Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    An Eccentric Engagement
    An Eccentric Engagement
    An Eccentric Engagement
    Ebook115 pages1 hour

    An Eccentric Engagement

    By Donna Lea Simpson

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Sorrow Marchand has patiently endured the taunts of London society for her bold speech and curious ways, yet it was those very qualities of the sparkling young beauty that caught the eye of the Honorable Bertram Carlyle and ultimately elicited an offer of marriage from him. But the usually candid Sorrow has kept her ludicrously madcap family a well-hidden secret from her betrothed—and now he is coming to visit!

    Bertram was an exceedingly suitable suitor, but for all his many fine traits he had been harshly schooled under the oppressive thumb of his father and had meekly embraced many of the man’s conventional attitudes. Upon meeting Sorrow’s family and becoming swept up in the endless swirl of silly chaos, he senses a conflict of epic proportions on the horizon—both within himself and with his father.

    As Sorrow grows more concerned that her outrageous relatives will damn her only chance at happiness with a man she truly loves, Bertram must find the courage to defy his very traditional father and become part of a family that’s anything but—and become the man Sorrow always knew he could be.

    This novella was originally published as “Sorrow’s Wedding” in the anthology With This Ring.

    About the Author:

    Donna Lea Simpson is a nationally bestselling romance and mystery novelist with more than twenty titles to her credit. Her long list of passions include cats and tea, cooking and vintage cookware, cross-stitching and watercolor painting. She lives in Canada.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBeyond the Page Publishing
    Release dateMay 15, 2017
    ISBN9781946069276
    An Eccentric Engagement
    Author

    Donna Lea Simpson

    Donna Lea Simpson is a nationally bestselling romance and mystery novelist with over twenty titles published in the last eleven years. An early love for the novels of Jane Austen and Agatha Christie was a portent of things to come; Donna believes that a dash of mystery adds piquancy to a romantic tale, and a hint of romance adds humanity to a mystery story. Besides writing romance and mystery novels and reading the same, Donna has a long list of passions: cats and tea, cooking and vintage cookware, cross-stitching and watercolor painting among them. Karaoke offers her the chance to warble Dionne Warwick tunes, and nature is a constant source of comfort and inspiration. A long walk is her favorite exercise, and a fruity merlot is her drink of choice when the tea is all gone. Donna lives in Canada.The best writing advice, Donna believes, comes from the letters of Jane Austen. That author wrote, in an October 26, 1813, letter to her sister, Cassandra, “I am not at all in a humor for writing; I must write on till I am.” So true! But Donna is usually in a good humor for writing!

    Read more from Donna Lea Simpson

    Related to An Eccentric Engagement

    Titles in the series (21)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Royalty Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Wise old Mrs Merrow

      Jul 27, 2020

      Littlesea was everything the description said: a white stone cottage with beams and higgledy-piggledy walls and steps away from a tiny quay in a private bay. It would have been the perfect spot for honeymooners had it not had just the one single bed

      8 min read

    • Article

      A Nest Of VIPERS

      Jan 25, 2023

      A Nest Of VIPERS
      9 min read

    • Article

      Echoes

      Jul 13, 2022

      Echoes
      9 min read

    • Article

      Laughing STOCK

      Jul 17, 2020

      Laughing STOCK
      4 min read

    • Article

      The PROMISE

      Aug 18, 2021

      The PROMISE
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Coming Out

      May 11, 2020

      The Coming Out
      6 min read

    • Article

      Portrait Of An Artist

      Jan 6, 2022

      Portrait Of An Artist
      6 min read

    • Article

      Men Behaving Badly

      Jul 6, 2018

      Men Behaving Badly
      5 min read

    • Article

      Marking 21 Busy Years In ‘The Firm’ The Countess Of Wessex Reflects On Royal Titles, Family Fun And Giving Her Children A ‘Normal’ Life

      Jun 15, 2020

      She has been a member of the royal family for 21 years this month, but the Countess of Wessex says her children Lady Louise Windsor, 16, and Viscount Severn, 12, are “highly unlikely” to ever use their HRH titles. “We try to bring them up with the un

      2 min read

    • Article

      Up To Date

      Jan 10, 2021

      Up To Date
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Clues To ROMANCE

      May 4, 2021

      The Clues To ROMANCE
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Perfect Wedding

      Apr 6, 2020

      A Perfect Wedding
      5 min read

    • Article

      Love will WIN

      Sep 6, 2023

      Love will WIN
      9 min read

    • Article

      Government In Crisis!

