Undeceived (25 page)

“Are the rumors I hear true? You’re leaving the agency?”

“It’s a condition of my deal. In exchange for giving them Tom Bennet, the agency will treat me as if I were a triple-agent. I’m not blameless. I couldn’t identify Tom Bennet—or Baker, as he was known at The Park Café all those years. But I knew such a man existed, and I wasn’t forthcoming. I deluded myself into thinking that, when my father died, it would all go away—that Tom had no one left to handle. I thought the disguise was over.”

“I could talk to some people. We could still make a place for you in the agency.”

“No. Thanks, but it isn’t where I should be. Too much has happened, and there will always be suspicion in some circles about my actions, my motives.”

“The London Fog is a legend around the agency water coolers. You’ll be missed.”

Darcy laughed. “I highly doubt that.” He draped an arm around Elizabeth’s shoulders. “Besides, I’ll still get to see my real friends there from time to time, now that my wife is heading up her team in counterintelligence.”

“What will you do?”

“I’m going to assume the blissfully mundane position of president of my family’s company in Baltimore. When the director sent me off to Trinidad, it was one of the options I entertained: running the family business and settling down with a modern-day Southern belle. So I guess I did it after all in a convoluted fashion.”

“Best of luck to you both.” Bingley stood, offered his hand and a one-armed hug to Darcy, and another kiss to Elizabeth. Then he walked away.

The Darcys sat on the bench for several more minutes. They heard the shrill call of a police siren, and Elizabeth wondered if that might be the sound signaling the end of Tom Bennet. But no, he would most likely be taken quietly without fanfare or noise, never to be seen or heard from again. She rose and pulled her husband to his feet.

“Let’s go home.”

He kissed her hand like a gallant gentleman in a Regency romance, and they turned from the sadness of the Vietnam Memorial Wall, taking with them the lessons learned from tragedy and the quiet acceptance that follows in their wake.

Finis

Author’s Q&A

For use in book group discussions, tea times, or happy hour conversations—

Q:
Undeceived
is clearly inspired by Jane Austen’s
Pride and Prejudice
. How do your Elizabeth Bennet and William Darcy compare to Austen’s?

A:
In Austen’s story, both Elizabeth and Darcy learn to see their own mistakes in judgment, and we love them because they discover their faults and gain humility but never lose their dignity or integrity. We also love that they learn these lessons from each other. In
Undeceived
, Elizabeth begins as a naïve young officer who is so swept up in the excitement of her new career that she doesn’t realize she’s setting out with a whole set of dubious beliefs and expectations. Like Austen’s Darcy, my Darcy believes he’s the smartest person in the room, but he learns wisdom over the course of the book, and sort of reintegrates humility back into his life.

Q: How did the modern setting and the mystery dynamic compare to the original?

A:
The modern setting dictates that the characters (particularly the women) have more freedom. Actually, the mystery and the espionage dynamics were useful plot devices in that they restricted characters’ behavior in ways parallel to Austen but still believable in modern times. For example, after the attempt on Elizabeth’s life, she is left waiting and wondering in a way that mirrors the way Austen’s Elizabeth was forced to await her fate after Lydia runs off with Wickham. Unless there are special circumstances involved, modern women have a lot more control over their lives than those in Regency times.

Q: In this modern mystery, most of your characters translate easily and are readily identified with Austen’s counterpart characters, but how did Anneliese fit into your reimagining?

A:
Anneliese Vandenburg (her name is a clue to her Austen counterpart) is the woman who everyone pulling the strings thinks Darcy should fall for, but he doesn’t. However, she doesn’t act like her Austen counterpart much at all, so at first it’s hard to see the parallel.

Q: How does your Bill Collins compare to Austen’s Mr. Collins?

A:
There are a lot of similarities to Austen’s Collins: social/career climbing, ingratiating, annoying. But I think he will surprise readers in the end.

Q: How about your George Wickham compared to Austen’s Wickham?

A:
Wickham is easy to write into a modern story: a handsome flirt, a self-made “victim” with a gift for smooth, persuasive talk. Who doesn’t know at least one person like that in our modern era?

Q: It’s highly unusual in
Pride and Prejudice
variations to depict Mr. Bennet as he was written in
Undeceived
. What inspired his creation?

A:
I think the Mr. Bennet in
Undeceived
mirrors Austen’s in that he’s a big influence on Elizabeth (albeit sometimes to her detriment), but he’s unavailable to truly guide her. He, like the original Mr. Bennet, leaves his daughter to figure life out on her own.

Q: At the heart of this mystery is a love story. When do you think Elizabeth fell in love with Darcy and why?

A:
Elizabeth always is attracted to Darcy, even from the first minute, because, as she discusses with Charlotte, “Let’s face it, he’s hot.” But like Austen’s Elizabeth, she really falls for him after she sees Pemberley. In
Undeceived
, Pemberley (located in Barbados) is beautiful but not the overwhelming estate it is in
Pride and Prejudice
. But it serves its purpose in that it is the backdrop against which she sees another side of Darcy—a glimmer of the real man, someone who cares about her and will treat her well. Plus, he really is hot.

Q: The sisters in
Pride and Prejudice
are a big part of that story. How do Elizabeth’s relationships with the women in
Undeceived
compare?

A:
Being an intelligence officer on assignment abroad sort of negated the influence of sisters on the story, but each “sister” is mentioned in at least a minor way: a fellow recruit, a friend in Budapest, Wickham’s girlfriend in West Germany. Jane (as in the original story) plays the biggest role in the form of Johanna.

Q: What inspired you to set the story at the end of the Cold War?

