Amanda (The Jane Austen Series)

White Smith Debra

Description

Amanda: A Contemporary Retelling of EmmaA bit of a busybody, Amanda always has her friends' best interests at heart. She prides herself on her matchmaking skills . . . but when nothing seems to be going according to plan on the beautiful island of Tasmania, can she learn to listen to her own heart?

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 17 avril 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493413898
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2006 by Debra White Smith
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Bethany House edition published 2018
Previously published by Harvest House Publishers.
Ebook edition created 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-1389-8
Cover design by Connie Gabbert
Author is represented by Alive Literary Agency
Dedication
Dedicated to my wonderful friends, the MacFarlanes. Thanks for loving me the way I am and for being our very own “family.” You’re the GREATEST!
Contents

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Cast
A Note from the Author
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
About the Author
Back Ads
Back Cover
Cast

Amanda Wood Priebe: Based upon Emma Woodhouse from Jane Austen’s Emma . Amanda is a witty young heiress of both the Wood and Priebe fortunes. She declares herself wholly devoted to her father and “married” to their prosperous tourist company.
Angie Townsend West: Based upon Anne Taylor. Amanda’s former governess, Angie has just married banker Wayne West. Even though her new marriage takes her from the Priebe household, she and Amanda are still the greatest of friends.
Bev Knighton: Based upon Isabella Knightley. Amanda’s sister, Bev, is happily married to Gordon Knighton. She and Gordon live in Brisbane, Australia, where they are raising their four children.
Betty Cates: Based upon Hetty Bates. The housekeeper at Wood-Priebe International Travel, Betty is a scatterbrained clean freak who never stops talking.
Franklyn West: Based upon Frank Churchill. Son of Wayne West and stepson of Angie Townsend West, Franklyn is the charming newcomer to Highland. His mysterious smile, good looks, and glib remarks attract the attention of many females—including Amanda.
Haley Schmitz: Based upon Harriet Smith. Amanda’s dowdy secretary, Haley, comes from humble origins and puts ultimate faith in Amanda’s judgment.
Harold Priebe: Based upon Henry Woodhouse. Amanda’s father and a widower, Harold is the owner of the Wood-Priebe International Travel Agency chain.
Gordon Knighton: Based upon John Knightley. The brother of Nate Knighton, Gordon is married to Amanda’s sister, Bev, and is one of two vice presidents of Knighton’s Department Stores.
Janet French: Based upon Jane Fairfax. Betty Cates’s adopted niece, Janet usually turns heads in every crowd. An elegant young lady of Asian descent, Janet’s good looks and grace could drive even the most accomplished female into a fit of envy.
Mason Eldridge: Based upon Philip Elton. Mason is the minister of music at Highland Metropolitan Church of Tasmania. While his claims indicate his only ambition in life is to be a man of the cloth, his expensive tastes say he’s after a wife with money.
Nathanial “ Nate” Knighton: Based upon George Knightley. Nate is the brother of Gordon Knighton. Nate, ten years older than Amanda, has watched her grow up. He’s the other vice president of Knighton’s Department Stores.
Roger Miller: Based upon Robert Martin. Roger comes from a hardworking family who owns a dairy farm outside Highland, Tasmania. He is a man of high integrity and good character.
Wayne West: Based upon Mr. Weston. Wayne is Angie Townsend West’s new husband.
A Note from the Author

Tasmania, Australia, is a major tourist attraction for all of Australia as well as much of the world, and not without reason. The beauty of its beaches and mountains leaves residents and tourists alike breathless. However, if you look on a map of Tasmania, you’ll find Highland, Australia, exists as a suburb of Hobart only in the author’s imagination . . . and yours.
One

