At First Sight Saturday with Author Caroline Warfield

Hello and welcome back to At First Sight Saturday. Today’s guest is author, Caroline Warfield, who gives us a ‘first sight’ look at hero, Benjamine Clarke, and heroine Dorothea Bigglesworth from the novella Lady Dorothea’s Curate, Caroline’s contribution to the 2022 Bluestocking Belles & Friends collection, Desperate Daughters. Be sure to leave a comment and let Caroline know what you think.

The hero and heroine are already acquainted at the beginning of Lady Dorothea’s Curate, but their relationship is still tentative. Here is the opening sequence.

Excerpt: One look at dear Mr. Clark, the curate’s, harried expression, and Doro knew she was right to brave the frightful weather. The Hampton Hotel only permitted her one half-day from work each week. She used the time to assist at Pilgrim’s Rest—the rough mission attached to Harrogate’s only place of worship, a tiny chapel of ease—so called because it existed to “ease” the burden of travel to St. John’s parish in Knaresborough for services. Pilgrim’s Rest counted on her. More to the point, its leader depended on her, and she never wanted to disappoint him. She quickly hung her damp cloak and bonnet on a peg by the door and deposited her bundle on the rough table near the hearth.

“Miss Bigglesworth, thank goodness you’re here!” Mr. Clarke, the curate responsible for the chapel and the mission attached to it, called from the far corner, where a narrow table and some benches had been set up.

Her stepmother would chastise her for failing to correct him, but no one here knew she should be styled Lady Dorothea or that her late father was the Earl of Seahaven, not that it did her family any good now. Frankly, she would rather the people of Harrogate and of Pilgrim’s Rest never found out, not as long as she earned her bread toiling in a hotel. It would only bring down judgement or, worse, pity, and Doro was proud of her work.

She watched the curate help an elderly man in thin coat and shabby trousers to a seat. As always, she was touched by the young man’s gentleness with their “guests” as he insisted on calling those who sought his help.

“Shall I set out the mid-day meal?” Doro asked, glancing around the room. She counted eight guests including two children with sad eyes, many fewer guests than they had in warmer weather. She saw no sign of Mrs. Grigg, the vicarage housekeeper, who usually had a warm meal ready before Doro arrived.

The building Mr. Clarke named Pilgrim’s Rest had once been a stable, but he insisted that it was being put to better use since he had neither horse nor carriage. It had been cleaned, painted and swept. Doro suspected he did the work himself. Rugs covered the brick floor, and a well-maintained hearth kept the place warm enough.

Mr. Clarke’s smile of approval warmed Doro even more

About Lady Dorothea’s Curate: Employed at a hotel, Lady Dorothea Bigglesworth had no use for a title. It would only invite scorn, or, worse, pity. Plain Miss Doro Bigglesworth suited her fine. Ben Clarke dedicated his life to helping the neediest. It gave his life meaning. He tended to forget the younger son of a viscount went by “Honorable.” Neither saw the need to mention it to the other, until they were formally introduced— in a ballroom in York. Shocked.

About Desperate Daughters: Love Against the Odds

The Earl of Seahaven desperately wanted a son and heir but died leaving nine daughters and a fifth wife. Cruelly turned out by the new earl, they live hand-to-mouth in a small cottage.

The young dowager Countess’s one regret is that she cannot give Seahaven’s dear girls a chance at happiness.

When a cousin offers the use of her townhouse in York during the season, the Countess rallies her stepdaughters.

They will pool their resources so that the youngest marriageable daughters might make successful matches, thereby saving them all.

So start their adventures in York, amid a whirl of balls, lectures, and alfresco picnics. Is it possible each of them might find love by the time the York horse races bring the Season to a close?

Available on Pre-Order: Books2Read: https://books2read.com/u/bMwL17 $0.99 until launch day, May 17, 2022. Get yours now.

About Caroline Warfield: Award winning author Caroline Warfield has been many things: traveler, librarian, poet, raiser of children, bird watcher, Internet and Web services manager, conference speaker, indexer, tech writer, genealogist—even a nun. She reckons she is on at least her third act, happily working in an office surrounded by windows where she lets her characters lead her to adventures in England and the far-flung corners of the British Empire. She nudges them to explore the riskiest territory of all, the human heart.