      Nov 17, 2022

      Government In Crisis!
      1 min read

    • Article

      Gabriel & Holly

      Feb 8, 2021

      The first day was the most daunting. It helped that she’d arrived last night to settle herself in the cottage annexe before first contact this morning. Still, nerves attacked her as she stood before the door of the imposing but charming ivy-covered 1

      6 min read

    • Article

      Where The Walls Have Ears

      May 22, 2020

      Where The Walls Have Ears
      8 min read

    • Article

      Flora Vesterberg

      Sep 13, 2021

      Flora Vesterberg
      3 min read

    • Article

      Italian For Beginners

      Jan 15, 2023

      Italian For Beginners
      7 min read

    • Article

      In The Running For Romance

      Mar 4, 2021

      The RNA has announced the category shortlists for the 2021 Romantic Novel of the Year Awards. • The Katie Fforde Debut Romantic Novel Award: Cow Girl, Kirsty Eyre; The Bookshop of Second Chances, Jackie Fraser; The Silent Treatment, Abbie Greaves; Th

      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for An Eccentric Engagement

    3.5/5

    6 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Sorrow believes that her betrothed, Bertram, will have no difficulty in accepting the household she's come from. Bertram has been under the thumb of his father his entire life and is intrigued by Sorrow's freedom. Will this pair find love together?The story is sweet. and I especially liked the fact that when they are first engaged, this pair isn't sure they love each other. They like each other well enough, and in the course of the story, they come to love each other.for who they are.Due to being a novella, there wasn't a lot of time to develop the side characters as much as I would have liked. Sorrow is done well, as is Bertram, but Sorrow's family seems merely in place to be eccentric and that's all. Bertram's father is disagreeable, as I expected, but the story doesn't allow much time to explain why he is as he was. Or to make the ending really satisfactory.Still, for a quick, short read, it was enjoyable.I received a copy through Net Galley for review purposes.
    • 4/5
      A very sweet love story. I liked it very much
    • 4/5
      Unusual!I thought about the word 'charming', but that's not quite right. Sorrow Marchand is not charming, she's spirited and insightful and attuned to others. Her world is not 'charming.' It is however forthright, kind and true. We really don't see much of Sorrow's interaction with the ton. What we do see is her interaction with her very unusual family--one that is certainly far from any family her fiancé, the Honorable Bertram Carlyle, has envisioned. We do see is the growth of Bertram and Sorrow's relationship into one of true understanding and appreciation, and for Bertram the coming into being his own man. Until now he's been at the beck and call of his domineering father, Lord Newton. The early arrival of Bertram's father does put Sorrow through her paces. He's a very overbearing man who's completely thrown by the menagerie that comprises Sorrow's family. There's a lot to unpack in this interesting novella about love and worth and acceptance. Again I come back to the word unusual! A NetGalley ARC

    Book preview

    An Eccentric Engagement - Donna Lea Simpson

    Cover

    An Eccentric Engagement

    Sorrow Marchand has patiently endured the taunts of London society for her bold speech and curious ways, yet it was those very qualities of the sparkling young beauty that caught the eye of the Honorable Bertram Carlyle and ultimately elicited an offer of marriage from him. But the usually candid Sorrow has kept her ludicrously madcap family a well-hidden secret from her betrothed—and now he is coming to visit!

    Bertram was an exceedingly suitable suitor, but for all his many fine traits he had been harshly schooled under the oppressive thumb of his father and had meekly embraced many of the man’s conventional attitudes. Upon meeting Sorrow’s family and becoming swept up in the endless swirl of silly chaos, he senses a conflict of epic proportions on the horizon—both within himself and with his father.

    As Sorrow grows more concerned that her outrageous relatives will damn her only chance at happiness with a man she truly loves, Bertram must find the courage to defy his very traditional father and become part of a family that’s anything but—and become the man Sorrow always knew he could be.

    Title Page

    Copyright

    An Eccentric Engagement

    Donna Lea Simpson

    This is a revised edition of a novella originally published as Sorrow’s Wedding in the anthology With This Ring, copyright © 2004, 2017 by Donna Lea Simpson.

    Material excerpted from A Lady’s Choice copyright © 2016 by Donna Lea Simpson.

    Cover design and illustration by Dar Albert, Wicked Smart Designs

    Published by Beyond the Page at Smashwords

    Beyond the Page Books

    are published by

    Beyond the Page Publishing

    www.beyondthepagepub.com

    ISBN: 978-1-946069-27-6

    All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this book. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented without the express written permission of both the copyright holder and the publisher.

