If Lucy suffers a major embarassment, even if it's all in her head, it'll color her developing relationship with James - don't know what you've got planned, but is that okay? It's also a question of how major an event you want this to be. Will it throw things off kilter?

Just some thoughts. I think you've gotten some pretty good advice already.

Well, they need some roadblocks--they're really quite well-matched, if I do say so myself, and if they realize it too soon, it'll throw the pacing of the story off, since I'm bucking recent romance tradition by not throwing some random enemy into the last forty pages to kidnap Lucy so he can murder James or something lame like that.

throwing some random enemy into the last forty pages to kidnap Lucy so he can murder James or something lame like that

Gah.

Then it sounds like you want to go for maximum trauma!

Do you know, I rather like option #3?

First off, it sounds as if Lucy is rather short on friends, and females to love and trust generally; if Cordelia is a bit of an airhead, while she might well keep their secret, would either James or Lucy have reason to know or believe that? They'd be on tenterhooks everytime she opened her mouth.

So in my head, it gives a nice unifying touch (everytime the girl opens her mouth, in front of Lucy and James, their tums do flipflops) without being tense enough to frell things up too early in the story, plus you get the benefit of giving Lucy someone she can trust who isn't the guy who is essentially buying her out of poverty.

Your romantic regency mileage etc....

edit: otoh - you want maximum trauma, I'd have the bitchy chick find them.)

throwing some random enemy into the last forty pages to kidnap Lucy so he can murder James or something lame like that

Gah.

I know! I mean, where are all these ordinary upper-class 19th century Brits picking up all these Mortal Enemies? There's a time and a place for intrigue and murder (says the woman who just finished a re-read of Kushiel's Dart and loved every page), but not when it's awkwardly shoehorned in to the ending of what for 275 pages was a perfectly peaceable sexy comedy of manners.

Thanks for the input, everyone. I'm still not 100% sure where I'm going to go, but I've got sixteen pages of longhand from the last week that need to be entered, so I'm going to do that and hope the answer comes as I revisit what I've just written.

Whoo-hoo!

Just received a box of twelve uncorrected advance bound proof copies of "Weaver"!

The cover, not quite finished, is gorgeous; same as the Minotaur catalog, but with an absolutely beautiful greyscale drawing of Ringan's cottage and barn. Dan (Ruth's aide de camp) is going to tell the art department that I approve, and would like the sheet of paper being pulled away (cover design is a top sheet partly peeled back to expose the cottage and barn) would be even better as a piece of sheet music.

Happy! I have prezzies for people!

Hooray!

Yeah!

Wow! I'm so impressed I know people whose books are not stapled together in their closets.

Manoman, they took my suggestion. Happy about that. The cover itself is pale blue, with this ghostly shadowed greyscale 18th century cottage and thatched barn. Dan says he'll not only tell the art department about making the peelaway a piece of sheet music, but also suggest using the sheet music theme as a design element throughout the book.

And the cover says "The first in a new series bringing old English mystery ballads into the modern world".

Large as life! and twice as natural!