A Meet Cute between a Hero and a Heroine

As you may or may not know I am writing a Jane Austen Fan Fiction titled, Saving Grace. I have mentioned before that my hero, Colonel Fitzwilliam and my heroine, Lady Grace MacKenna, have a meet cute that was perhaps one of my favorite parts to write. I have chosen to share an excerpt of the meet cute with you my readers.

I will preface this by saying that I do not pretend to be Jane Austen. She was an expert at her craft and I’d be a fool to try to be exactly like her, so I have not tried to be. Secondly, this story is a WIP (work-in-progress) and so I do not own to any perfection in the following excerpt. I hope you will forgive me. Enjoy!

Saving Grace excerpt

His eyes had been so beautiful. He'd made her feel special. She couldn't see his faults then and sometimes she still could not grasp how it had all gone wrong. She had missed the looks and the flirtations he had carried out with other women behind closed doors. She had missed his clandestine affairs behind the curtains of ball rooms and in the shaded darkness of a rose garden. She had missed the insults to her person subtly made. She had missed the true nature of the man and was blinded by what she had wanted to see. She had been greatly deceived. She had been burned down by a man with no care for her.

George Wickham had set her on fire!

And just like that George Wickham doused the flames with reality leaving but smoldering embers.

That anguished cry was what startled Richard Fitzwilliam astride his horse. He had been lost deep in remembrances of his battle torn mind. It was on nights like this that he wandered the countryside. It was the nights when he could not sleep because his memories of battle haunted his slumber in attempts to draw him back into their terrifying snare that he was forced to wander as if he was a lost soul meant to forever roam the countryside looking for a home. Trying to locate that source of such a retching cry Richard spurred his stallion through the foggy terrain.

It was some minutes before he beheld the silhouette of a woman through the fog. Her fiery auburn locks where almost like a burning beacon to him in the night. She wasn't moving, but was a motionless heap on the frozen ground. Richard had been so transfixed that he had unconsciously moved his horse closer and it was then that she slowly turned her head towards him and their eyes met. The most startling emerald green eyes started back at him. They were beautiful and as dormant as the rose bushes in his mother's garden. He had never seen the eyes of a living person look so dead.

Grace stared at the stranger before her. He was tall and his presence was strong. His blonde hair was disheveled and his brown eyes studied her and held her transfixed. He had a beautiful horse. He carried himself well atop such a fine stallion. The stranger's voice broke through her thoughts.

"Miss, are you well?"

His voice sounded like smooth chocolate and burning embers. It was a mixture of rough and smooth. It was a masculine voice which bespoke of authority. Still holding his gaze Grace opened her mouth to speak before a sense of self preservation seemed to grab a hold of her as she realized the stranger had left the top of his stallion and meant to approach her, and she bolted as fast as she could back to the estate. Grace expected the sound of hoof beats to follow her, but none ever came. She had made it back to the estate unscathed.

I hope you enjoyed this little excerpt.