Pamela Aidan - Duty and Desire

“Oh, Fitz!” Richard’s face creased with concern.

“We found her in the gallery, in front of the great portrait of her, Sayre, and Sylvanie.”

“Oh, my God, Fitz! It must have been horrible!” Richard laid a hand briefly on his cousin’s shoulder. “What of Lady Sylvanie?” he asked, obviously attempting to turn his cousin’s thoughts away from the image his words had recalled.

“None of us saw Monmouth return from his chase after her. But he must have, for the next day it was discovered that he had left, kit and carriage, sometime during the night.”

“Foul play?” Richard asked.

“In a manner of speaking.” Darcy motioned toward the Post lying on his desk. Richard sauntered over and picked it up.

“What am I looking for?”

“The notices. Third column, the seventh one down.”

His cousin read: “Lord Tristram Penniston, Viscount of Monmouth, gladly accepts the congratulations of his friends on his marriage to the Lady Sylvanie Trenholme, sister to Lord Carroll Trenholme, Marquis of Sayre, and late of Norwycke Castle, Oxfordshire.” He looked at Darcy in astonishment. “He married her?”

“She can be very persuasive,” he explained. “Very persuasive.”

“Hmmm.” Richard’s response was skeptical. The clock on the mantel struck ten, and with its last strike, he looked out the window into the night and then back to his cousin. “Snowing again. I must be off if I am to appear at services tomorrow morning. Her Ladyship,” he offered sheepishly at Darcy’s incredulous look, “ordered me to accompany her and Pater to St.——— ’s tomorrow or she’d have my guts for garters. See you there, I suppose?”

Darcy shook his head slowly. “No, there are things…” His voice trailed off. Then, “No, I shall not. Will you escort Georgiana for me?” His cousin looked at him in surprise, but forbore to comment.

“Certainly! My pleasure, Fitz.” He made for the door, picking up his coat and hat on the way. Then, turning back, he offered, “It will fade in time, you know. I daresay that by the time we go down to Lady Catherine’s, it will be little more than a bad dream. Try not to dwell on it, old man,” he ended sincerely and let himself out the door.

Darcy grimaced to himself as he turned away from the door and walked back to the hearth, where he poured himself another brandy. Richard’s advice would be reasonable if, in fact, he were suffering guilt or shock over Lady Sayre’s suicide. But although it had been horrible, he was feeling neither. He had done all that was humanly possible to discover and prevent what had happened at Norwycke. No, what preyed upon his mind was not the consuming desire for revenge that had been played out in the halls of Norwycke Castle but the desire he had seen in himself for those brief moments under Lady Sylvanie’s tutelage. He hoped to God that it wasn’t so, that he did not truly desire what he’d glimpsed in his soul, but comfort continued to elude him.

He sat down on the divan and, stretching out his legs before him, stared into the fire. A tapping sound brought his head up. That sound was followed by a shuffling at the doorknob that warned him of his visitor. Soon Trafalgar was staking proprietary rights to the rest of the divan. Darcy reached out to fondle the dog’s ears. “To what do I owe this visit, Monster? In trouble again?” Trafalgar merely yawned widely and winked before settling down, his head claiming a place in Darcy’s lap. “A clear conscience, have you?” He stroked the dog’s head, then checked. Shifting a bit, he reached inside his waistcoat pocket and brought out the coil of embroidery threads. Holding them by the knot, he shook them out until the strands separated; and then, slowly, he held them up, watching in silence as they danced brightly in the firelight.

1. Darcy’s deep love for Pemberley, his family estate, is echoed by all around him, from neighbors to tenants to relatives — even the horses were “a tremble with desire for home.” What is it about Pemberley that inspires such appreciation?

2. Darcy and Georgiana have a very complicated relationship. Do you think Darcy is overprotective of his sister, or are his concerns validated by Georgiana’s history and the rules of the era?

3. What is it about Georgiana and Elizabeth Bennet that Darcy feels would make them “true friends?”

4. Darcy is overjoyed at Georgiana’s recovery and delights in feeling like her brother again, but when faced with the results of her turnaround — her weekly visits to tenants, her charity work, and her religious studies — he becomes very upset. Once again, he finds himself not her brother but her guardian-father figure. Why this strong reaction?