A:
In the Acknowledgments, I blame my husband (tongue in cheek) and his idea to mash up the movie
No Way Out
and
Pride and Prejudice
. That was where the idea started, but as I researched and read, it took on a fascination of its own. The 1980s were an interesting time in the CIA: Angleton’s “molehunt” was over, but the agency was still disrupted by the aftereffects of it, Casey was using officers with “non-official cover” more often, and then there was the case of the real double agent, Aldrich Ames. Just a few years later, in 1989, the Berlin Wall came down, and a cascade of sweeping political changes followed in Europe. Also, the 1980s seemed to me a time of transitions, sort of like walking on a beach the morning after a wild party—feeling a little discombobulated, an old, tired kind of quiet, trash strewn about. How does one pick up and move to the new day, the next thing? In a way,
Undeceived
is all about leaving the familiar behind, taking what can be salvaged from it, and forging ahead into a future that’s different and hopefully better than what you had imagined.

Acknowledgements

Undeceived
was a mighty undertaking: over two years of research, reading, postulating, writing, and editing that was by turns exhilarating and challenging. Sometimes this novel pushed me to my limits, and the process was fraught with frustration and uncertainty. As with most of life’s mighty undertakings, a laundry list developed of people whose help was crucial at various points along the path.

I know it is customary for authors to say that a book wouldn’t exist without their spouse’s support, but for
Undeceived
, that statement is quite literally the truth. My husband even pitched the idea to my publisher (without asking my permission first, I might add!) over dinner at a Brazilian restaurant in Nashville, TN. He pushed for the story concept, listened to the manuscript, asked key questions, and answered a few as well. He championed
Undeceived
from the get-go, so he gets the first thank you.

Second, I want to thank those who provided me invaluable feedback. My editor, Christina Boyd, delivered no-nonsense critiques that took a cloudy nugget of a story and clarified and polished it—all accompanied by an unflagging enthusiasm for the project that kept me believing in it. She went the extra mile, made the novel twenty times better, and I’m extremely grateful for her expertise.

I received wonderful input from Ágnes Nógrádi, who helped with Hungarian vocabulary and diacritical marks, and gave me wonderful insights into Hungarian culture that improved those chapters immensely. Lynnette Berry provided assistance with the East German sections, giving me suggestions for wording and tidbits of information from that time before reunification. Thanks, ladies!

The staff at Meryton Press is phenomenal. There are a thousand things that must happen behind the scenes to make a book a reality. I’m fortunate to have Michele Reed at the helm because she understands authors—and likes them anyway! Ellen Pickels excels at copy editing, formatting and design. She makes us all look good. Zorylee Diaz-Lupitou is an amazing artist whose vision for a project is unsurpassed. It was a good day when I sent her that email saying, “If you could shut my mouth and do whatever you wanted for this cover, what would you do?” She used her ideas and expertise but still spent a lot of time working with me on characterization, color palette, titles, etc. The result is a beautiful cover that also represents the story.

I also want to extend my thanks to the readers of this book. What you hold in your hands is fiction but in many places, it is a delicate dance between history and my imagination. Sometimes I took necessary artistic license with events, locations and organizations, and I appreciate your willingness to suspend disbelief and immerse yourself in the imaginary world of the story. In the five years since I became a published author, no encouragement has meant more to me than the words of a happy reader. Whether it’s a comment on one of my unpublished works at
A Happy Assembly
, a line on social media or my author blog, or a Goodreads or Amazon review, I always appreciate hearing from you.

And finally, I want to express my gratitude for Jane Austen: a writer, a lady, a wit, a genius, and an inspiration. She was a true original, and the mold was broken after she left the world.

Praise for the Novels of
Karen M. Cox

At the Edge of the Sea

“… intoxicating and heartfelt romance … Readers will be entertained and inspired by this winning tale.”
Publishers Weekly

“… a poignant and expressive love story that should not be missed!”
Austenesque Reviews

Winner: 2014 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in Romance
and
Chick Lit categories

Find Wonder in All Things

“Karen M. Cox has another winner on her hands.”
Leatherbound Reviews

“… stands on its own and no wonder at all, why it was awarded the Gold Medal in the Romance category at the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards.”
Austenprose

Finalist: 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in Romance category

1932

“This is one of my favorite
Pride and Prejudice
-inspired novels …”
Babblings of a Bookworm

“Cox stays true to the spirit of all the characters and weaves them into her own original story …”
Goodreads
review

Bronze Medal for Romance: Independent Publisher Book Awards, 2011

Author Bio

Karen M Cox writes novels accented with romance and history. All three of her published novels:
1932, Find Wonder in All Things,
and
At the Edge of the Sea,
have garnered awards from the independent publishing industry, taking top honors three out of the five times they were recognized. Last year, she also participated in Meryton Press’s inaugural anthology,
Sun-Kissed: Effusions of Summer,
with her short story, “Northanger Revisited 2015.”
Undeceived: Pride and Prejudice in the Spy Game
is her fourth full-length novel.

Karen was born in Everett WA, which was the result of coming into the world as the daughter of a United States Air Force Officer. She had a slightly nomadic childhood, with stints in North Dakota, Tennessee and New York State before moving to her family’s home state of Kentucky when she was almost twelve. She lives in a small, quiet Kentucky town with her husband and children, and works as a pediatric speech pathologist. She spends her off hours reading, writing,
and being a wife and mom—and spoiling her new granddaughter.

Connect with Karen

Amazon Author Page:
www.amazon.com/author/karenmcox

Meryton Press blog:
www.karenmcox.merytonpress.com

And on several of the usual social media haunts such as Facebook, (karenmcox1932), Twitter (@karenmcox1932), Pinterest (karenmc1932), Instagram (karenmcox1932), and Tumblr (karenmcox).