    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

    The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

    Contents

    Chapter 1

    Chapter 2

    Chapter 3

    Chapter 4

    Chapter 5

    Chapter 6

    Chapter 7

    Chapter 8

    Chapter 9

    Chapter 10

    Chapter 11

    Excerpt from A Lady’s Choice

    Books by Donna Lea Simpson

    About the Author

    Chapter 1

    Sorrow Marchand tugged a brush through her glossy blond curls as she sat at her dressing table and stared absently into the mirror, listening to the pacing outside her bedchamber door. In less than one month she would be married. She had attended the London Season as guest of her honorary aunt, Lady Spotswycke, and had caught the eye of a very eligible beau, the Honorable Mr. Bertram Carlyle, had been wooed, courted, asked and accepted his offer of marriage.

    The pacing outside her bedchamber increased in speed. She smiled at the sound. When the pacer could no longer bear to keep her thoughts to herself she would burst in.

    Marriage. She had her parents’ excellent example and felt confident of her decision. She was nervous, but not unduly so. Bertram was everything he should be, and perhaps more than he knew. They would be happy together, at least most of the time; she was convinced of it.

    Finally, the pacer burst into her room and flung herself down on the stool beside Sorrow.

    My dear, Sorrow’s adoptive mother said, are you sure about everything? And have you . . . have you told Mr. Carlyle?

    Composed—unnaturally so, some in London had cruelly said—for so young a woman, not yet twenty-one, Sorrow turned on her seat and gave her mother a quick hug. Mama, I’m sure. And he is Bert, not ‘Mr. Carlyle.’ He will be your son in just three weeks.

    Mrs. Marchand worried at her lip with her teeth. "But have you told him?" she repeated.

    Sorrow set her ornate silver brush aside on the mahogany dressing table. Told him what?

    About us.

    Of course I have. I told him about you and father and how dear you both are and how much he will love you when he comes to know you.

    The older woman’s brow wrinkled into furrows, and she said, No, Sorrow dear, don’t avoid the subject. I meant have you told young Carlyle about—

    A keening moan outside the door stopped them both, and then a thudding noise, followed by the bump bump bump of something—or someone—falling or jumping down the stairs echoed through the old house. Sorrow and her mother both listened, heads cocked, eyes unfocused.

    When there was no further outcry, Sorrow murmured, It must be all right this time; if Joshua were hurt there would be such a ruckus.

    Don’t avoid the subject, my dear. Have you told your future husband about us . . . about how we live. It is only fair that he know what he is marrying into.

    With the perpetually sunny smile that belied her somber name, Sorrow took her mother’s hands in hers and rubbed them. Mama, don’t worry, please. Bertram is an excellent young man, very compassionate, good, sweet-natured, and with a sense of humor. He will not be alarmed. Once you meet him you’ll understand.

    I wouldn’t be so sure of that, Mrs. Marchand said, squeezing her daughter’s hand.

    But you don’t know him, Mama, Sorrow said, her oval face set in a most serious expression. Do you think I would have said yes to his proposal if I was not absolutely sure?

    But you should have warned him, should have explained—

    No, the young woman said, holding up one hand. Please don’t say I should have alerted him what to expect. There is no way to describe our life to someone who has never been here, never met you and Papa and the others. In words it sounds . . . oh, ludicrous. Impossibly senseless. Absurd. But in truth it is so lovely and simple and perfect. So don’t say I should have warned him. I could never explain. And if I thought an explanation was necessary, then I would never have said yes to him.

    I will trust your judgment, my dear. But what shall you do if he decides he simply cannot face living as we do?

    I believe in Bertram, Mama, she said, looking at her mother with a serene expression. It will never come to that.

    Another noise arose in the hall, and someone rapped on Sorrow’s door.

    Mrs. Marchand, Mr. Howard is having a bad turn, ma’am, an’ I’m not quite sure what to do.

    I am coming, Letty, Mrs. Marchand said, rising from the dressing table stool. Sorrow started to rise, too, but her mother pushed her back down and said, No, dear, you stay here. I want you to get a goodly amount of sleep tonight. I would not have you looking haggard for your Bertram. He arrives early, I imagine, if he is a proper young bridegroom.

    She exited the room and Sorrow picked up the brush again, brushing her hair until sparks crackled and glittered in the dim reflection, all that could be seen by candlelight. Despite her calming words to her mother she did feel a momentary qualm. For one thing, Bert would not be early, she was sure of it. He was a very diffident young man in many ways, and not as eager for this marriage as her mother seemed to think. He would arrive by luncheon, perhaps, or later.

    And then, though she would never have worried her mother with it, doubt assailed her in the dimness of her room. What if she was wrong? What if Bert was horrified by her life and her unusual family?

    Then he was not

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1