Arabella Sheen is today's guest on The Heart of Romance

Arabella Sheen is a British author of Contemporary and Regency Romance.
Published with Beachwalk Press, she is also a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association.

One of the many things Arabella loves to do is to read, and when she's not reading or writing romance novels, she is either on her allotment sowing and planting with the seasons or she can be found curled on the sofa pandering to the demands of her attention seeking cat.

Published ~ March 3^rd ‘19

Westbury - A Traditional Regency Romance

Can Miss Georgina Morton surrender her independence and accept the Duke’s love?

Miss Georgina Morton, at the age of four-and-twenty, with a modest annual income of four hundred pounds, believes she has no need of a husband and can manage quite nicely without one. Yet within a matter of weeks, she’s betrothed to Giles Glentworth, the Sixth Duke of Westbury, and bound for Regency London.
Set in rural Wiltshire and elegant, fast-paced London...a runaway ward, a shooting at midnight, and a visit to fashionable Almack’s, are only a few of the adventures Georgina enjoys while falling for the Corinthian charms of the Duke.

And a big hello to Sherry Gloag’s ‘The Heart of Romance’ readers. My name is Arabella Sheen and I’m an author of sweet/clean and sensual Contemporary and Regency romance novels.

Sherry has kindly invited me along to her blog spot and in doing so she’s set me quite a challenge. She’s asked me to imagine a fictitious interview with the imaginary characters from my latest Regency release ‘Westbury’. Now if that’s not a challenge, I don’t know what is.

  

Westbury’s book blurb reveals that we’ve been transported to Regency England where the need for mobile phones and laptops has yet to be thought of; let alone invented. So, forgive me while I sharpen my quill, select a fine piece of parchment paper, gather a smattering of sand, and prepare to answer the quizzes put to Miss Georgina Morton (my Regency heroine) and Giles Glentworth, the Sixth Duke of Westbury (my dashing hero), on topics that I’m sure will be of some interest to you.

  

Here are a few questions from Sherry. So let’s begin…

Sherry: Why did you want Arabella to write your story?

Georgina: To put it simply, I wanted Arabella to show her readers how I struggled and fought to maintain my independence. Giles will tell you, my independence is something that’s important to me. And although getting to know him was a great adventure and one that I would not have missed for the world, our courtship, if one can call it a courtship, was not always easy. He wanted me to give up my autonomy for a short duration, to appease society’s need for correctness. That act alone impinged on my principles yet for some reason, I found myself doing exactly what he wished me to do.

Giles: I beg to differ. I more or less knew straight away that Georgina was the one for me and there was to be absolutely no “short duration” about it. Georgina is feisty and treats me with complete and utter disrespect. And although I’m somewhat ashamed to admit it, I quite like her overbearing, officious management of me.

Georgina: Giles! We are talking about my need for independence not my meddlesome management of you.

Giles: So you admit you’re meddlesome?

Georgina: No, of course, I don’t. I might be a trifle interfering but I’m never meddlesome. However, back to the question of my independence. My longing for independence was more to do with being financially self-sufficient and able to survive in this world without the necessity of a man in my life. In the eighteen-hundreds’, this isn’t always an easy thing to accomplish. It’s dreadfully frowned upon in my community for a woman to remain unattached and unwed after the age of twenty. Scandalous that it is, I must confess to being all of four-and-twenty. I was perfectly content with my decision to remain a spinster and I had built a secure world in which I cared for my father and ran his household. It was to my liking…and then Giles came along.

Giles: I did. I came along and haven’t left her side since. I too like my independence, but my need for self-government was slightly different from Georgina’s. I desired freedom of spirit. Freedom to have the time to indulge in my hobbies. Freedom not to be continuously accountable for my position in life. Being a Duke can tie you to duties and these duties can be restricting. But there comes a point in most people’s lives when a crossroad is reached and a decision has to be made. Georgina turned my life completely around, and after that, maintaining my independent lifestyle seemed pointless compared to the rewards I could reap if I was in a relationship with Georgina.

Sherry: Did you get tough with your author?

Georgina: In some parts of the story, I think I caused Arabella a few problems. I had to behave realistically within the bound of social conventions yet I continually had the urge to flaunt convention – and often did.

Giles: I think Arabella (and my mother) believed I had issues with woman. I suggest you read the book and draw your own conclusions.

Sherry: How hard was it to share your deepest secrets with Arabella?

Georgina: I mostly share my opinions and beliefs with Miss Abigail Channing. Abigail is Giles’s ward and cousin. She can be quite a handful at times but as Abigail has said on more than one occasion, we are almost like sister’s…and sisters always share. Don’t they? Oh…and of course, any emotional inner conflicts and division of loyalties were worked through with Arabella.

Giles: I simply don’t share. I don’t share my secrets, my horses…nor my woman.

Georgina: Giles Glentworth! If you are slyly referring to Mr Mark Goldman as being my―

Giles: What in the world would make you think that, my dear? I would no more refer to Mr Goldman as your secret than you would refer to Lady Charlotte as being mine.

Georgina: Well I never! I’ve a good mind to…

  

Sherry: What character quirks are you pleased that Arabella wrote about you?

Georgina: One of the quirks that I delight in, is in knowing what Giles wants before he does.

Giles: I don’t have any particular quirks. Especially not the fact that I’m overly fastidious about my apparel or that my horses are―

Georgina: Sherry, I’m terribly sorry. But we can’t reveal any more. If we do, I’m afraid the mysteries of Westbury will be revealed and we wish Arabella’s readers to discover for themselves what our adventure entails. Don’t we, Giles?

Giles: Yes, my sweet pea. I shall agree with anything and everything you say. Always…

Sherry,

Thank you for having me as a guest on ‘The Heart of Romance’. It was a fun exercise and if one thing comes of this, it’s that I’ve discovered I much preferred writing about Georgina and Giles’s romance than having to listen to their thought-provoking opposing views on life during this interview. They’ve exhausted me.

I also hope your readers will forgive me for not expanding further as I’m reluctant to give too much of Westbury’s plots and twists away. As the story unfolds and the pages are turned, you’ll soon discover how Georgina and Giles unravel their inner conflicts and test one another’s strengths and weaknesses so they can come together and find true love.

Best wishes,

Arabella Sheen

You are very welcome Arabella.

Author Bio:

Having worked and lived in the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands for nearly twenty years, she now lives in the South West of England with her family.

Arabella keeps in touch with her readers on:
Facebook: Arabella Sheen - Author
Twitter: @ArabellaSheen

Webpage: www.arabellasheen.co.uk