it might eventually lead to unbearable pain.

As much as it hurt young Darcy to lose his mother, the loss destroyed his father and he was never the same. Perhaps that was why the elder Mr. Darcy became so vulnerable to the needs of others. One person in particular came to Darcy’s mind, but he drove the image of the blackguard away.

Sharing such feelings of longing with Bingley was not something Darcy would allow himself to do for he deemed it unmanly. And so, although Bingley had opened the conversation and was the kindest and most understanding of men, Darcy maintained his façade of being closed to matters of the heart.

A pine-scented breeze whipped Darcy’s cheeks and tousled his dark curls. Winds of change are coming. I pray they are for the good. It was time for fate to deal him a fresh hand.

Author Genre: Mystery, Humor And Comedy, Romance

Author's Website: Second Act Café getting even
Twitter: @barbsilkstone
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Author Description: Barbara Silkstone is the best-selling author of the MISTER DARCY SERIES OF COMEDIC MYSTERIES ~ PRIDE AND PREJUDICE contemporary variations. Light comedies based on Jane Austen's timeless tales of love denied and love discovered.

Author's Book List

Darcy's Magical Message - The Witches of Longbourn Book 3
Darcy and Elizabeth are overcome with magic in this new series –The Witches of Longbourn, a magical and light-hearted Regency trilogy.

Buckingham Palace will never be the same as Darcy risks all to rescue Lizzy from the clutches of the Prince Regent and Lady Anne Darcy’s fatal spell. Fiona Feelgood has reasons to regret casting the prince under a love spell. Can they rescue Herman the Hermit before Lizzy turns to dust? Beware of Caroline Bingley as she lurks the palace halls in search of witches for the London Anti-Magic Tribunal! How will Lizzy break her habit of changing adversaries into potted plants? And where is Wickham?