It is not always necessary to introduce readers to the characters or circumstances of a story; indeed, it seems to be the modern practice to leave them guessing or, better still, confused, about the author's intentions.

However, many readers of the Pemberley Chronicles series have written to ask if I intend to leave Julian Darcy out in the cold, as it were, following his failed marriage and the subsequent death of his wife, Josie.

Put like that, it sounded callous and though he was never a favourite of mine, it did seem hard-hearted not to give him another chance.

In Postscript from Pemberley, he has that chance.

Darcy Gardiner was quite another matter.

I will admit I did agonise about him for a while. What to do with a handsome and amiable young man, without a large fortune and not much chance of a substantial inheritance? He does have a will to work for the betterment of ordinary people and a deep sense of family loyalty.

So, should I make him a politician? Some might say, God forbid.

A preacher addicted to high moral sententiousness and a desire to convert everyone to his personal view of the world? Never.

A playboy who marries some rich mill owner's daughter? Over my dead body!

Darcy Gardiner is one of my favourites—cast in the mould of some of Jane Austen's most admired young men, with many of the qualities that distinguished his grandfather, and more to say for himself than Mr Darcy had at his age, besides. He was the chief raison d'etre for Postscript from Pemberley, and like the best characters any writer creates, he virtually wrote his own story.

I hope my readers will enjoy reading it as much as I loved the telling of it.

 

RAC / 2002

Website: www.geocities.com/shadesofpemberley

 

For the benefit of those readers who wish to be reminded of the characters and their relationships to one another, an aide-memoire is provided in the appendix.