Shannon here: Casey Cline shares how she met her husband and how their personalities influenced her characters in her Historical Romance, The Wayfaring Widow. Comment or answer the question in any post dated Feb 3rd – 14th to enter the drawing for winner’s choic of a signed paperback copy or an audiobook copy via an Audible code plus 3 other titles. Deadline: Feb 21st, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Casey:
Saturday, October 3, 2009
I’m volunteering at a charity auction with my church’s single adult group. I’d just broken up with my boyfriend of more than six years (he who shall not be named) and wasn’t looking for a relationship. But as I pass the check-in table, a handsome man about my age happens to glance my way. We briefly make eye contact, then my head chimes in with its opinion: he looks like trouble.
Yes, that’s right. I didn’t need any more trouble. So, I turn my back and walk away. As fate would have it, he’s assigned to help me later in the evening. I’m still wary, but my comfort grows as our conversation progresses. He asks for my number, and I surprisingly oblige. Okay, the truth? I knew I could go home and do a background check on him with the access to court records I had as a newly minted attorney. But I digress.
He calls three days later, we have our first date a few days after that, he proposes the following June atop Machu Picchu, and we marry January 1, 2011. For fifteen years, we’ve weathered together what life has thrown our way, and I’m so grateful I didn’t listen to my first opinion of this man who is a far better person than I’ll ever be. Did I mention I’m a bit impatient and stubborn?
And so it goes with the hero and heroine in my historical romance novel, The Wayfaring Widow. In a darkened carriage on a rainy night at the Boston wharf, Harrison Wright and Victoria Clarke form initial and incorrect opinions of each other. But as those opinions are tried and tested by all they endure throughout their journey across 1854 America with friend, chaperone, and real-life English explorer, Isabella Bird, true love blossoms and prevails.
Let’s pop into the first chapter of The Wayfaring Widow and see how their “meet cute”, or whatever the equivalent is in an enemies-to-lovers romance, creates and reinforces the premature assumptions they make about each other.
Excerpt from The Wayfaring Widow by Casey Cline:
“[Victoria] climbed into the carriage’s black void, eager for the sheltered rest the carriage offered.
She tried to sit, but met with a pair of legs instead of the carriage seat. Startled, she stood, only to bang her head on the roof, then trip over the other occupant’s limbs.
“Take care, Madam.” The bodiless male voice, deep and gruff, was sharp and accusatory.
Victoria could find no words to respond. Instead, she moved to the other side of the carriage, but not without bumping the man with her valise in the process.
The voice let out an, “Oof, perhaps if you removed your veil at nighttime, you would see better.”
Finally seated, Victoria flinched at the man’s acerbic objections and tried her best to maintain her manners. “Sir. I—I do apologize.” She licked her parched lips.
“Oh, come now, Harrison,” Isabella chided as she slid in beside Victoria with no trouble at all, much to Victoria’s chagrin.
So this, this gentleman—dare he be called such—is Harrison. Victoria shrunk into the corner of her seat.
The carriage lurched forward into the inky night, the clip-clopping of the horses’ hooves harmonizing with the raindrops’ beat.
“Harrison Wright, meet my dear friend, Mrs. Victoria Clarke.” Isabella offered the introductions. “Victoria, this is Mr. Harrison Wright, an old friend of our family.”
There was the word “old” again.
The gas streetlamps intermittently illuminated the carriage’s dark interior and confirmed what she feared. Piercing eyes sat below a mop of inky hair bordering on disheveled. A rugged, clenched jaw rounded out what she could see of this man who wasn’t in his seventies, or even his fifties or sixties. He couldn’t be much older than her twenty-eight years.
Oh no. Isabella had meant old as in long-established, not old as in advanced in age.
Harrison spoke first. “It’s a pleasure, Mrs. Clarke,” he said, his tone indicating it was anything but.
“Likewise.” She attempted a smile but was capable of only a strained grimace.
Oblivious to the charged air in the carriage, Isabella prattled on.
…
Victoria looked from Isabella to Harrison.
He pierced her with a glower, and she quickly averted her eyes, swallowing around a lump forming in her throat. Isabella had broken her promise that just the two of them would journey together. And she had chosen a cold and brusque man as their traveling companion.
Fear iced Victoria’s veins—how similar Harrison’s mannerisms were to Silas’s. How would she survive the next few weeks with the formidable Harrison Wright?
Casey again: Thank you for journeying back to 1854 America with me. If you’re intrigued by Harrison & Victoria’s meeting, I hope you will continue on to see how they grow to find trust, healing, and happily-ever-after in each other.
Reader Question: Would you want to live in 1854? Why or why not?
February Book Bundle #1
Lilly’s February Love by Kelly Irvin, Amish Romance, print
The Wayfaring Widow by Casey Cline, Historical Romance, winner’s choice print or audiobook
Romancing the Elements by Ellen E. Withers, Romantic Novella Collection, print
King David’s Tabernacle by Caryl McAdoo, Contemporary Romance, e-book
About Casey: Casey Cline collects hobbies and pursuits as quickly as she reads books. She likes to believe her degrees and licenses in business, law, and real estate aren’t entirely incongruous with writing historical stories about the ultimate adventure in life—love. Casey lives in Nebraska with her husband, two daughters, and three cats. Learn more & connect:
Casey’s Website Casey’s Newsletter Casey’s Linktree
About the book – The Wayfaring Widow (Bird’s-Eye View Book 1):
A widow with scars from her past. A declared bachelor with his own troubled heart. Will their journey together lead to love or loathing?
To escape her grievous past and avoid her bleak future, twenty-eight-year-old widow Victoria Clarke joins her friend, Isabella Bird, on a once-in-a-lifetime journey from England to America in 1854. But Harrison Wright, the man acting as escort to the women on their journey, is cold and gruff, and his mannerisms conjure up the pains of Victoria’s past, especially her former husband’s mistreatment. Victoria doubles the defenses of her already fragile heart, but will it be enough to endure what she now feels is an ill-fated expedition?
Twenty-nine-year-old New York lawyer, Harrison Wright, has made a promise to his friend, Isabella Bird, to escort her around his home country. And unlike his father, Harrison keeps his promises. Since Harrison has sworn off women due to his own troubled past, he is not pleased Victoria will be joining the trip. But as a declared bachelor, he’s built an impenetrable safeguard around his own heart that should withstand a few weeks in this other woman’s company.
As the trio explores Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Niagara Falls, and New York City, surviving fires, disreputable innkeepers, sickness, and storms, Victoria and Harrison are loathe to find that they cannot avoid each other’s company. But in such close proximity, will Victoria and Harrison’s initial flared tempers lead to even stronger and more unavoidable feelings about each other? Feelings that have them questioning whether their journey will have the most unlikely of destinations: love and healing—and happily ever after—with each other?
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I love the idea of living in a simpler time, but it was also a more difficult time, too. I think having lived in my own time, I can’t honestly say I would want to live in 1854, but I think I would like to see what it was like for a time. And I kind of get to do that through books.
I so agree! I enjoy our modern conveniences but enjoy being transported back in time with books!
Yes… but only for a short visit 😊
I’d want to live in 1854 because life moved slower. There was something grounding about a world without constant noise, screens, and deadlines. Evenings by lamplight, handwritten letters, meaningful conversations, and communities that truly depended on one another – that feels beautiful.
You have painted a beautiful picture of the era! But I agree about wanting a short visit. I feel like laundry itself would take eons back then 🙂