Historical Romance Excerpt ~ Charming the Duke

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Matilda and the Duke are caught!

 It all supported her notion that the glasses, brown dresses, and scruffy boots separated the chaff from the wheat. Those that deemed her worthy enough to speak to when dressed that way, and those that chose this evening to address her. The Duke had apparently noticed her gown.

Thornsby stared at her as if in a trance. She wondered what was going through his mind. “Don’t make Altry to be any more the cad than you, Thornsby. You’ve never noticed me either. Unless to insult me.”

His eye twitched. “That is untrue.”

“Far from it,” Matilda said.

“Don’t presume to know what is in my mind,” Thornsby said and grabbed Matilda’s bare shoulders.

The moment was charged with sparks, shooting through the air, connecting him to her. Matilda felt, well, she didn’t know what she felt. Fluttery and female. Angry. Aware. The touch of his fingertips drifted down her arms leaving her hands numb. Her voice came out barely above a whisper.

“What is on your mind then?” she asked.

“I’m thinking of kissing you, Miss Sheldon.”

Matilda batted her lashes. “Is it the dress?”

Thornsby touched his lips to hers. A feather’s touch. He inched back to gaze over her face. “I don’t know. But I don’t think so.”

His breath was warm on her cheeks. She’d never been this close to a man before. She could see the lines around his mouth and the bristle of his beard. He touched his lips to hers again.

“What do you imagine it is?” Matilda whispered into his mouth.

Thornsby slipped his hand around her waist and pulled her close. He tilted her head up with his finger. “I haven’t a clue,” he said. Then he kissed her. Really kissed her.

* * *

Matilda’s lips were open and guileless. Her skin was smooth and warm where he held her chin, and she draped her arms over his shoulders. Thornsby turned his head and sunk his tongue into her mouth.  She sighed and went soft in his arms. He ran his knuckles down her neck and lower still to the curve of her breast. He knew from experience this was no casual kiss. This was a lover’s kiss, a prelude to a bedding.

Thornsby released Matilda’s lips and opened his eyes. Her eyes were still closed and her cheeks rosy and her mouth in a lover’s pout. He was still breathing hard, but his blood was beginning to return to his brain.

What had he done? Why had he ignored Millicent and hurried to keep the wren from backing off a step? Couldn’t fathom why he’d asked her to dance or been so damn angry when Altry stared at her like a tasty, innocent morsel. And what on earth had possessed him to drag her into a dark room without a chaperone. Thornsby’s head flew up when the door banged open.

“Matilda!”

“Thornsby!”

New Historical Romance ~ Charming the Duke

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Are you a Victorian Romance fan? What's your favorite story line? Favorite Victorian author? Let's talk romance!


www.hollybushbooks.com

1849 . . . Matilda Sheldon, the middle daughter of the sixth Earl of Bisset, has never been interested in the fashionable society events that so preoccupy her parents and siblings. Her loving, albeit, daft family cannot understand why.  But Matilda has little use for silly rules and dramas. She would rather occupy her time with a worthwhile cause such as opening The Sheldon Home for Orphans, much to the chagrin of her mother and grandmother. They are quite certain a venture of this nature will discourage suitors. Matilda is quite certain that if suitors are discouraged it is because she is clever, plain, a bit clumsy, and inevitably compared to her beautiful sisters.

The Duke of Thornsby is in tight spot. After receiving the title on the death of his father, he discovers the inheritance is to be gifted elsewhere if he does not marry before his thirtieth birthday. Unfortunately, our man-about-town is embroiled in a scandal, not of his own making, and the marriage mamas won’t let any eligible misses anywhere near him. What’s a Duke to do? Get invited to a house party hosted by the notoriously absent-minded Earl of Bisset, who just happens to be Papa to some young ladies of marriageable age!

Thornsby finds himself fascinated, not with the two Sheldon debutantes actively seeking a husband, but rather with the ‘brown wren’ he first mistakes for a servant. Matilda is counting the hours until the house party ends when the necessity of conversing with the guests will be over, and ridiculously handsome men go far away. Can a worldly Duke convince a sensible girl to accept his court? Find out in Charming the Duke.

Charming the Duke ~ New Historical Romance!

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Hello all and I hope you're having a wonderful day! Please enjoy an excerpt from my newest release.

