A Fan-Fiction Interview with the Heroine of Eye of the Beholder by Linda Shenton Matchett at Character Cafe
Amy: Grace, welcome! Readers, I have to tell you—I was only a few pages into Eye of the Beholder before I wanted to pull up a chair at Grace’s tea stand. Before we talk about a certain grumpy veteran, tell us about yourself.
Grace: Thank you! Pull up a chair, but you’ll have to pay for the tea. Business isn’t exactly booming yet. I’m Grace Sutton, nearly forty years old, newly unemployed, and apparently the subject of endless family discussions about why I haven’t found a husband. After losing my job because of budget cuts, I decided if I was ever going to chase my dream, now was the time. So I opened a little tea stand at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
Amy: Most people would have curled up with a blanket and a good cry after losing their job. You opened a business! Were you always that brave?
Grace: Brave? I prefer stubborn. Besides, people need tea. Tea has solved more problems than it’s ever caused. Well…except for one or two unfortunate spills.
Amy: Your tea stand has the sweetest name—A Cup of Grace. How did you come up with it?
Grace: It seemed fitting. I wanted people to find more than tea and pastries. I wanted them to leave feeling encouraged. If I could offer someone a warm drink, a homemade cookie, and a kind word after a difficult day, I’d count that as a success.
Amy: Speaking of cookies…I noticed Mrs. Canfield’s Cookery Book makes an appearance. Are you really testing recipes from it?
Grace: Absolutely! Though I have to admit some recipes are better left in history. And if my brother Victor mentions “war cake” one more time, I may hide the cookbook.
Amy: I laughed at that scene! Victor seems wonderfully protective.
Grace: Wonderfully…and excessively. He still thinks I’m twelve. I’m forty. There’s a difference.
Amy: Now let’s get to the question every reader wants answered. Tell us about Hank Drake. What was your first impression?
Grace: That he’d lived through far more than anyone should. People saw his scars. I saw the sadness behind them. He carried himself like someone who expected everyone to turn away in horror the moment they looked at him. That made me want to do the opposite.
Amy: Readers always want to know about the moment the hero and heroine first meet. Yours isn’t exactly your typical romance scene, is it?
Grace: (laughs) Not unless your idea of romance includes crashing china, a very rude customer, and me wondering whether I’d just lost my business on opening day.
Amy: Tell us what happened.
Grace: I was serving customers when one of the display shelves collapsed. Plates flew everywhere, and a gentleman who’d already been unpleasant decided it was the perfect opportunity to blame everyone but himself — even though he’d bumped into my cart and caused the whole scene. At first I barely noticed the maintenance worker who stepped in. He calmly asked if the man was hurt and offered to escort him to the medical station. You’d think kindness would settle things down. It had the opposite effect.The gentleman looked Hank up and down and began insulting him—calling him “just a janitor,” saying someone like him had no business speaking as an equal.
Amy: Ouch.
Grace: Exactly. My heart broke for Hank. But he never raised his voice. He never returned the insults. He simply answered with courtesy and dignity while the man grew angrier by the minute. That’s the moment that caught my attention. Not his appearance. Not even his scars. His character.
Amy: So the first thing you noticed about Hank wasn’t the hero, but it was his grace under pressure?
Grace: That’s right. Anyone can be kind when life is easy. Hank chose kindness when someone was treating him terribly. I remember thinking, Who is this man?
Amy: And then he stayed to help you clean up.
Grace: He insisted. I kept telling him I could manage, but he just smiled and reminded me, “Remember, I’m just a janitor.” It was the sweetest little joke after everything that had happened.
Amy: I loved that line in the book.
Grace: So did I. By the time we’d finished sweeping up the broken china, I realized I’d spent the last half hour talking to one of the most genuine men I’d ever met. I just didn’t know it would be the beginning of something much bigger.
Amy: Hank has been terribly wounded—not just physically, but emotionally. Did it ever frighten you?
Grace: His scars? Never. His habit of pushing everyone away? Frequently. He’d convinced himself he wasn’t worth knowing. That’s a much harder wound to heal.
Amy: Readers will probably fall for Hank immediately. What did you find most attractive about him?
Grace: His kindness. He’d never admit it, but it’s there. He notices people everyone else overlooks. He protects those who need protecting. And underneath all that gruffness is a man with tremendous courage. Of course… He also spends an impressive amount of time insisting he wants to be left alone.
