Society’s beloved wastrel, Sir Harry Collyns, pushes his popularity past the point of acceptability when he poses for a statue that creates a social uproar. People line up for blocks to see Handsome Harry in the nude, sculpted by a female artist! Bored with the fuss and scandal, Harry hitches up his fastest team, heads for the country, and a near fatal curricle accident. When the bandages are removed from his head days later, he discovers the angel-voiced widow who’d cared for him is neither elderly nor as mild as her tone, but a straight-laced do-gooder unimpressed with his flamboyant past and dashing good looks. Head-battered and heading for a broken heart, he falls into love with Widow Olivia St. Clair, who might be the one woman in England that Harry can’t charm into loving him back.
Excerpt
Olivia watched the linen bandages tumble to the carpeted passageway. Her hands continued to shake as she leaned back against the wall. The wooden ridge of the wainscoting collided with the middle of her back. She pressed into it, welcoming the bite of the wood, the discomfort that would help her focus.
She’d heard it said that a person’s eyes were windows to the soul, and for a moment, she’d seen into Harry’s. Had others seen what she discovered? Did he allow them inside, the way he had allowed her? For a brief moment, he lowered the veil of the mischievous glee he used as a shield.
It had been many years since the first time she’d seen him. Over a decade of dedicated dissipation on his part had passed. She expected to be disappointed when the bandages were removed. Handsome Harry was known from Scotland to Cornwall, throughout all of England and Wales for his style, fast women and hard living. But even whiskered and sprouting prickly stitches, he stunned.
She hadn’t remembered, and not prepared herself, for the color of his eyes—an extraordinary cobalt blue with crystal shards, rimmed in darkest navy—mesmerizing. How could she have forgotten? The brief meeting had become a pivotal point in her life and stayed as fresh in her mind as when it occurred eighteen years ago.
She stared down at the jumble of bandages on the carpet and strove for emotional equilibrium. Beauty faded with time and familiarity. It was meant to be appreciated, but in humans, it accounted for little. Her husband had been a fine looking man, and so was her father, but Sir Harry Collyns—for some bizarre reason she might never fathom—covered his inner grace with a veneer of brittle humor. He used his exterior to protect what he hid underneath. Why? What she’d seen for an unexpected instant was a vast store of humanity and intelligence. Why belittle it with a facade?
About the Author
Julia Donner (aka M.L.Rigdon) grew up in historic Galena, IL, USA, and spent most of her time in the museum of her aunt, who encouraged her interest in history and understood the need to cherish a dream. She started writing in secret in her teens and never stopped, merging it with her mother's encouragement to study theater and music, which led to performing in the Midwest, California and as far away as Austria.
Donner never forgot what it was like to write alone as a girl and is a happy member of Summit City Scribes. Concern for the failing educational system led her to develop Your Futures in Ink, a panel of local and regional authors, who go into to schools to encourage students and answer questions about writing.
THE TIGRESSE AND THE RAVEN, first book in the regency Friendship Series, is an RWA contest finalist. The ninth book in the series, A ROGUE FOR MISS PRIM and the tenth, AN AMERICAN FOR AGNES, are available now. A LAIRD’S PROMISE will be released by Spring 2018.
M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)
Follow on Twitter @RigdonML
Website http://www.MLRigdon.com
Book Link:
THE BOOK WILL BE $0.99 DURING THE TOUR
Giveaway
Julia will be awarding a $30 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
No comments:
Post a Comment