Interview with Colonel Fitzwilliam

I have a special guest today, an all-around favourite with so many of us. He’s dashing and charismatic, and everyone loves a man in uniform. Please welcome Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam, here to talk about his recent adventures as recounted in the novel A Soldier’s Tale.

Col F: Thank you, Riana. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Riana: You have recently returned from a posting in Bermuda. Tell us about it.

Col F: Ah, there’s a tale. I had no desire to see Bermuda, and less to be stationed there for so long. After my hopes were dashed and my heart left bleeding on the floor, I craved the heat of battle, to be useful if I could not be happy. Send me to Spain, to Portugal, even to the New World where trouble is brewing. But my father… He is an influential earl, and he has few qualms in wielding that influence to keep me from the heat of battle. And so Bermuda it was.

Still, I came to love the place. Although far from the heat of battle, the fortifications there are a key component to Britain’s strength in the Atlantic, and I learned that I could be useful even in this island paradise. When not soaking my stockingless feet in pale pink sands while turquoise blue waters glinted beyond the craggy rocks, I helped build a bastion to secure the fleet, and to ensure that if the worst should happen and this Eden be attacked, our men would be more than capable of defending our harbour and our dockyard.

And then there are my friends… Ah, yes, my dear friend Emily. She alone was worth the ignominy of this soft posting. Yes, I came to like Bermuda very much indeed.

Riana: Then shall I assume that the society in Bermuda was everything you could hope for?

Col F: Alas, that I cannot confirm. I met some excellent people there, to be sure. Emily is a treasure, a real friend, and her father, the colonel at the Dockyard is a fine man indeed. But there are others, I am sad to say, who were not so upstanding. I made some enemies, I fear, from doing nothing but my duties and refusing to be pulled into their games. They were so set on making trouble, and I only pray they do not turn their attentions to my friends in their hopes of harming me. Worse, I believe the worst perpetrator of these plots is now back in England. I do not wish to think of what trouble he will cause.

Riana: I’m sorry to hear that. But you are home, and safe in your family’s embrace once more.

Col F: Another matter to vex me. I was summoned home by my father to attend my Aunt Catherine and see to her estate’s accounts at Easter. No matter that England is at war and needs me, I am to bow and scrape before my aunt and play nursemaid to her sickly daughter Anne. But I shall see my cousin Will Darcy again, and that is welcome news. I have missed him while I’ve been away, and although his letters have recounted all the news about his young sister Georgiana, I shall be most pleased to sit in his company again and sip his fine wine as he tells me more about this young lady he refuses to admit he admires. Never fear! I shall wrinkle it out of him. He is far too much fun to tease.

Riana: You are for Rosings, then?

Col F: Yes. We leave on the morrow. I shall travel down with Darcy in his fine carriage, which I imagine will be the most interesting part of our sojourn in Kent. It will be myself, Darcy, Cousin Anne, and our Aunt Catherine, heaven help us. And I believe the new parson is recently married, which means we shall have to entertain his wife. I cannot imagine it will be an enjoyable or interesting time, but I shall make the best of it. I just hope I am not too bored.

Riana: I wish you a pleasant trip, and one which is more entertaining than you anticipate. Thank you, Colonel, for talking with us today.

Shall we have a look at what might be in store for our good soldier? Please enjoy this short excerpt from A Soldier’s Tale.

***

The following day proceeded much as Richard had expected. He and Darcy met with the steward, who led them through the accounts of the past year. He was a competent and mild man of middle years with a great deal of patience and the occasional suggestion of a great wit hidden beneath a bland exterior. He lived in a cottage in the village of Hunsford, just past the park, with his wife and family and seemed quite content with his lot.

“Yes, yes,” he confirmed Richard’s question. “I have been tutoring Miss de Bourgh on how to manage the books and set out plans for the estate. She is an intelligent lady and should manage it quite well. Not so well, I hope, that she finds cause to dispense of my services, but more than adequately. I must be sure to withhold some vital information, to protect my own tenure here. Now, shall we turn to the planting schedule and the rents?”

There followed a long and detailed account of the financial affairs of Rosings that took up the entire morning and continued after a midday nuncheon. The matter was not Richard’s passion, but it was interesting enough that he did not resent the time spent, and he quite enjoyed sitting back with a tankard of ale at the Hunsford pub with Darcy and Lighton after the session had concluded.

“Our aunt informs me there will be company at tea tomorrow,” Darcy mentioned between sips. “The parson’s wife has family visiting, and a friend as well, so I am led to believe.”

“That bodes well for an entertaining time.” Lighton grabbed a piece of cheese from the plate before them all and put it on a piece of bread. “I had the pleasure of meeting this company. Father, sister, and a friend. Father recently departed back for his home. The friend and sister have stayed for a longer visit, and the friend is charming. I do say that the conversation between her and Lady Catherine will be diverting!”

“A respectable sort of woman, then? If our aunt chooses to invite her for tea, she must have some claim to elegance.”

“Pretty and witty and rather outspoken at times.” Lighton raised his brows for a moment in appreciation. “A different sort than Mrs Collins, to be sure.”

Mrs Collins must be the parson’s wife.

“Collins! Oh no!” Darcy groaned.

“You know the man?” This was a surprise. How had Darcy met his aunt’s new parson? They would hardly move in the same circles. And by his cousin’s sour expression, the meeting had not been to his liking.

“He was in Hertfordshire. Some sort of relation to one of the families I had the misfortune of associating with. He was… not to my taste.”

“What is he like?” Richard asked Lighton. If he was to take tea with strangers, he would like some prior knowledge of them. He would get a more accurate impression from the steward than from his cousin.

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You can discover the rest of Colonel Fitzwilliam’s story in A Soldier’s Tale, available in eBook or paperback, and free to read with Kindle Unlimited.

Thank you all for reading. I have very much enjoyed my time here at Always Austen and hope you find me on Facebook or on my website so we can continue the conversation.