by Julia Donner
Evangeline had trouble accepting that Archibald would no longer be a part of her life, that she was now completely free of him. “Do I understand that you have sent Archibald away? He agreed to leave us alone?”
Moving to the foot of the bed, Lady Asterly threaded an arm through her husband’s. She sent a sly look over her shoulder as she said in parting, “Oh, he didn’t have anything to say about it. Crimm kept him tied up and gagged. Let Freddy sleep. Join us downstairs after you’ve tucked him in nicely.”
“Oh, Elizabeth?” When Lady Asterly halted in the doorway, Evangeline said, “I have a favor to ask. A few months from now, when Grieves is well, might we get married here?”
Lady Asterly’s hazel eyes twinkled. “Freddy is hardier than that. Shall we say, two weeks?”
“Oh, my lady, that would be scandalously soon!”
With a parting smile, she replied, “Not by my reckoning.”
Evangeline’s attention jerked back to the bed when she heard a low laugh. “Alfred, what are you doing? You cannot get out of bed.”
“Only sitting up a bit so I can cuddle you better. Come here. Lie with me.”
“Are you deranged? You must rest!”
“I drank that blasted swill Lady Collyns concocted. The least you can do is lie here and comfort me while I sleep.”
With slow caution, Evangeline arranged herself against his side. He sighed and let his head rest on her shoulder. “There now. This is much better. Très joie, n’est-ce pas?”
With a soft laugh, Evangeline stuck her nose in his fine, fly-away hair, and murmured, “Indeed. We are all very happy now.”
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Following the brief synopsis is an excerpt from Book 5 of the Friendship Series, The Dark Earl and His Runaway.
Leticia Carlton has been told she has nothing to recommend her but an unsuitably clever intellect and a respectable fortune, but until she reaches the on-coming age of twenty-and-one, she can make no use of her few attributes. Her unsavory cousin holds the purse strings and her birthright, and has plans for her future, namely marriage to a frightening adventurer. What she needs is a shining knight galloping to her rescue, but the savior she ends up with turns out to be an acquaintance from her childhood with a hair-trigger temper, tender heart, and tarnished armor.
Chapter 1
Night fog lit with eerie blue light hovered over the meadow. The nearly full moon washed the world with murky hues. The lack of color intensified the smells of forest and fields, the sharp tang of turf and the darker scent of moist earth.
Leticia set down her satchel and basket and sat on the style. The low, stone fence meandered its way down the hillside to the sheep pasture below. She’d been forced to take the hottest, most humid night of the year to escape a fate worse than spinsterhood.
She withdrew a damp handkerchief from inside her left cuff and dabbed at the tickling beads of moisture making their way down her temple. Her dress felt damp and itchy, the skirt’s hem saturated from dew.
After a deep inhale of the fragrant air, she smiled at the quiet. Some people feared the dark. She found its mystery comforting. No one would imagine that a young lady would leave her home and walk out alone into the night. She wished it could have been the dark of the moon, but since it wasn’t, she smiled up at the almost-sphere glowing against a blue-black sky studded with stars. Then the reason for her escape and memory of the conversation she’d overheard pulled the smile of contentment from her mouth.
Henry Caudill, her cousin and guardian, had arranged for a marriage. His usual attention to detail didn’t find a home with her. His utter lack of caring for a family member weighed down her heart more than the disgraceful agreement she’d overheard.
She’d never stopped yearning for her parents, who left her at school six years earlier and went off to Canada. They had decided she must have a proper education in England. After her studies, Leticia could decide if she would join them there or stay for a proper come-out or a trip to Canada, if he continued his sojourn there as a diplomat. Years had come and gone. She passed the age for a come-out and no response to her letters. Solicitors suggested things she didn’t want to hear. She refused to give up hope.
Cousin Henry had been given control in their absence. Cautious and parsimonious by nature, he doled out her pin money every quarter, warning her to have a care how she spent it. Leticia had everything she needed, and there were so many people who had so little. Two days before, she’d given most of what remained of her stipend to Widow Jones. That impulsive and necessary gifting left her with only a few coins for her journey.
That was one of her problems. She had no idea where she was going or what she was to do when she got there. Her one, definite decision had been to immediately remove herself from the vicinity of her cousins, Henry and Joseph Caudill.
Disaster arrived with Cousin Joseph, who had unexpectedly shown up the day before, fresh from his travails with the East India Company. Some men made their fortune in the East. Cousin Joseph had lost everything and accrued debt. She scarcely knew the man, having briefly met him before being sent off to school. Her grief for the departure of her parents clouded her memory of the occasion.
Yesterday afternoon, she’d been called from the stillroom, where she’d been labeling jam jars. Cousin Henry scolded about her unkempt appearance, but was nonetheless driven from her tasks. She followed Cousin Henry down passageways to the best receiving room to bid her Cousin Joseph welcome.
Leticia curtsied, wishing she’d taken time to tidy her hair and put on a fresh day dress. Cousin Joseph was the sort who liked to cut a dash. She remembered him as tall, slender and sallow-skinned. He wore clothes well but not their colors. Henry sported a constant flush and clothes that never fit. The men shared no sibling resemblance whatsoever.
Henry was as round as he was tall, with fat, greasy lips and sausage-shaped fingers. His clothes never encompassed all of his girth with straining buttons. He insisted on wearing an out-dated wig on his head to hide hair, scraggly and non-descript brown.
Joseph possessed no coarseness of appearance, other than his unfortunate complexion. He possessed a natural, easy manner, but his tenor hinted derisiveness. Where Joseph was smooth and calculating, Henry acted nervous and too focused on whatever he had on his mind.
“Cousin Letty,” Henry began, “you remember Joseph, do you not?”
