Just a Little Heartache (The Brotherhood #5) - Merry Farmer Page 0,108
In fact, those sparks might be around for several books as the two of them work against each other…and possibly together…to find both the medallion and Ian, Annamarie, and Alan! There’s much more of The Brotherhood to look forward to!
But before that, you’re going to get a chance to catch up with all of the couples from The Brotherhood series so far in the next book, Just a Little Christmas! This novella is my little gift to you. It’s light-hearted, fun, and sure to put a smile on your face and leave you fanning yourself.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I just have to share this with you too…. Forms of address are complex and controversial, especially among Romance writers, and I really hate them. It’s one reason why I try to avoid writing about the higher ranks of the nobility completely. My personal belief is that, while there were rules in place, behind closed doors and in the privacy of one’s own home and among one’s friends, no one gave a you know what. Yes, Blake, as a duke, would have been referred to publically as “your grace”. But among his friends? At home? That’s a whole other kettle of fish. However, I did have one head-scratcher as I wrote this. How would Xavier, Blake’s valet, address him? On the one hand, Xavier is a servant. On the other, he’s Blake’s closest friend.
So I went to the hive mind and asked the question in a Facebook author group I’m part of. And as I should have expected, the answers ran the gamut from “He would absolutely call Blake ‘your grace’” to “Body servants called their masters by much less formal names, like ‘sir’”. After much discussion (with authors sharing links to online resources left and right and getting into fistfights on the subject that would have been funny if I hadn’t been in the middle of them) it all came down to one VERY important point: A duke is called whatever a duke wants to be called by the people closest to him. Because he’s a freakin’ duke. Good point! That’s why I chose to have Xavier refer to Blake as “sir”. In my mind, Blake would have preferred for Xavier to just address him as “Blake”, but given his personality, Xavier would never dare. Calling Blake “sir” is about as informal as Xavier is willing to go. (P.S. You’ll get to know Xavier much, much better soon, as he’s one of the heroes of Just a Little Mischief, coming this spring!)
Now, all that being said, as part of this long and ponderous discussion, my bestie, Caroline Lee, actually had the best answer to the question “What would Xavier call Blake?” It was such a good answer that I’m sharing it with you in its entirety:
“So there you go, Merry. His valet can call him whatever the Duke says he can call him.
Please, please, have the Duke drunkenly declare "you can call me Ducky McCheeseface for all I care, Xavier" and then the valet calls him Sir Ducky for years...”
Xavier would be appalled.
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The theater was one of the only places in London that a man like Edward Archibald could truly hide. Of course, it was rather like hiding in plain sight, because everyone with even a shred of sense knew that the world of the theater was and always had been full of inverts, women of loose morals, and every other sort of unconventional personality to be found under the sun. Society was willing to overlook certain aspects of the character of theatrical types as long