This week I’m hosting Louise M. Gouge with A Proper Companion, Carol Cox with Love in Disguise, Patty Smith Hall with Hearts in Hiding and Elizabeth Musser with Two Crosses and Two Testaments. If you want to enter the drawings for the books, 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 (June 17th) evening.
Interview with the heroine from A Proper Companion by Louise M. Gouge:
1. Miss Anna Newfield, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
How kind of you to invite me to your blog. I hardly think I am an interesting person, having lived in the small fictional English village of Blandon all my life. However, I will tell you that my brother and I grew up with loving parents who instilled in us a great love for God. Our father was the village vicar, so it was important for us to set a good example. In spite of that, we did manage to get into a bit of harmless mischief as children.
2. What do you do for fun?
As most young ladies of my time, I enjoy watercolor painting and playing the pianoforte. Currently, I am secretly painting a miniature portrait of Major Grenville. But how does one capture such kindness and goodness in a tiny picture of a soldier?
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Practicing my horsemanship. Although my brother became a mounted dragoon in His Majesty’s army, I never had the opportunity to ride a horse. Those large creatures frighten me because they are so unpredictable. But Major Grenville assures me that, under his tutelage, I will have no trouble learning to ride. We’ll see…
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
Well, I would say those horses, but I shall not be redundant. What I fear most at this point is being tossed out into the dead of winter by my employer, Lady Greystone. She suspects that I will set my cap for one of her two unmarried sons. Of course, I would never aspire to marry the viscount, Lord Greystone, as kind as he is. But although I have tried very hard not to form an attachment to her youngest son, Major Grenville, I fear that my feelings are written all over my face. Why, even Lady Greystone’s lady’s maid has warned me to hide my growing admiration for the major.
5. What do you want out of life?
I pray that my life will please God. Should He plan for me to marry, I pray I will be the best of wives to my husband. And should that husband be Major Grenville, it will take little effort to put my whole heart into that endeavor.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
The most important thing to me is to serve my employer in a way that pleases God.
7. Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?
My father treasured books and bought as many as his meager living permitted. Among those, I suppose I like the sonnets of William Shakespeare best. I have observed that Major Grenville also enjoys the poems, so I copied his favorites into a small volume to give him for Christmas. But, oh dear, what if it is not proper for me to do that? What if Lady Greystone considers that too forward? I must rethink this!
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would have a little more courage when Lady Grenville scolds me. Oh, I do not mean I would answer her in kind, for that would result in my being tossed out in the snow. But I would try to calm my spirit and reinforce my faith that God will take care of me, no matter what happens. I do so despise the way I tremble beneath her angry glares and reproaches.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
Sadly, we did not have a pet when I was growing up, but we appreciated the neighborhood cats who kept the rat population down. As a child, I enjoyed playing with the cats. And of course I sometimes rode in a dog cart pulled by a farmer’s great mastiff. What fun that was!
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
My goodness, this is an interesting question. Travel back in time? What a silly idea. But I shall play your game. I would go back in time about twenty years when our dear King George III was healthy of body and mind instead of mad and locked away from all who love him. I do so admire him and Queen Charlotte, for they were devoted to one another and to God and set a good moral example for the entire country. Unfortunately, the Prince Regent did not follow their example. The least said about that, the better, for one day soon, he will be our monarch.