5. Though it takes great liberties, there are carefully designed moments of intersection between Duty and Desire and Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, such as the correspondence between Caroline Bingley and Darcy regarding Miss Bennet’s visit to London. How do these connections contribute or detract from your reading experience?

6. Because we are never privy to his personal thoughts or feelings, Jane Austen’s Darcy seems a bit austere — this in contrast to Aidan’s longing, almost pining Darcy. Discuss the differences and similarities between the two authors’ presentation of this popular character.

7. Darcy takes great pride in his family’s long history of attending church services weekly, yet Georgiana’s “religious enthusiasm” is so distasteful as to be a fact worth hiding from “Polite Society.” What is the difference?

8. Only two women have ever truly captivated Darcy — first Elizabeth Bennet, and now Lady Sylvanie. Compare and contrast these two grey-eyed women and the circumstances under which Darcy met them.

9. What first turns Darcy’s sympathy from Lady Sylvanie? Do you agree with his opinion of her? Scam or not, does she not still deserve to be pitied for the way she has been mistreated?

10. When did you first begin to suspect that Lady Sylvanie and her companion, Doyle, were connected to the strange goings-on at Norwycke Castle? Did you have any clue that Doyle was in fact the not-so-late Lady Sayre?

11. When all is finally revealed, do you sympathize at all with Lady Sayre or Lady Sylvanie, or are they simply villains? What about Lord Sayre, his wife, and Trenholme?

12. Besides continuing stories first begun in An Assembly Such As This, Aidan seems to be planting seeds for new plot lines to bloom in her third and final book of the Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman trilogy. What do you expect will happen in the next book? What would you like to see happen?

1. The ladies in Aidan’s novel good-naturedly coerce the gentlemen into playing an evening game of charades while at Norwycke Castle. Divide your book club into two teams and try a game yourself! For an interesting challenge, try “charading” as different characters from Duty and Desire.

2. Throughout the novel, there are references to important political and social events that occurred during the Regency, a rich time in British history. Do some research on any historical figure or event from 1811 to 1820 to share with your book club. You can also visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Regency to learn more about the era.

3. To get a Hollywood feel for the Regency era, during which Jane Austen lived and wrote, get your group together to watch a movie set in that time period such as Gretna Green or the British television series, Haggard. For a laugh, try Blackadder the Third, a comedy told from the perspective of the Prince Regent’s fictional butler, Edmund Blackadder. 

Second novels in trilogies are notoriously difficult, as the writer must continue the plots from the first novel while also introducing new elements to keep readers interested. Can you tell us a little about your process for writing Duty and Desire?

There were several goals I had for Book 2 from the outset. First and foremost was the need to put Darcy into situations that would reveal more of his character to the reader. Glimpses were given in the first book, but the restrictions of “traipsing after Jane” did not allow for an indepth look at Darcy’s inner man. We needed to see him among “his own” — his family, his social equals, his friends, and his extended family of servants, employees, and other dependents. The other goal was to bring Darcy to an epiphany about the nature of his own class, thereby providing him something to choose against in contrast to what, in Elizabeth Bennet, he would be choosing for.

This novel covers the “silent time” in Pride and Prejudice. What inspired you to imagine Darcy’s personal life in this way?

From the beginning of writing the trilogy I was inspiried by the observation of Mrs. Reynolds to Elizabeth during her tour of Pemberley that “If I was to go through the world, I could not meet with a better (master). But I have always observed, that they who are good-natured when children, are good-natured when they grow up; and he was always the sweetest-tempered, most generous-hearted boy in the world…. He is the best landlord, and the best master,” said she, “that ever lived; not like the wild young men nowadays, who think of nothing but themselves….” This says much about who Darcy really is, yet is so at odds with what Elizabeth thinks she knows of him. Therefore, the setting for these observations was where the “silent time” needed to begin in order to flesh out the truths of Mrs. Reynolds’s declaration.