Introducing Lady Elisabeth from Laura Frantz’s The Lacemaker

 

Today we welcome Lady Elisabeth from the novel The Lacemaker by Laura Frantz.

 Novel PASTimes: Welcome, Lady Elisabeth. If you had a free day with no responsibilities and your only mission was to enjoy yourself, what would you do?

Lady Elisabeth: I would walk through the gardens of Ty Mawr and Ty Bryn and spend the day with my twins in the fresh Virginia air. We’d enjoy a picnic of my husband’s favorite Welsh bara brith and tea and the like. I’d pick flowers for the foyer and bedchambers of Ty Mawr.

Novel PASTimes: What impression do you make on people when they first meet you?

Lady Elisabeth: Hmm…my dear husband, Noble, told me he first thought me pretty in a pale sort of way. I think people once viewed me as the spoiled only daughter of an overbearing aristocrat and believed me to be timid and vapid. Appearances are deceiving!

Novel PASTimes: What’s your idea of a good marriage?

Lady Elisabeth: Trust. And friendship. Both make a firm foundation. Noble first noticed me when my life turned upside down. Though it was a terrible trial at the time, if that was what led to marriage, my downfall was worth the price if that was what brought us together. At first, with others questioning whether or not I was a Tory spy, he had to determine whether to trust me. His life was on the line. Mine, too. I knew I could trust him from the outset when so many proved false. I trusted him with my life when my own father and supposed friends failed me. Most importantly, a shared faith is paramount. That has helped us weather a war and far more.

Novel PASTimes: What are you most proud of about your life?

Lady Elisabeth: Using the skills as a lacemaker learned from my mother and grandmother to help me through a tumultuous time. Remaining a lady when my title and lifestyle were stripped from me. Remembering who I belong to as the daughter of an eternal king if not an earthly earl.

Novel PASTimes: What do you believe about God?

Lady Elisabeth: I believe He holds all the world and events of history in His mighty hands. People of my day often refer to God as a distant being and call Him ‘Providence’ but I believe in a personal God who has a plan for my life, always bringing good from evil, always giving me hope. Sometimes His protection and leading are best seen in hindsight.

Novel PASTimes: What’s the worst thing that’s happened in your life?

Lady Elisabeth: Losing my home and family at the start of the American Revolution. Yet God has brought tremendous good out of heartache. I mean, here I am with a true, happy family in a beautiful house of my own with children and a loving husband. Before I had an unhappy, estranged family always at odds.

Novel PASTimes: Tell me about your best friend.

Lady Elisabeth: Once upon a time I would have said my former friends in Williamsburg, but few have stayed true. My husband is my best friend. He was my best friend since first meeting though I didn’t know it back then. He proved his friendship time after time, standing by me even at the risk of losing his own friends and fellow Patriots who suspected me of being a spy.
Novel PASTimes: What would you like it to say on your tombstone?

Lady Elisabeth: I rather like my old friend’s, Mister Benjamin Franklin:

The body of B. Franklin,

Printer,

Like the cover of an old book

Its contents torn out,

And stripped of its lettering and gilding,

lies here, food for worms.

But the work shall not be wholly lost,

for it will, as he believed, appear once more,

in a new and more perfect edition,

corrected and amended

by the Author.

Novel PASTimes: What a unique and thought-provoking epitaph. What are you most afraid of?

Lady Elisabeth: Losing my children. So many young ones don’t live beyond childhood in this day and age. They’ve brought such joy to my life. I’d like to keep them little forever, but in health and prosperity. But I also know, if the Lord were to take them, that heaven is far better than here.

Novel PASTimes: What advice would you give to those in times of war?

Lady Elisabeth: Live as simply and gratefully as you can. Help in practical ways. Pray. Let no one who comes to you go away hungry or ill-clothed. Be the hands and feet of our Lord.

Thank you, Lady Elisabeth, for giving us that inspiration.

Laura Frantz is a Christy Award finalist and the ECPA bestselling author of several books, including The Frontiersman’s Daughter, Courting Morrow Little, The Colonel’s Lady, The Mistress of Tall Acre, A Moonbow Night, and the Ballantyne Legacy series. She lives and writes in a log cabin in the heart of Kentucky. Learn more at www.laurafrantz.net.