Fans of Eloisa James & Julia Quinn discussion
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Finding the right match for a hero; March 11
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Bloody Hell!! That nearly brought a tear to my eye...I'm going to be a mess.
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You're right, Manda, it does sound like a Janga book. LOL I think about her so often while choosing a book to read or re-reading a shared favorite. I miss her too. I can't place this one but I'll be interested to find out what it is.
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Wow! Guess it's time for a re-read! I've read this and almost everything else Pamela Morsi has written - per Janga's recommendation!!! LOLGood one, Deb!
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Dls wrote: "Also, Susan, its the heroine who says she hasn't encouraged the hero and the aunt who says she should. So at this point Aunt has grown up... its why I love this scene. Heroine doesn't expect it at ..."Aaaaand... yowza.
I love this book. Janga introduced me to this author, and it's classic Janga, so I can’t read it without thinking of her. Its also beautifully crafted and paced. I had a hard time choosing a scene. But I finally picked this one because the love here is not just the romantic love between the hero and heroine. It’s also the heroine’s putting what she thinks is best for the hero ahead of what she wants—and it’s the hero’s aunt, accepting a woman very different from what she wants for her nephew because that is what he wants. (In case it's not obvious, heroine meets exactly none of the criteria aunt lists.)
“So perhaps I couldn’t be a true parent to hero, but I am very protective of him.”
“Of course you are” heroine said.
“Not simply because I love him, which of course I do,’ Aunt continued. “But also because hero has needed protection.”
She raised her head, looking heroine directly in the eye.
There was no overlay of polite convention or feigned friendliness. The woman was being open and honest and telling it as she saw it.
“A bright, handsome, interesting young man from a good family can capture the attention of a lot of women,” Aunt said. “Normally such a fellow would still be shallow and selfish in his youth, and that would offer him some protection, but hero has never been like that. Even as a teenager he was full of fun, like any other boy, but there was a maturity there, a need to nurture that just made him different.”
Heroine didn’t find anything to dispute in his aunt’s description. “I guess that’s just the kind of guy he is,” she said.
Aunt shook her head. “That is the kind of guy his life made him into,” she said. “How much has hero told you about his mother’s illness and her death?”
“A bit,” heroine answered. “He obviously loved her very much.”
“Death is never easy on a child, and he saw far too much of it,” Aunt said. “He was still coming to grips with the loss of his mother when his father died. And he was barely out of high school when he lost his grandmother. It’s been just he and I in this family for a long time now.”
“So naturally that makes the bond between the two of you stronger,” heroine said.
“Yes, it does,” aunt agreed. “Death tears families up and also brings them together. But if it were just death, maybe I wouldn’t worry so much. His father was killed in a car crash. It was shocking and dramatic. His grandmother, old before her time, died in her sleep, peaceful at last. But it was his mother’s death from Huntington’s disease that was so hideous, insidious. It was soul killing.”
“Soul killing?”
“Maybe not for her so much,” aunt said. “For the last few years she hardly knew who she was, let alone what was going on. But it was horrifying for those who loved her and had to watch.”
A heavy silence filled the room.
“My brother couldn’t do it,” aunt told her. “Once she began to lose her faculties, he sent her home to live with her mother and he rarely saw her again.”
“That’s awful,” heroine said.
Aunt nodded. “It was, but that’s the way it was. The beautiful, witty, artistic woman he married turned into a twisting, jerking creature, drifting into dementia. It was so horrible and so sad, I still get angry and weepy about it. I cannot imagine how hero, who was by her side to the very end, ever had the courage to go on with his life.”
“But he did,” heroine whispered.
“Yes, he did,” Aunt agreed. “And I wished for him that someday he could find someone who would make him happy, someone he could make a family with, and that he’d be able to leave all that sadness behind him.”
Heroine nodded. “Of course you’d want that for him,” she said. “I even want that for him.”
“And you and I have exactly the right person in mind,” aunt said. “Someone young and sophisticated and cultured, who can give him children and help him establish a place for himself in the community. A nice young woman like [his former girlfriend], perhaps.”
Heroine made no comment.
“That’s how it should be for him. We both know that. But you see, heroine, the thing is, hero has his heart set on someone else. A woman very different from one I would have chosen for him.”
The older woman looked across the table at her meaningfully.
“I want you to know I haven’t encouraged him in that at all.”
Slowly, Aunt nodded. “Well, perhaps it is time that you should. I really think for once, hero deserves to get what he really wants.”