The Design of Providence

The Design of Providence
Friday, June 26, 2026 by Lynne Basham Tagawa

Categories: Friday's Fiction / GUEST AUTHORS

PLEASE WELCOME

LYNNE BASHAM TAGAWA

FICTION FRIDAY

THE AUTHOR’S STORY

History is full of things you can’t make up. It’s one reason why I love good biographies. David McCullough is one of those amazing authors who can really pull it off. I devoured John Adams, the book behind the later adaptation, HBO’s miniseries.

In 1785, John Adams met the king of Britain as our nation’s first ambassador. You have to think this through for a minute. Here’s King George III, monarch of the greatest nation on the planet, just having endured an unpopular and expensive war—their Vietnam—to keep a bunch of ungrateful and rebellious colonies. Further, the pesky French enabled them to succeed.

Now, one of these traitors—a man who signed the insulting Declaration—has the cheek to style himself an ambassador.

But the conversation that ensues is revealing. And David McCullough records it in his book. Someone must have been in the room. I decided to tell the story through the eyes of the Earl of Dartmouth, a Methodist and former member of the Privy Council. He was sympathetic to the Americans but insisted that their rebellion was wrong.

The earl’s pulse accelerated. He could well imagine an ice-cold reception.

“Sir...” Adams began.

Sir? Not Your Majesty? But of course, Adams could not acknowledge the king as his own sovereign.

“The United States of America has appointed me their Minister Plenipotentiary to Your Majesty ...”

That was better. Quite proper.

King George said nothing, only the twitch of an eyebrow signaling his attention.

“It is in obedience to their express commands that I have the honor to assure Your Majesty of their unanimous disposition and desire to cultivate the most friendly and liberal intercourse between Your Majesty’s subjects and their citizens . . .”

John Adams’s expression was humble, open, and honest. He was bold, yet was there a gleam of sweat on his brow?

“I think myself more fortunate than all my fellow citizens, in having the distinguished honor to be the first to stand in Your Majesty’s royal presence in a diplomatic character ...”

The speech must have been composed and rehearsed, but it did not feel that way. Adams really meant what he said.

“I shall esteem myself the happiest of men if I can be instrumental in recommending my country more and more to Your Majesty’s royal benevolence, and of restoring—” Adams’s voice cracked—“restoring an entire esteem, confidence and affection, or, in better words, the old good nature and the old good humor between people who, though separated by an ocean and under different governments, have the same language, a similar religion, and kindred blood.”

The king’s expression faltered. He was no longer a monarch but a man. He cleared his throat and paused before replying.

“The circumstances of this audience are so extraordinary...”

It was indeed a momentous day, and Dartmouth tried to stamp each word, each expression in his mind. A day of peace between nations—could it even be a day of reconciliation? A true peace, not just the rag signed in Versailles?

The king continued. “I am very glad that the choice has fallen upon you to be their minister. I wish you, sir, to believe—”

Here, the king’s voice faltered, but he quickly recovered. “To believe, and that it be understood in America, that I have done nothing in the late contest but what I thought myself indispensably bound to do by the duty which I owed to my people.”

Hesitations that sometimes slowed his speech marred his final words. And no wonder. Both men were visibly moved.

Dartmouth quietly slipped a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his face. But no one was watching him. All eyes were on the interaction before them. Lascelles’s mouth had fallen open.

The king smiled. “There is an opinion among some people that you are not the most attached of all your countrymen to the manners of France.”

The mood shifted. Rumor had it that Adams had resisted all efforts of the French Court to form a treaty after their own fancies. And Adams had no tact, they said. No diplomatic skill.

No ability to dissemble, the earl corrected. He couldn’t help smiling.

For the first time, Adams shifted his stance, clearly embarrassed. “I must avow to Your Majesty, I have no attachment but to my own country.”

The earl blinked back tears. Adams stood his ground in France not for the sake of stubbornness but for the good of his country.

“An honest man will never have any other.” The king gave a little bow to signal the end of the interview.

Can you see why I had to write this for a celebratory anthology? Many of the stories in The Design of Providence are based on real people or true events surrounding our nation’s birth. Ten authors, fifteen stories. Available in ebook, paperback, and even hardback with a dust jacket, as a keepsake for our nation’s 250th anniversary.

MORE ABOUT THE DESIGN OF PROVIDENCE

"A remarkable tribute to our founders and the spirit of 1776 that has endured 250 years!”—Laura Frantz, Christy Award–winning author of The Belle of Chatham

Before there was a United States, there was a dream forged in the crucible of revolution—and a steadfast belief that a divine hand was shaping the nation’s destiny. From the bloody snow of the Boston Massacre to the treacherous battlefields of the South, the path to liberty was fraught with peril, heartbreak, and impossible choices.

Intertwining fact and fiction, each story masterfully explores the personal cost of allegiance, the agony of families divided by war, and the quiet, persistent thread of faith that wove through it all.

Celebrate America's 250th birthday with this immersive, faith-filled journey into the soul of a nation's founding.

“Adventuresome, gritty, and inspiring stories for the true historical fiction lover… If you want to dive into stories that make you feel what life was like during the American Revolution at its core, here’s your chance.”
—Naomi Musch, award-winning author of Season of My Enemy

BUY LINK: https://www.amazon.com/Design-Providence-Anthology-Celebrating-Americas-ebook/dp/B0GSCQ7ZYY

MORE ABOUT LYNNE TAGAWA

Lynne Tagawa is an educator, author, and editor living in South Texas. She’s a mom of four and a grandma to six who loves writing historical fiction with a theological emphasis. A Fallen Sparrow: A Novel of the American Revolution is a 2023 Selah Awards finalist, and The Root of the Matter: The American Puritans Book One, won the 2025 Angel Book Award for Speculative fiction.

The Design of Providence, a collaborative anthology with nine other writers, including Shannon McNear and Jayna Baas, was released May 1st, 2026.

www.lynnetagawa.com

X: @LynneTagawa

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