Read Around the Rainbow: Someone insults your main character. How do they react?

There was a great deal of discussion about this month’s Read Around the Rainbow blog topic until lovely Addison Albright came up with the final wording. I am so looking forward to reading about everyone else’s MCs and the different ways they respond to being insulted!

When we were chatting about this idea, I couldn’t help but think of the ensemble cast of my Regency romp Twelve Letters series and how each of them would react to an insult. For those of you unfamiliar with the series so far, my cast consists of three increasingly established couples living in Regency London.

They are Daniel Walters, a Bond Street tailor and Jo Everett, a gentleman but not wealthy, then Jo’s best friend, Captain Ben Harding and Dr Edward Stephens and finally, the immensely rich and business-minded Nathan Brooks and (mainly reformed) Regency himbo, the Honourable Percy Havilland. In the first book, Twelve Letters, which is set in spring 1814, Percy is the youngest in his early twenties, with most of the group in their mid-twenties and Nathan, the oldest in his mid-thirties.

The series and the central relationships progress with Queer Relations, set in autumn 1814, Coming of Age set in spring 1815, Gentlemen’s Agreement set in the autumn of the same year and upcoming stories The Misfit and May Wedding are set in spring 1816 and 1817 respectively.

Daniel, a working man serving the tailoring needs of the gentlemen of the ton, can’t really afford to be insulted. So it’s probably a good thing that he’s such a mild and generous person. I’m sure during his working days, he’s received many a ticking off from gentlemen who refuse to believe they’ve put on a couple of stone since their last fitting and blame Daniel for making their clothes in an incorrect size. Then there’s the fashionable trend of gentlemen delaying to pay off their account, often for several years, ending up owing fortunes to shopkeepers. Such types have to be dealt with firmly but tactfully. If anyone can manage that without being insulted or causing offence, it would be Daniel.

Jo, Daniel’s partner in life, is equally good-natured. If personally insulted, he’d probably react by apologising instantly. However, if anyone criticised his group of friends, let alone Daniel, he’d probably get quite cross, which would be very noticeable in someone usually so easygoing.

Ben is far more irascible than Jo, who never rises to the bait of Ben’s uncertain temper, which is probably why they’ve been friends since their school days. Although disabled from serving in the Napoleonic Wars, Ben is a crack shot and handy with a sword, so insult him at your peril! He even threatened to challenge poor Edward to a duel before he decided to fall in love with him instead.

Despite excelling at his profession, and being unmoved by injury and illness, Edward is a gentle soul and any insult would cause him much heart-searching. However, his relationship with Ben has probably caused him to be less thin-skinned since Ben’s bark is far worse than his bite.

Our final couple, Nathan and Percy, would take insults very seriously. Any gentleman of the ton would be even more cautious of insulting Nathan than they would Ben. Not that Nathan is particularly martial, but he’s physically imposing and forbidding and has excellent connections within the world of finance. A would-be insulter might pause before considering the consequences of vital lines of credit refused or suddenly discover that no one wishes to offer them that crucial loan.

Percy, tall, slim, blond, youthful and beautiful, is deceptively angelic in appearance but won’t take slights lightly, whether to himself (I mean who could criticise such an exquisite) his close friends or his beloved family. Having weathered a family scandal and subsequent gossip, Percy takes no prisoners. Unlike Ben or Nathan, the effects of an insult might not be immediate, but revenge will be served eventually and with devastating relish. Fair warning, the guilty party would have to watch their back for the next thirty years or so!

My post will be linked on the last Friday of every month with posts from fellow blog ring members. There are six other writers blogging in the Read Around the Rainbow Webring this month… find their posts about how their main characters respond to insults!

A .L. Lester : Ofelia Grand : Holly Day : Addison Albright : Fiona Glass : Kristin Noone

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