This week I’m hosting Linore Rose Burkard with The Country House Courtship and Anita Higman and Irene Brand with Love Finds You Under the Mistletoe. If you want to enter the drawings, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (December 12th) evening.

Hero Interview for The Country House Courtship by Linore Rose Burkard:

1.Mr. O’Brien, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
The most interesting thing about me, undoubtedly, is that I have married the most winsome girl in England; that I am now family to Sir Phillip Mornay and his beautiful wife, and that I have the responsibility of two congregations to look after.

2.What do you do for fun?
The greatest diversions I know of are to go riding with my pretty wife, or simply to read poetry or essays together before our fireside. I am not a man of high appetites—simple pleasures do quite well for me.

3.What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Chopping wood for the fire; I find it a most trying occupation. I much prefer to hire a boy for the job, though my sweet wife, I must confess, thinks I am more than capable of doing it myself.

4.What are you afraid of most in life?
(That is rather a personal question; I could accuse you of impertinence, but for the sake of my author, I shall do my best to answer.) I suppose it must be the passing of those I love.

5.What do you want out of life?
I want from life what most men seek; that is, a comfortable living, a large family, and a good name. If I manage to obey God and do my duty by my fellow man, even better.

6.What is the most important thing to you?
At this moment, I fear it is my pretty wife. In all honesty, I confess it. Next, however, must be my conscience before God; or, thinking more upon it, I should say, possessing the Word of God. (I am afraid your readers will find me frightfully boring; but may I say, in my own defense, that there is no better preacher than one who lives by the Word he preaches? This is to say that my parishioners do not find me boring, and that is of much importance for a man of the cloth, do you not think so?)

7.Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?
If I did not read, I should think myself a sorry case of a man! Of course I read, and I fancy myself rather broad-minded in it; I read everything from poetry to newspapers; I favor classical literature, but even Mrs. Edgeworth and Mrs. Burney are read with pleasure in my household. And oh, I mustn’t forget that new novelist—Miss Austen, I think, is her name?

8.If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
(He clears his throat and swallows.) I suppose it would be my impulsivity. In the past, I found myself bedeviled with it, always up to my head in trouble on account of it. (You can read about that in my author’s first two books—if you must.)

9.Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
You mean an animal, of course. (I do like to call Beatrice ‘my pet,’ you know!) We have dogs, three of them, King Charles spaniels. My favorite is Musket, because he nuzzles up to me the most, I’m afraid.

10.If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
To the first century. I’d want to witness the ministry of the Lord as He went about healing the sick and the lame. Can you imagine touching the edge of his robe? Looking at him, face to face? (He sighs.) There’ll be nothing like that on earth, until I reach heaven.

Heroine Interview:

1.Beatrice O’Brien, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
(A bright smile); I am newly married! I cannot think of anything nearly so interesting as that! And I have got me a handsome, sweet husband who is second to none!

2.What do you do for fun?
(She giggles); I plague my new husband, I suppose. (She smiles fondly at Peter, who shakes his head affectionately, smiling back.)

3.What do you put off doing because you dread it?
(The smile vanishes; Beatrice purses her mouth in thought.) She looks hopefully at Peter, but he says, “This is your interview, dearest; I mustn’t answer for you.”
“Yes, of course,” she agrees, but her eyes appear uncertain. Finally she says,
“I suppose the task I most dread is visiting the sick.” She sounds apologetic and rushes to explain: “But only because my dear sister nearly died last winter after doing so! I have a dread of communicable illnesses, ever since that trying time” She looks at Peter again. “As a minister’s wife, I am afraid it is part of my duties. But there you have it.”

4.What are you afraid of most in life?
I believe I just told you! It is that, catching my death from the illness of another; though I grant the fear of childbed has assailed my thoughts from time to time.

5.What do you want out of life?
I think I have already got most of what I want. A husband I adore, a house to keep, a family happy; all I want now is to fill the seats ‘round the table with our own children.” She pauses and adds, in a whisper, “Oh, and of course to visit London during the season! I don’t think that’s asking too much; not for the sister-in-law of Mr. Mornay!”)

6.What is the most important thing to you?
(Another glance at Peter.) Well, at this time, my husband must be first in my thoughts. I am a new wife, remember.

7.Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?
(A gay laugh.) Of course I read! (She and Peter share a chuckle at such a question.) I differ from Peter in my preferences, as I always choose a novel first, then poetry, and, if I am recommended to it, an essay or sermon.

8.If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Oh, dear. I suppose I should be slower to speak; less impulsive. (She looks at Peter and again they laugh because his answer to this question was, “impulsivity.”)

9.Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
Peter’s favorite is Musket, but I like Muffet best (or our three King Charles Spaniels) because she is the most loyal little thing; she follows me all about and is very protective of me. She even growled at Peter once, though of course we could not let that go unanswered.

10.If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
(She closes her eyes, thinking for a moment.) I am not quite sure. I would adore seeing certain things of the past, such as the theatre with Nell Gwyn, or the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. But things were so frightful in the past that I should hardly like to live there.