Midnight with Mary: Sweet Extras, #2

By Leenie Brown

 

 

Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam has seen the devastating effects of war both in the land where battles are fought and at home where wives are left widows and children are left fatherless. This knowledge is the foundation upon which his charitable Christmas tradition is based. It is also why he intends never to marry. For three years he has been able to carry out his mission to help those in need while never once wishing to give up his bachelorhood.

 

However, this Christmas, when he travels to Hertfordshire, his covert tradition will be harder to carry out in an unfamiliar place, and when he asks for help, the assistance he is given by a pretty, scheming lady will be enough to make him curse his profession and long to be free to marry.

 

Midnight with Mary is the second novelette in Leenie Brown's Sweet Extras Collection and is a sequel to Christmas in Gracechurch Street. If you like short and sweet reads that slip easily into the cracks of life, then you will enjoy this Christmas romance about two new friends discovering their love for each other and finding that, despite their shared aversion to marrying one another, some unions are simply destined to be.

 

So put the kettle on, download your copy of Midnight with Mary, and steal away for a few moments of sweet indulgence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Leenie B Books
• Release date: Mar 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781989410769

Leenie Brown

Leenie Brown has always been a girl with an active imagination, which, while growing up, was a both an asset, providing many hours of fun as she played out stories, and a liability, when her older sister and aunt would tell her frightening tales.  At one time, they had her convinced Dracula lived in the trunk at the end of the bed she slept in when visiting her grandparents! Although it has been years since she cowered in her bed in her grandparents’ basement, she still has an imagination which occasionally runs away with her, and she feeds it now as she did then ─ by reading! Her heroes, when growing up, were authors, and the worlds they painted with words were (and still are) her favourite playgrounds!  She was that child, under the covers with the flashlight, reading until the wee hours of the morning…and pretending not to be tired the next day so her mother wouldn’t find out. In addition to feeding her imagination, she also exercises it ─ by writing. While writing has been an activity she has dabbled in over the years, it blossomed into a full-fledged obsession when she stumbled upon the world of Jane Austen Fan Fiction.  Leenie had first fallen in love with Jane Austen's work in her early teens when she was captivated by the tale of a girl, who like her, was the second born of five daughters.  Now, as an adult, she spends much time in the regency world, playing with the characters from her favourite Jane Austen novels and a few that are of her own creation. When she is not traipsing down a trail in an attempt to keep up with her imagination, Leenie resides in the beautiful province of Nova Scotia with her two sons and her very own Mr. Brown (a wonderful mix of all the best of Darcy, Bingley and Edmund with a healthy dose of the teasing Mr. Tilney and just a dash of the scolding Mr. Knightley).

Book preview

Chapter 1

Christmas, 1811

The church was empty. Well, not quite. However, the one person who remained was the one for whom Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam was waiting.

Mr. Vace hummed a tune as he made his way through the nave to the pulpit. The elderly vicar likely had little idea that he was being watched, or at least, Richard had thought that the man was unaware of his presence until Mr. Vace entered his pulpit to collect his things.

Is there something with which I can be of service, Colonel Fitzwilliam? Mr. Vace did not lift his eyes from his work until he had completed his question.

I hope you can be. Richard moved away from the window which was halfway up the aisle on the south side of the church and through which he had been watching people making their way home after service.  I find myself in a community that is unfamiliar to me and that makes my usual Yuletide tradition somewhat challenging.

What tradition might that be? Mr. Vace descended his pulpit and moved with a bit of a hobble to the vestry.

Richard followed him. I make it a practice to discover a family in need and to find a way to relieve a small portion of their need before Twelfth Night.

Thick grey eyebrows rose over curious eyes when the man stopped just inside the door to the vestry and turned to face Richard.

Your cousin, Mr. Darcy, is set to marry Miss Elizabeth Bennet, is he not?

He is.

Mr. Vace began to remove his robe. Why do you not seek to gain this intelligence from Mr. Bennet? He would know of some family in want.

I wish to remain anonymous. He disliked that he had to ask the vicar here in Meryton for such information. He would rather not let anyone know what he was doing.

Mr. Vace’s lips tipped into a pleased smile. Ah, the man said as if he understood. He shook out his robe and hung it up as he quoted, "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men." He turned to face Richard. "Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand…" He held up his left hand. …know what thy right hand doeth, he tucked his right hand behind his back. "That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly." He began to put on his coat.

I do not do this for a reward.

Those who put that scripture into practice never do it for a reward. The act of service is reward enough for them. Having hung up his robe and donned his coat, he picked up a basket and motioned to the door as he continued to speak. And perhaps it is that feeling of satisfaction that comes from generosity that is the good Lord’s gift, but there might also be a greater reward. It is not for us to decide what shall come from our obedience. One must be willing to accept whatever the Lord decides to give.

Most assuredly. Richard was not in the habit of arguing with the Lord about blessings. He had done his fair share of wrestling with Him about other things, however.

This was the danger in asking a vicar for help. All the vicars Richard had ever met were notoriously bad at giving a short answer. There was often some lesson that had to be imparted before the information he sought would be revealed.

Do you know of a family? Richard asked in an attempt to point the conversation in the right direction and away from any further teaching.

I know of several who are in need. Do you require the family to be of a particular type? The older man’s eyes were filled with compassion as if he knew how important this tradition, which Richard had begun after his return from the continent, was to the soothing of his mind.

"Is there a