Amy: Which, naturally, made you determined not to leave him alone?
Grace: Is it that obvious?
Amy: Just a little. Now tell me honestly…what is the most frustrating thing about Hank?
Grace: He believes everyone else’s opinion before he’ll believe mine. If a hundred strangers stare at him, he assumes they’re right. If I tell him he’s worthy of friendship and respect… well… he has a harder time accepting that.
Amy: Readers love a hero with emotional baggage.
Grace: Readers aren’t the ones trying to convince him to smile.
Amy: The World’s Fair almost feels like another character in the story. What was your favorite part?
Grace: The sense of hope after the Depression that devastated our country. People came from everywhere believing tomorrow would be brighter than yesterday. After everything the world had been through, that mattered.
Amy: I absolutely loved reading about the 1939 World’s Fair through your eyes. Working at the 1939 New York World’s Fair had to be unlike anything most of us can imagine. What was it really like?
Grace: Imagine the whole world gathering in one place. Every morning I’d unlock my little tea stand and wonder what—or who—I’d see before sunset. One day it was a family from Kansas trying tea for the first time. The next it was visitors from Europe telling stories about home. There was always something new.
Amy: Was there an exhibit you never grew tired of?
Grace: The Trylon and Perisphere, of course. They were impossible to miss, and every evening when the lights came on they seemed almost magical. They reminded everyone that tomorrow could be brighter than today—which was exactly the message people needed after the Depression.
Amy: The Fair was famous for introducing people to all kinds of new inventions. Did anything leave you particularly amazed?
Grace: Oh, certainly! Television seemed almost unbelievable. I remember hearing people wonder if anyone would actually want moving pictures in their own homes. Little did they know! And then there were the sleek kitchens, futuristic automobiles, and all the promises about the “World of Tomorrow.” It made you feel as though anything might be possible.
Amy: I imagine you must have seen your share of famous people.
Grace: Oh, I certainly did! Some hurried by with entourages while others blended into the crowd surprisingly well. President Franklin Roosevelt had opened the Fair, of course, though I only caught a distant glimpse of him. I remember seeing celebrities like Bob Hope and Kate Smith, and everyone seemed to stop what they were doing whenever Johnny Weissmuller—the Olympic swimming champion turned Tarzan—walked by. He was impossible to miss!
(Here are some photos of the Fair. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_New_York_World%27s_Fair for the photo attributions.)
Amy: With all those exciting attractions, were people still willing to stop for a cup of tea?
Grace: (laughs) More often than you’d think! After walking miles through exhibits and waiting in long lines, most folks were happy to sit down with a warm cup of tea, a fresh cookie, and a chance to rest their feet. Sometimes the conversations at my little stand were every bit as memorable as the exhibits themselves.
Amy: Is there one memory from the Fair you’ll treasure forever?
Grace: Watching the lights come alive at dusk. The music would begin, the fountains would sparkle, people from every corner of the country—and sometimes the world—would stroll past smiling. For just a little while, everyone believed the future could be hopeful. I think that’s a beautiful thing to remember.
Amy: Last question. If you could invite readers to your tea stand today, what would you serve?
Grace: A cup of green tea—it deserves far more appreciation than it gets. Along with one of my toffee bars. Here is a recipe from All Recipes: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/222745/terrific-toffee-bars/
Amy: Grace, thank you for joining us! Readers, if you enjoy heartfelt historical romance, unforgettable characters, charming tea shops, and a hero whose scars tell only part of his story, Eye of the Beholder is one you’ll want to add to your reading list. Just don’t blame me when you suddenly crave tea and toffee bars while you’re reading.
More about Eye of the Beholder
Shunned for his appearance, a disfigured veteran encounters acceptance and love where he least expects it.
Left with physical and emotional scars after the Great War, Hank Drake has been shunned by polite society as the Ugly Duckling. Fine by him. He’d much rather be alone. Until he meets the kind proprietress of a tea stand at New York’s World’s Fair who isn’t repulsed by his appearance. Can he hope for acceptance…or even love?
Grace Sutton has no interest in marrying and is tired of her parent’s snide comments that she’s still single on the eve of her 40th birthday. After she loses her job thanks to budget cuts, she decides it’s time to follow her dream of feeding others. Armed with Mrs. Canfield’s cookbook, she opens a refreshment stand at the World’s Fair unaware how one man will turn her life upside down and upset the apple…er, tea cart.
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