Leticia dipped a curtsey. “Of course. It is good to have you safely arrived from your travels, sir.”
Joseph looked her up and down and hummed an indistinct reply. To his brother he said, “She hasn’t changed much but she will suit.”
Leticia stared at Cousin Joseph and covered her dismay at what that remark might mean. He had changed a great deal. His complexion had become more sallow and his frame thinner. He continued to wear his clothes with perfection and style, but something had changed about his eyes. Almond-shaped and watery blue, he now had a squint. She well-remembered his complete disinterest in her, and therefore dismissed a comment that would have otherwise made her think he considered something as preposterous as marriage to her. Her mind returned to the tasks she left behind in the stillroom.
Cousin Henry interrupted her thoughts. “Letty, you may go. Joseph and I have matters to discuss. We will talk more at dinner.”
Leticia bobbed a curtsey and headed back to her work interrupted. Partway down the hall, the topic of their discussion penetrated. They were actually considering marrying her off. Unhappy with the idea, she turned back to confront them. Instinct slowed her pace and made her pause by the partially open door.
“She’s still regrettably freckled, and that carrot hair, a fright.”
Cousin Henry cajoled, “Now-now, Joseph, that is neither here nor there. Once you have her money, hair color will have no meaning. Leave her here in the country. You’ll have plenty for city entertainme
nts.”
“God’s blood, I’d never be seen in public with that frump. She’s positively bovine. The girl’s fortunate to have so grand a fortune, for it’s the only way a man would consider that carrot-headed lump. You’ re right, Henry. What portion will satisfy you?”
“This house is entailed and untouchable, since we’ve heard nothing from her parents in years. The girl has an income of two thousand a year and a very tidy property over in Wales. It’s rented at present, but when sold, will clear you of all debts with plenty left over for a share for me.”
Leticia didn’t wait to hear more. She sneaked back to the stillroom, where she shivered in the aftermath of what they had planned for her. So here she sat, wondering where to go and what to do when she got there.
One thing she did know was that she had walked to this meadow for the retired gelding grazing below. Obscured by the fog, the old fellow hadn’t been ridden or driven in the last year. He might balk, but she had come prepared, having pulled up carrots on her way to a new life. Every female wanted their own home to manage, a family and children, but not with a husband who thought of his wife as a “lump” to be tolerated.
She picked up the basket and pulled out a rope and the bridle she selected in the stable. After brushing off the two carrots she’d yanked up from the vegetable garden, she headed down to the meadow. Her heart lifted when the gelding raised his head and whickered a greeting.
Dawn bloomed pink and gold on the horizon by the time she found the road leading to the village. People knew her there, but would tell her cousin nothing. Cousin Henry had made no friends in the district. He was the stranger no matter how long he’d lived in her parents’ house.
The gelding’s plodding gait meant the duration of the ride was the same as if she’d walked. It was midday when she approached the first cottage. The villagers had known her since she was a toddler. A visit to the posting inn’s back door would provide food and drink. She could also inquire as to how far the coins would take her. If not far, she would keep the gelding instead of selling it.
The sun beat down directly overhead when she heard the shouting, men calling out encouragement and insults. A clot of them had gathered at the front of the inn. As she neared the crowd, she could see that a mill was in progress.
She used a mounting block to get off the horse. Standing on it allowed her to see two men whacking each other. Sunlight glistened on a broad-shouldered, tanned back where tense muscles rippled and bulged. His opponent faced him, equal in height and weight, but the fighter facing in her direction carried a large part of his weight on an enormous, hard belly.
Brutal punches, fists meeting flesh, could be heard through the shouting. Exclamations of appreciation rose when a squishy splat sounded the breaking of facial cartilage. A whoop went up from the crowd when the big-bellied man fell.
Then there was silence, until one of the onlookers said, “He’s not moving. Is the bloke dead?”
Another said, “Looks like he might be breathing.”
A man on the fringe of the crowd called out, “There’s Miss Carlton. She’ll look at the poor devil.”
A moment later, Leticia felt herself lifted from the block and carried between two men to the unconscious fighter. The smells of ale, gin, and sweat filled the inner circle.
She knelt and placed her fingers on his neck. A strong pulse throbbed against her fingertips. “He’s merely unconscious. Could someone bring water?”
Hands slid under her armpits. She was scooped up off her feet and swung out of the way by the winner, in time not to be splashed by the bucket of water tossed over the loser. The man gasped, coughed, and sat up in the mud. Everyone cheered.
Behind her, she heard a deep voice ask, “Miss Leticia? Never thought that the next time I saw you it would be at a mill.”
Placed on her feet, she had to tip her head all the way back to see the speaker’s face. When he used the back of his wrist to wipe away blood and sweat, she squinted and asked, “Bainbridge? Is that you under all that muck?”
Writing Historical Fiction as Julia Donner
The Friendship series
THE TIGRESSE AND THE RAVEN
THE HEIRESS AND THE SPY
THE RAKE AND THE BISHOP’S DAUGHTER
THE DUCHESS AND THE DUELIST
THE EARL AND THE RUNAWAY (2015)
LORD CARNALL AND MISS INNOCENT (2015)
Fantasy by M.L.Rigdon
Seasons of Time trilogy
PROPHECY DENIED
BEYOND THE DARK MOUNTAINS
HER QUEST FOR THE LANCE
Contemporary
THE ATLANTIS CRYSTAL (A Philadelphia Hafeldt novel)
SEDUCTIVE MINES (Another Philadelphia Hafeldt adventure)
NEVER LET ME DIE (Romantic suspense with paranormal elements)
YA Fantasy
Songs of Atlantis series
THE VITAL
MASTER OF THE DARK
CANTICLE OF DESTRUCTION (Fall 2015)
INTO THE EAST (Spring 2016)
