Gage pulled his wife’s hand through his arm and spoke proudly as he watched their family. “Did you ever imagine, Shemaine, that you would see our parents looking so utterly happy? ‘Twould seem you’ve gifted them with new life by bringing Christopher into this world.”
“I believe you had something to do with it, too, sir,” his wife reminded him with a coy smile.
A smug grin came to Gage’s lips as he nodded acknowledgment. “Aye, we both did well by our son, did we not, my sweet?”
“Aye, my love. Very well indeed.”
Gage leered at her over his shoulder. “And there’s a lot more from whence he came, madam.”
Her eyes glowing with love, Shemaine hugged her husband’s arm close to her breast and felt the steely muscles flex in warm response against the softness. “Aye, Mr. Thornton, of that I have no doubt.”
About the Author
Kathleen E. Woodiwiss wrote the very first historical romance novel in 1972 —The Flame and the Flower created a genre and made Ms. Woodiwiss one of the world’s most popular writers, with 36 million books in print. In celebration of Ms. Woodiwiss’s new novel, The Reluctant Suitor (2003), PerfectBound is publishing Ms. Woodiwiss’s classic backlist, including the complete Birmingham Family Saga: The Flame and the Flower; The Elusive Flame; A Season Beyond a Kiss. Also available are Ms. Woodiwiss’s Ashes in the Wind; Come Love a Stranger; Forever in Your Embrace; Petals on the River; A Rose in Winter; Shanna; So Worthy My Love; The Wolf and the Dove.
NEW YORK TIMES
BESTSELLING AUTHOR
KATHLEEN E. WOODIWISS
“A LEGEND . . . THE QUEEN OF
HISTORICAL ROMANCE.”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“A PHENOMENON”
The New York Times
“WOODIWISS REIGNS!”
Life
“THE FIRST LADY OF THE GENRE.”
Publishers Weekly
“LIVE AND BREATHE THE WORLD
KATHLEEN E. WOODIWISS CREATES.”
Houston Chronicle
Works by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
The Birmingham Family Saga:
The Flame and the Flower
The Elusive Flame
A Season Beyond a Kiss
And also:
Ashes in the Wind
Come Love a Stranger
Forever in Your Embrace
Petals on the River
A Rose in Winter
Shanna
So Worthy My Love
The Wolf and the Dove
The Reluctant Suitor
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.
PETALS ON THE RIVER. Copyright © 1997 by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of PerfectBound™.
PerfectBound™ and the PerfectBound™ logo are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Mobipocket Reader edition v 1. March 2003 ISBN: 0-0607-6971-8
First Avon Books mass market printing: September 1998
First Avon Books trade printing: December 1997
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About the Publisher
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