Today we are pleased to sit down with John and Mary Bexley, the protagonists from Jane Ashford’s Married to a Perfect Stranger (March 2015). From February 23rd through March 20th the Bexleys will be answering questions about their relationship at each stop in their tour!
If your spouse died and came back as a dog, what breed would he/she be?
John: A King Charles spaniel, with those melting brown eyes.
Mary: A foxhound who never gives up on a scent.
Married to a Perfect Stranger
by Jane Ashford
March 3rd, 2015
ISBN: 9781492601906
Time and distance have
changed them both…
Quiet and obliging, Mary
Fleming and John Bexley marry to please their families and John immediately
leaves on a two-year diplomatic mission. Now John is back, and everything they
thought they knew about each other was wrong…
It’s disconcerting,
irritating—and somehow all very exciting…
John Bexley reined in his hired horse on a
slight rise and gazed down at the red brick manor, somnolent under the August
sun. Eager as he was to get to London, he’d felt he must detour west into
Somerset to fetch Mary. Her family’s decision to put her under the care of a
great-aunt while he was away just showed he was right to fear that such a shy,
quiet girl couldn’t arrange a journey on her own. And now that he was here, the
sight of this place soothed him; it looked the very essence of English country
comfort and peace.
John’s knock was answered by an aged butler. He gave his name,
stepped in, and inhaled the familiar scents of beeswax polish and potpourri.
The place reminded him of his own home farther north. Golden light pooled on
the wooden floor and gleamed on the stair rail. In the rooms on either side of
the entry, the furnishings were classic and inviting. Mary had certainly had a
beautiful and serene spot in which to wait for him. “Mary’s husband,” he added
when it seemed as if the old man didn’t know what to do with him. “I believe I
am expected.”
“Yes, si…”
A filthy, hysterical chicken shot through the rear door of the
dining parlor on his left, skidded in a turn around the table, and raced past
him, neck extended, screeching, flapping its mottled wings. A little boy
slathered with mud came racing after it, careened off the doorjamb, and
staggered across the entryway, leaving streaks and globs of dirt in his wake.
The old butler stiffened in horror.
The bird hopped across a flowered sofa in the front parlor,
stitching it with muddy tracks, circled the delicate carpet, and looped back
toward John. The boy in pursuit slipped, fell, jumped up, and turned to follow.
He flapped muddy hands at the fowl in an inept attempt to trap it.
What seemed like a herd of adults jostled into the dining parlor,
then surged forward. “Arthur!” snapped a young woman, her voice crackling with
authority.
“It isn’t my fault,” the boy shouted over the wild squawking. “I
pulled her from the mire. Fox was after her. I never shot her or nothing.”
As the crazed chicken surged past him, John bent, reached, and
snatched hold of its legs. When he straightened, he held the muddy bird upside
down, at arm’s length, well away from his clothing. It flapped and protested;
flakes of dirt dropped to the floor.
“Good!” said the managing female, striding from the dining room into
the hall. “Take it from him, Alice, and put it outside at once.”
The middle-aged maid jumped to obey like a subaltern responding to a
commanding general. The butler relaxed. The boy stood to attention. “It wasn’t
me, I swear,” he repeated. “I rescued ’er. I killed three rats as well. Would
have been four, but I…”
“Very well, Arthur,” the woman replied. “Go now and get cleaned up.”
The boy finally noticed the mud sliding from his clothes to the
polished floor. His face shifted from defensive to horrified, and he slunk out.
In the same moment, John realized that the woman with a voice like a sergeant
major was his meek little sparrow of a wife.
3 comments:
Every time I read this excerpt I have to snicker. John's in for a few surprises from his wife, Mary, since he's been gone for so long. :-) This will be a fun romance to read. Thanks for the post. jdh2690@gmail.com
My favorite fictional couple would have to be Ruark and Shanna from Shanna by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss.
Thanks, Janice!
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