How many of us have secrets?
I doubt if there would be many people who don’t have at
least one secret. I don’t mean of the dark, dangerous variety, but some of us
may well have a secret that could place us in danger. Fortunately, I am not one
of those.
My secret – I am a chocoholic. How many times have I told my
hubby that I no longer eat chocolates, then I sneak off to my several hiding
places (not to be divulged on pain of death), where my secret stash is hidden.
You should always have more than one hideout for your illicit goodies just in
case one of them is discovered. I don’t want to be like Old Mother Hubbard –
who went to the cupboard to get her dog a bone, and when she got there the
cupboard was bare and the poor doggie had none. Change that to and when
Margaret got to her secret stash, the chokkies were gone and she had none. A
disaster of that proportion could not be allowed to happen, hence a few hiding
places. I call it my insurance policy.
In many families there are secrets that will never see the
light of day, except if someone in the family is into Geneology. My sister has
unearthed some shocking scandals as she undertook research into our family
tree. I swear, I could write a book about it. One of the most shocking secrets
was the fact that my grandmother had a baby when she was unmarried and only
eighteen years old. The baby died when he was only 6 days old. A couple of
years later she married my grandfather. No-one knew that, it remained hidden
for 120 years, until my sister unearthed the information during her research.
Another relative spent time in jail in the 1880’s for aiding
and abetting Ned Kelly, a famous Australian bushranger (outlaw). Then there
were all the “premature” babies that were born to aunts and great aunts. Not to
mention one great uncle who had two wives. Then there was a cousin who ran off
with a man who was older than her father. That caused a stir. Especially as the
man had a wife and 4 children. Still, can’t be all bad, thirty years later, and
the couple are still together.
In my experience, and I do have to quantify this by saying I
mainly read historical romance because that is what I write, there are often
dark secrets lurking in the background. Some of these could be life
threatening, in any case at the very least they threaten the hero and heroine’s
chance of getting their happily ever after ending.
In my novel, Allison’s War, the heroine’s secret is that the
baby she is expecting does not belong to her husband.
In A Rose In No-Man’s Land, the hero hides a secret from the
heroine. She is broken hearted to find out that he won’t marry her, when in
fact he wants to marry her, but can’t because he is being blackmailed by the
sister of his dead wife. If he marries the heroine, he risks being hanged for a
murder that he did not commit.
In Daring Masquerade, my heroine pretends she is a boy so
she can gain employment with the hero. Then, of course, she falls in love with
the hero. I mean, what can she do about it?
In my novel, Haunted Hearts, (the only contemporary I have published),
the heroine discovers that her father-in-law has been going through her drawers
and stealing her panties.
So, you can see that secrets abound in my novels, and I am
sure I am not alone in this regard. A secret can drive our stories along, add
passion and drama, and keep the reader wondering what is this secret? How can
it be resolved? Will the hero and heroine get their HEA?
Margaret Tanner writes historical romance for The Wild Rose
Press and Books We Love.
3 comments:
Okay, Margaret - when we have a chance to meet in person, I'll bring the chocolate. I no longer hide it but have bars sitting out on a shelf in my office. I take several varieties and chop them up into bite size piece, mix them up and put them in a small cup on the dining room table - I must get up and walk almost 25 steps to get to it. I never know exactly what flavor I'll get (sea salt, chili, ginger, vanilla, lavender, etc.). Since I only eat dark chocolate, no one else in my family likes it - yeah me!
Yes, you could write book about your family's secrets - now unearthed. And I'd love to read it!
Enjoyed your post, Margaret! We're all fascinated by secrets, aren't we? They certainly add depth and narrative drive to your stories!
The snippet about Allison's War reminds me of a young family I knew many years ago. The mother had been carrying twins when she met and married her husband, not the father. They were very happy and both were wonderful parents. He considered the girls his daughters. Later they had a little boy together.
Love stories about family secrets! And yes we all have them!One that stands out in our family when my Uncle was doing research he discovered a relative in the 1800's was convicted of horse stealing and hanged. Some of our folks, 1700's came over to settle a community called Asylum, Pennsylvania, where Marie Antoinett was to escape to from France. She never made it!
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