A Dangerous Desire or McKay Makes a Match

[janne_d]

A Novel of Romance by a Lady

All Rodney McKay had thought he wanted was to be left alone with his theories and hypotheses. Being abducted and meeting the intriguing John Sheppard had put paid to that. Rodney understood his own desires rather better now, but society’s laws and conventions opposed him and Sheppard was surely far out of his reach. Not to mention the complication of his mysterious abductor…

A/N: My deepest gratitude to torakowalski for her invaluable assistance, enthusiasm and encouragement throughout. Inspired and influenced by Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Bernard Cornwell, Colin Firth’s wet shirt, Matthew MacFadyen’s breeches and far too many Mills and Boon Regency Romances read as a teenager. Plot structure freely adapted from “Fair Juno” by Stephanie Laurens.
Caveat: Although research was perpetrated, no claims are made to historical accuracy. All mistakes are my own.

Index

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six and Epilogue

Comments

[buzzylittleb.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, this is it. I know what I am reading tomorrow.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Cool, I hope you enjoy it.

[buzzylittleb.livejournal.com]

Later than tomorrow, but boy, did I enjoy it. That said, I was probably never the right beta for it.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Cool, I'm glad. And I think you would have been fine - I just wanted a fresh pair of eyes to catch anything me and Tora had become blind to from familiarity.

Btw, I hope you didn't try to email me about it recently - I've been having problems with lj notifications not appearing and when I finally managed to get into my blocked addresses, I found that both the notify address and what seemed to be your yahoo email had got in there by mistake.

[buzzylittleb.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. I haven't tried to email you lately, but it's good that you've spotted it, as Tora is going to the wilds of California and the bfp still isn't finished.

[torakowalski.livejournal.com]

*bounce*

(Are you going to post to harlequin_sga too?)

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

*bouncebouncebounce* Probably - I'll have to go see about joining it.

[emrinalexander.livejournal.com]

I just finished reading this and I have to say, I enjoyed this regency novel more than I have any fic I've read in a very long time. I grew up reading these books by the crateload, and I love them, and making Rodney and John into the heros - everything was just brilliant.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you. I am very flattered. Regency romances have been my secret mushy romance vice for a long time - I enjoyed so much putting the SG characters in that setting and I'm very pleased that you enjoyed reading it too.

[sweetvalleyslut.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed this :)

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much *grins*

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

eeep, forgot to feedback this earlier.

Anyway. Gorgeous, gorgeous writing, love the way it all seems so... contemporary to the period's literature. And mmm, Shep!

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

I'm very pleased you liked it - thank you for the lovely comment.

[othercat.livejournal.com]

This is made of win! I love this, the tone is PERFECT.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Hee! Good, I'm glad to hear it.

[sextagteam.livejournal.com]

First of all, I just wanted to let you know that this fic is the only reason I managed to survive writing my Philosophy midterm last night. I seriously only made it through the conclusion because I was bribing myself with the last two chapters ;)

Apart from the life saving, I just loved the whole concept and you managed to pull it off really well. And kudos for hitting pretty much everyone of my kinks ever. Forbidden love via homophobic society? Check. Pining and/or attempts to hide said pining by one or more characters? Check. Huge build up to love scene with equally satisfying payoff? Check. Living happily ever after? That would be a check.

Thanks for posting!

p.s. You married Chaya to Kavanagh and made her an evil harlot, I think I love you ;)

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Hee, what an appropriate icon! Thank you for having fun with this, and I'm glad I could help with your midterm - I hope it goes/went well.

I don't know who deserves the commiseration more, Kavanagh or Chaya... *grins evilly* I cackled a lot when I thought of it.

[moxie-brown.livejournal.com]

I just finished reading this a couple of days ago. Great! I love how it felt grounded in historical reality and so well-written. :)

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much - I'm pleased you liked it and that the historical details came through (I bookmarked about 30 pages researching this and I must have read loads more...)

[mamoru22.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed this story. It totally made my day. I loved the characterization and how you kept Rodney and John still as Rodney and John but still adapting them to the time.

So, thank you very much for sharing this with us. :)

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

I'm pleased to hear it, thank you. I enjoyed very much writing John and Rodney in their breeches and waistcoats - and I was a little surprised just how well they work in this type of story. It was lot of fun.

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

How great! McKay *and* a regency romance. Just fabulous.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

fantastic stuff. loved it! I liked how you incorporated the SGA and SG-1 characters. Count Zelenka was too charming!

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I had a lot of fun including all those characters, they all just slotted into place so easily. And I love Radek, plus when I found out part of Czechoslovakia used to be called Bohemia I just couldn't resist!

[tolerik.livejournal.com]

I do love these historical AU's, and this one was wonderful...

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it.

[melodyunity.livejournal.com]

This was a lovely bit of frothy fun! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Oooh, frothy, I like that. I'm very pleased that you liked it.

[bibliotech.livejournal.com]

I love AUs, and this was a fantastic read.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much, I'm glad you liked my regency universe.

[ladyvyola.livejournal.com]

Dashed charming -- a tale full of high spirits and no missish airs!

