#CharacterInterview: “Let Love Find A Way” by Mary Georgina de Grey

Today, we have the heroine from Mary Georgina de Grey’s latest novel. Let’s get started…

What’s your name, and who are you in your world?

I’m Tegan Lewis. I’m just 19 years old when the story begins and I live on a cattle farm in Colombia in South America. I’ve spent my whole life in the baking heat of this beautiful country and long to get away, to know something different. I’m engaged to be married to the son of a local politician and should be content. But I am not. 

Interesting! Give us a visual. What do you look like?

I’m quite tall, slim and strong. People say I have a Celtic look, with red-gold hair and freckles, but to me it means I’m not particularly pretty. Still, money can carry you a long way, and we have plenty of that.

So true, about money, but I’ve always envied women with red hair. I think it’s so pretty. What time period and location does your story take place?

It’s 1966. In Britain, it’s a time of opening up, particularly for young women, but in Colombia, it might as well be the 19^th century with frustrating curbs on everything you want to do.

What’s your goal in this story? 

I want to explore the world and work out what I should be doing with my life. Here on the ranch, I do a responsible job. It’s work my father used to do until he was diagnosed with cancer. He’s getting better and I’m happy to continue until he’s ready to take back the reins, but I hate the way it’s assumed by outsiders that I can’t do this work – because I’m a woman.

I can see why that would be frustrating. What conflicts are you facing?

My parents want me to train for something ‘ladylike,’ in which I have no interest. Society expects me to behave in a genteel, feminine fashion and be subservient to any man, especially my future husband. I don’t know what to do about it, but something has to change. When I told my mother, she suggested I go to Wales, to my aunt’s farm. We’re Welsh through and through and she has in mind that I pick up a husband there. She’s never been happy about Luis. I rejected that at first.

What did you think the first time you saw Hywel?

I felt a stab of what I now recognise as desire but actually, I just enjoyed looking at him. He’s a very good-looking man in that dark, saturnine way that some Welshmen have. Melancholic too, because of the events in his past. I compared him with the cowboys on our ranch and found them wanting.

Hywel sounds intriguing. Do you have a pet? 

We have cats and dogs on the ranch, and I have a mare called Bonny. I’ve always had horses and have ridden since I was a tiny child. Since I came to Wales I’ve been riding Thunder. He’s a great, ugly brute in comparison, well over sixteen hands, but very intelligent. We’ve really bonded which I never thought would happen after leaving Bonny.

You had me at horses! What is your viewpoint on wealth?

If you have money, you have to use it. it’s no use storing your riches in a vault which feels immoral and rather stupid. My grandmother, who left me a bequest, taught me that: make it achieve something.

Who was the biggest role model in your life?

My grandmother was very much a role model, and I love my parents, but my lovely aunt, Bronwen, really influenced me once I arrived in Wales. I admired the way she did things, copied the way she managed the farm, the way she respected the farm hands. They all loved her, and I very much hope to achieve the same level of respect in time.

Your aunt sounds like a strong woman. What other character from your book do you think your author should write a book about? 

This is a difficult question. Maybe Hywel’s father and Emma. But we don’t know what happened to Angharad. I’ve never heard anything of her since our unfortunate day out in Newport. She would be a good subject, but it would be a very different type of book from this one.

Thank you for the wonderful interview, Tegan. Feel free to come again.

Blurb for Let Love Find a Way by Mary Georgina de Grey

Family tradition dictates the women go home to Wales to find a husband, but it’s 1966 and Tegan Lewis, daughter of a wealthy Colombian cattle rancher, rejects this old-fashioned idea.

And she’s going to marry Luís, son of a local politician with ambitions. But when it comes to it, she can’t bend to his desire to turn her into a society lady. Deeply hurt that he doesn’t understand her need to prioritise the ranch while her father is recovering from cancer, she makes a complete break with him and ends up on a journey half way across the world – to a remote Welsh village and a chance to discover her roots.

She’s certainly not looking for love, but high in the Brecon Beacons, she meets sheep farmer Hywel Davies – handsome, intense and with a tragic past – and soon realises how shallow her previous relationship was.

Divided by two very different cultures and 5,000 miles of ocean, can they find a way to make a life together?

Excerpt from Let Love Find a Way

‘That’s great, Luís. How does your mother feel about the possibility of being a senator’s wife?’  

‘My mother knows what’s expected of her and she has a lot of friends among the political families. I think she’s looking forward to what this will open up for us.’   

My goodness, he sounded so … pompous. ‘Do they know yet where they’ll live?’  

‘Papá’s in Bogotá right now, researching possible houses. He’ll need a base if all this works out.’  

They talked for a while longer about the inevitable changes but then sank into an uneasy silence. Nothing felt right today. A niggling worry sprang up at the back of Tegan’s mind, but she pushed it away.  

Hadn’t he said he wanted to discuss their engagement when he’d rung the evening before?  About a month earlier, they’d agreed they would marry, but they lived in a very traditional society, so the first step had to be an engagement, with everyone invited to a party to underline the importance of the moment, especially as the two families occupied positions of importance in the area.   

‘Couldn’t we just tell people we’re engaged and set a date for the wedding?’ she’d said. ‘It would be so much simpler.’  

‘It’s not about what’s easy. The party will be a huge event in the area, you know that. We have to think of our position.’ She hadn’t liked his repressive tone and was hard put to hide her irritation. Sometimes he sounded older than her father.  

‘All sorts of important people will attend. Just think what Mari-Dolores and Sofía would think if you didn’t have a party to celebrate.’  

She’d smiled then; actually, that was true. It was ironic that at nineteen, the down-to-earth, hardworking member of the trio of friends would be the first to settle down. And a party would certainly make the point.  

‘Okay, you’re right. We do have to have a party.’  

Biography

Email: marygeorginadg@gmail.com 

Website: https://marygeorginadegreyauthor.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086424198194 

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Newsletter: contact marygeorginadg@gmail.com 

Learning several languages and using them at work has meant I have lived in different European countries, and I even spent a couple of years in South America. Though I live in the UK now, this rich experience has provided me with lots of material for my novels.

The novels each have a love story as central, featuring strong women determined to make something of their lives, despite setbacks – and there are quite a few. I now have three books published, have completed a fourth, romantic suspense, and am just beginning on a fifth to be set in France.

My home is in South Devon on the beautiful English Riviera with my husband, an artist and sculptor. When not writing a novel, I’m putting together talks about romance and why it should be given serious consideration as a genre. As you can imagine, I get booked up around Valentine’s Day, but I also speak at festivals when I get the opportunity