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| The Art of Painting by Johannes Vermeer, painted about 40 years prior to the time of The Captain and the Countess |
Normally we feature a craft project on Mondays.
Today we’re changing things up a bit with a visit from British historical romance
author Rosemary Morris, here to tell us about the artist hero she created for
one of her books. Learn more about Rosemary and her books at her website and
blog.
The subject of this article is the effect of the
hero’s artistic talents. in my novel, The
Captain and the Countess.
In 1706, Edward, the Right Honourable Captain Howard,
who served in Queen Anne’s navy, is on half-pay.
Edward appeared in my mind while reading The Command of the Ocean by N.A.M
Rodger, in which he states: “Off-watch,
seamen had time to relax, especially on men-of-war with their large crews.
Music, reading and gambling were common pastimes. Some ships had bands –
‘trumpets, hautboys and violins in the case of the H.M.S. Duchess’.”
Many sailors, including the officers, put their free
time to good use, learning foreign languages and developing their skills.
Edward Howard took the opportunity to develop his abilities as an artist, and
in that capacity he became exceptionally observant.
Edward first saw Kate, Countess of Sinclair, an
acclaimed beauty, whose sobriquet was ‘The Fatal Widow’, when she stood in the
doorway of his godmother’s salon, her cool blue eyes speculative.
He stared at her without blinking and whistled low,
and wondered if her shocking reputation could be no more than tittle-tattle?
While Edward scrutinised her, unlike most gentlemen
who took scant interest in female fashion, he noted that rumour did not lie
about her Saxon beauty, which she made the most of. “Her ladyship was not a slave to fashion. She did not wear a wig, and
her hair was not curled and stiffened with sugar water. Instead, her flaxen
plaits were wound around the crown of her head to form a coronet. The style
suited her. So did the latest Paris fashion, an outrageous wisp of a lace cap,
which replaced the tall, fan-shaped fontage most ladies continued to wear
perched on their heads.” Later,
he sketched her from memory.
Although Kate was ten years his senior, Edward
enjoyed flirting with her during their first encounter. However, his sharp eyes
saw beyond her outward facade. “A frozen
glimpse of despair deep in her eyes unsettled him. Did he imagine it? He could
not speak. Why should a lady like the countess despair?”
Edward was consumed both by desire for Kate and determination
to paint her portrait. When he visited her, “he
stared at the tips of her slippers resting decorously side by side on a
footstool,” and he said, “Truth to
tell, I would like to paint you with your skirts drawn up a little to reveal
your ankles.”
He invited her on a picnic in the country and tried
to persuade her to allow him the privilege of painting her portrait.
Kate, who was accustomed to artists clamouring to
paint her, refused, and explained. “At my
late husband’s command, I sat for my portrait. Never have I suffered such
ennui. I never wish to experience it again.”
Edward, who intended to use his artistic skills to
win her, persisted, but Kate declared. “I
detest picnics because it either rains when one is planned, or the sun is too hot
to eat and drink in comfort.”
Undeterred Edward wagered a flask of perfume blended
by the famous perfumier, Lille,
against Kate’s permission to capture her in oil paint, if their picnic is not
spoiled by inclement weather. Amused, Kate agreed but warned him that he would
lose.
Although Kate flirted with him, she rebuffed his
advances, but Edward was not fooled. His sixth sense told him she was attracted
to him but would not succumb because, behind her smiles and seeming gaiety, she
was the victim of deep-rooted unhappiness.
When Edward arrived on the day agreed upon for the
picnic, it was pouring with rain, so Kate assumed she had won the wager.
Edward, who considered himself too young to marry,
hoped Kate would become his mistress, yet, when they set out for his house in
Chelsea, he was torn between desire and his wish to help her overcome the grief
behind her fashionable façade.
When they arrived, it poured with rain, so Kate
assumed she had won the wager. However, Edward led her to a summer house in
which they would enjoy their picnic. He pointed out, that he had won because the
summer house was part of the garden. “So,”
he began triumphantly, “when the weather is more favourable, with your
permission, I shall sketch you beneath the boughs of a spreading oak tree.”
“Captain Howard did you
paint the interior?” Kate asked, intrigued by a scene of woodland carpeted with
bluebells, in which she noticed timid rabbits partially concealed in the lush
growth, a suspicious badger peering out from his set, and a wary fox peeping
from behind a gnarled oak tree. “Were you not an officer in Her Majesty’s
navy—and if you had the need to do so—you could command a living as an artist.”
There is much more to Kate’s young admirer than she
had realised. As for Edward, as time passed, he fell in love with the countess
and wanted to marry her; so he thanked fate, which determined that through his
skill as an artist Kate, who had declared that she would never marry again,
regarded him more favourably.
The Captain and The
Countess
Why does heart-rending pain lurk in the back of the
wealthy Countess of Sinclair’s eyes?
Captain Howard’s life changes forever from the moment
he meets Kate, the intriguing Countess and resolves to banish her pain.
Although the air sizzles when widowed Kate, victim of
an abusive marriage meets Edward Howard, a captain in Queen Anne’s navy, she
has no intention of ever marrying again.
However, when Kate becomes better acquainted with the
Captain she realises he is the only man who understands her grief and can help
her to untangle her past.
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