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Thank you, my lady. I'm just trying to imagine Rodney being missish... Glad you enjoyed it.

[lamardeuse.livejournal.com]

This was lots of fun, and hot, and sweet, and very well done. You managed to make the characters fit the time and the place, and yet you could see glimmers of them as they are in canon. I enjoyed the fact that you didn't shy away from the dangers of being homosexual in that time, and portrayed the era and the class realities very well (the use of the term "Uranian" is a little anachronistic, but that was a minor quibble). A very enjoyable read!

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you! I'm particularly glad to hear you liked the characters in this - my worry was always that I was going to take them a little too AU - and that you think I managed to convey some regency realities *bounces* Once I'd done the research there was no way I could avoid mentioning the dangers of Rodney and John having a relationship and it's good to know my research and pedantic brain paid off!

(I knew I'd be anachronistic places too, though. Oh well. When did people use uranian? Wherever I found the term suggested it was something from Plato I think.)

[lamardeuse.livejournal.com]

Once I'd done the research there was no way I could avoid mentioning the dangers of Rodney and John having a relationship and it's good to know my research and pedantic brain paid off!

Exactly. There's nothing that irritates me more in historical slash than failing to acknowledge the enormous risks gay men and lesbians took to pursue their own desires. I liked that John found his own solution to the problem, and brought Rodney with him. It felt realistic to me, because I think a lot of them would have done just that - struck out for the colonies, where social strictures could be circumvented more easily.

I knew I'd be anachronistic places too, though. Oh well. When did people use uranian? Wherever I found the term suggested it was something from Plato I think.

It's definitely a reference to Plato, but it wasn't used in connection with homosexual rights until the 1860's in Germany. The term then spread through the English-speaking world, though you used it in exactly the correct context - it was considered a positive self-identification for (well-educated) homosexuals. The fact that you're using a term not one person out of a thousand would be familiar with made my history-loving dork self squee - the slight anachonism isn't a big deal.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

It felt realistic to me, because I think a lot of them would have done just that - struck out for the colonies, where social strictures could be circumvented more easily.

That's exactly why I had them go to the Colonies at the end - I just couldn't see any other way for it to work as a really happy ending. If they'd stayed in England there would have had to be this edge of risk and restriction and... doom lingering and I really didn't want that for my little romance.

So uranian was from the 1860s? I was only 40 years early then... just another example of Rodney being ahead of his time! :-) I suspect that the reference I found (which I unfortunately didn't bookmark) simply said it was 19th century, it didn't seem pejorative and it implied education from being Plato so I went with it. It's cool to find out more about it (the research for this was always interesting) and I'm glad it didn't throw you out of the story from being a bit wonky historically. I did wish I knew more factual history when I was writing this - really, most of the details come from memories of novels and whatever I could check up on the internet so I just had to cross my fingers I was getting some of it right! Especially since I've read regency AUs where I've picked up that things were factually and culturally wrong and had to stop reading them in irritation - I didn't want to do that to anyone with mine.

[gardenprophet.livejournal.com]

I adore this fic more than words can say. I've already re-read it a ho-jillion times, and I figured it'd only be polite to let you know. This hits *all* of my slavish/kinky romance-novel devotion buttons, and I love love love it. Clueless!Rodney + Aggressive!John = My Ultimate OTP. Thanks for feeding the craving with your brilliant writing.

(P.S.> The Cameron, Jack and Daniel cameos were fabulously done)

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you very much! It's lovely to know that you liked this that much, I'm very flattered. (And I loved writing Cameron, Jack and Daniel - they just fitted in so easily!)

[piplover.livejournal.com]

Wow! What a wonderful tale! Clueless Rodney, rich and dashing John, I absolutely loved it all! Such a wonderful story, and I loved Jack, Cameron, Daniel and Sam being Rodney's family. The only thing I could ask for is more, lol! (I just want to see Rodney seasick and miserable and John making him better, lol.) What a lovely, lovely romance, thank you!

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! I'm really glad you enjoyed it - I had a lot of fun writing this, especially SG1 as Rodney's family.

[voyuerer.livejournal.com]

I loved the story, its a great au

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Thankyou very much. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[velocitygrass.livejournal.com]

This was utterly lovely. I really enjoyed the whole story and especially Rodney falling so hard and what he thinks is hopelessly in love with John. And John courting him really rather obviously.

Thank you very much!

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much - those are very nice things to hear! I did have fun writing John's courting and Rodney completely missing it and this:

Rodney falling so hard and what he thinks is hopelessly in love

is exactly what I was going for, yay.

[ariadne83]

This is absolutely stunning. Loved every second of reading it. I'm a little sad that it's over :-)

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

That's lovely, thank you. I was a little sad that it was over when I finished it, I have to admit. It was fun to write.

[almostnever.livejournal.com]

Three years and more after you wrote it, I must have read this story a dozen times. I enjoy it so much. Thank you for writing it.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

You know, I've been feeling very demoralised about writing lately because I haven't really written anything for ages and it is hard to get back into it. But reading your comment has lifted my spirits massively - it is really marvellous to know you've come back and reread this and that I've managed something that someone can enjoy enough for that. So thank you very much - you have made my day ♥