“Oh, hello, Roger!” Haley Schmitz’s voice floated through her ajar office door.
Amanda Wood Priebe lifted her fingers off the computer keyboard, scowled at her secretary’s door, and waited for the rest of the conversation. Haley has been seeing that brown-haired baboon for six months. What she sees in the dairy farmer is anybody’s guess, she thought. She had subtly hinted that Haley could do better, but the secretary never wavered in her fixation. Now the guy was calling her at work.
Haley’s soft laugh preceded gentle words. Amanda strained to catch the gist of the conversation but failed. Roger had been out of town for five days, and he’d called Haley every day. What an average Tasmanian farmer needed to go out of town for was a mystery. But absence was making Haley’s heart grow fonder.
This is moving to the desperate zone, Amanda told herself and decided to break her staunch rule of never eavesdropping unless absolutely necessary. In the last three months, Amanda could count on one hand the number of times eavesdropping had been necessary—that is, if she counted all five fingers two or three times.
Amanda slipped her feet out of her backless heels and scurried across the wool rug until her toes met the cool tile that stretched into Haley’s office. She hovered beside the open door and tried to catch her secretary’s every syllable.
“I miss you, too, Roger.” Haley’s rich, Australian coo deepened Amanda’s frown.
I’ve got to get her settled with someone else, Amanda thought, before she makes the biggest mistake of her life. Amanda glanced around. The painting of a herd of zebras on the west wall came from her trip to South Africa. The miniature sculpture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa commanding the corner reminded her of the trip to Italy. Even the woolen rug, in hues of teal and sapphire blue, was a souvenir shipped back from Asia. All trips had been essential research for the Wood-Priebe International Travel Agency. Wood-Priebe International never recommended a hotel or restaurant that a staff member hadn’t experienced personally.
Haley traveled with Amanda on every excursion. Her office told its own story—right down to the ever-burning ocean breeze candles that scented the office complex and forever whispered of the trip to the Bahamas. The thought of her kindhearted friend of three years marrying some farmer and being trapped in a cow paddock when she could be exploring the world made Amanda want to scream.
She deserves better! Amanda thought and decided Haley must be taking whatever she thought she could get. Haley had spent half her childhood in foster homes, and Amanda suspected her background had conditioned her to believe no one really wanted her. Amanda crossed her arms, tapped her toes, and decided to take this situation into her own hands. She mentally went through a list of single men who attended her church. None of them seemed a good fit for Haley; none were good enough.
Amanda pulled a package of spearmint gum from her blazer pocket, thoughtfully unwrapped a piece, and inserted it between her teeth. As the strong mint stung her tongue, she thought of the new music minister at Highland Metropolitan Church. Mason Eldridge had a touch of class. He’d traveled extensively. And he seemed broad-minded enough not to harness his wife into a monotonous existence on one continent.
Furiously, Amanda chomped at the gum. If Haley is so bent upon finding a husband, Mason will be so much better than that baboon.
But Haley needed to attract Mason first. Presently, there was absolutely no chance of that. The gum popped. Amanda had hinted for months that Haley should update her wardrobe, get a new hairstyle, and learn how to apply some makeup. Despite the encouragement, the twenty-four-year-old secretary arrived daily looking like she always did: drab, tired, and about as stylish as a soggy newspaper. Haley would never attract the likes of Mason Eldridge without a major makeover.
The travel agency CEO touched her shoulder-length hair. This humidity was causing her typically carefree red ringlets to become a sea of horrifying frizz, and she mentally noted that she was due for a trip to the salon. Suddenly, with a calculating smile, Amanda decided that the best way to get Haley to update her look was to make her believe her boss needed advice on her own makeover.
An hour ago, Amanda had left a voice mail with Mason about the choir schedule she’d volunteered to put together. She had yet to complete the schedule, even though she was supposed to have emailed it to Mason yesterday. Perhaps when he returned her call, she could begin the first stage of her plan.
A light tap preceded the hallway door’s opening and Nate Knighton’s cheerful voice. “Hello in here!”
Amanda jumped from her post near the other door and pretended to straighten the gold-framed mirror she’d purchased on her last visit to her aunt and uncle’s home in America.
“Hello, Nate,” Amanda replied. As his footsteps neared, she wondered how one man could always catch her so off guard at the most inopportune moments.
Nate’s reflection appeared behind her in the mirror. As usual, her lifelong friend was clad in a fashionable business suit with a red tie and white shirt. Last week Amanda decided the guy had to have the largest collection of red ties in all of Tasmania. The irony was that he was a vice president at his family-owned Knighton’s Department Stores. The national store chain featured a menswear section large enough to furnish all of Australia with any color ties they chose.
Amanda feigned the most innocent expression she could muster and wondered why Nate