Now available on Amazon is my Regency romance mystery, Curious Governess, Dangerous Lord!
‘August did not move from where he hid, partially concealed by a damask curtain so thin they might as well be side by side. His held breath was more to hear her own ragged pants than to conceal himself.
Cheek tense from her withheld anger, the rest of Virtue’s body thrummed minutely. Tempting enough for him to reach out and smooth into softness, as one would do with clay.
Then he noticed her hands were shaking. She clasped them to hide her nerves, anger fracturing into anxious energy.
There was plenty for her to tremble over tonight. He could not understand her attraction to Jeb. He was a man of violence; none could change his ways. During his shifting moods, he always turned on any woman who tried to claim him.
August’s own frustration wavered, though he tried to hold on to his annoyance. If not, then his own doubts would assail him. When he had come across the pair, he had only meant to chase Jeb off. He had not realised how close they were to peril.
If Jeb had thrown Virtue aside any harder, she would have been over the edge before August had a chance to catch her. A small knot throbbed in his throat as he remembered the way something in his chest had gone still when he saw her hair stream behind her, hands blindly thrust out to stop her fall.
A trickle of his blood stained her blouse, smeared on there from the wound upon his head. Now, he no longer felt the cold of the night he had escaped. He did not even realise his pain had dulled, too distracted by this woman who was friend and stranger.
He might have considered her lost to Jeb entirely were it not for her actions. She had shielded him from further harm. He still felt the frantic beat of her pulse upon his cheek.
As though she sensed the intensity of his thoughts, Virtue’s head slowly lifted. Her shadow went still.
He half-held his breath, knowing he could not escape this confrontation. Her hand reached out, clenching the curtain and pulling it aside.’
None dare approach the dilapidated manor house on the dunes. Widower Lord Winterton is beset with rumours of being a foul sea spirit who ferries off unattached women to his secret tunnels.
Headstrong Virtue Browne has little time for gossip. To her, Lord Winterton is sweet and gentle August, who she used to play with on the sands, and who has now employed her to teach his daughter.
However, it has been years since they last saw one another. Local innkeeper Jeb Strawhouse has pledged to ruin the other man for some past injustice while August would happily see him hang.
Who can Virtue trust? Will the governess’s curiosity be satisfied or will her voice become another mournful cry that causes men to shudder at night?
A late Georgian gothic romance set along the Norfolk coast, with drama, mystery and smugglers.
This story was previously published by The People’s Friend as a paperback pocket novel titled Lord Winterton’s Secret. There is also a large print edition published by Ulverscroft under the same name.