Near London, 1849

Matilda Sheldon concentrated on the stitches of her needlework and listened to the mindless chatter around her. From early afternoon until nearly teatime, her two sisters, Juliet and Alexandra, and her mother, continued a conversation on the virtue of green vegetables in one’s diet. Often Matilda was reading a book when these three found an inane topic worthy of four hours of discourse. Sometimes she let her mind or her feet wander far away. Today, though, she had promised herself to finish the doily she’d been working on for two months.

“What is your opinion, Matilda?” Alexandra asked. “Yes or no to the nasty broccoli.”

Matilda pushed her glasses up with her middle finger and stabbed herself in the forehead with the needle she held. “Botheration! That stings.”

“Tee hee,” Juliet giggled.

The only person on the face of God’s green earth to say tee hee aloud was her sister Juliet. It didn’t appear odd to anyone in her family. Nor anyone else for that matter. Men, in particular, found Juliet’s tee-heeing terribly becoming and some actually replied with a spoken, “Guffaw.” Matilda could only shake her head in wonder.

Frances Sheldon stood gracefully and approached Matilda. She pulled the ever-present lace hanky from her sashed waist, dabbed it with her tongue, and touched the small globe of blood on Matilda’s forehead.

“Must be more careful, darling,” Matilda’s mother said.

“I say hang the vegetables and double the cakes,” Alexandra said.

“How naughty of you, Alexandra,” Juliet replied. She turned in her seat to face Matilda. “But you’ve yet to share your feelings. Greens. Nay or yea?”

“How witty, Juliet. Nay or yea. It rhymes, you know,” Alexandra added.

As if any persons but the ones in this particular room needed instruction on words that were the same in sound except for their first letter. “I imagine moderation in all things applies to diet as well, Juliet. Some greens, some meats, some sweets,” Matilda said. Her sisters stared at her straight-faced. Her mother stitched. The room was silent as it seemed they had applied for her opinion and taken it as gospel. Matilda hoped it ended more hours of speculation.

Frances Sheldon looked up from her stitching minutes later with the same smile that had knocked the bachelors of London on their seat twenty-five years ago.

“Some meats, some sweets. Nay or yea. They rhyme. How droll, girls.”

“How droll,” Alexandra repeated with a giggle.

“Tee hee. Tee hee.”

“The Earl of Finch will be here this weekend, Juliet,” Frances said. “I believe he will make an offer very soon.”

“La de,” Juliet said.

“But don’t you think he’s ever so handsome and dashing,” Alexandra asked as she moved to the edge of her seat.

Juliet shrugged. “I suppose so.”

Matilda eyed her oldest sister. Juliet was fair of skin and hair with a deep dowry, a full hope chest and, by her own admission, future plans as elaborate as hosting elegant balls. “You seemed to like him well enough at the Grossner soiree. Have you had a change of heart?”

Juliet tilted her head. “I’m not sure. Possibly.”

“A change of heart perhaps,” Frances Sheldon said, eyes trained to a biscuit she was holding.

“A change of heart most definitely,” Alexandra added.

Matilda wondered how she’d ended up in this household out of all of England’s families. She would have far preferred to be the only daughter of a village vicar, happily wiling away the hours absorbed in literature and philosophy. It seemed there was no justice. Matilda was the middle daughter in a family of handsome and, well, daft siblings and parents. The only family member she could converse with reasonably was her father’s mother, Grandmother Sheldon. Although Ethel Sheldon preferred to be addressed by her Christian name, her grandchildren, all but Matilda, called her Grandmamma. The old woman cringed each and every time one of her son’s family addressed her as such. They just failed to notice. Matilda knew from her earliest memory that Grandmamma preferred Ethel.

“I’m going to wear either my green or my new yellow gown,” Alexandra said.

“Definitely the green. You must wear the green,” Juliet replied.

“I wonder when Fitz will arrive,” Frances said.

“In time for supper no doubt,” Alexandra said with a smile.

“And bringing his marks from fall term,” Juliet said, frowning and batting her lashes. “Don’t let Father sulk and ruin the party, Mother.”

Frances Sheldon rose and refilled each of her daughter’s teacups. She turned with a knowing look. “Not to worry, girls. Father won’t have anything to say about Fitz’s marks. Your brother wrote last week that Oxford has discontinued its practice of grading its students.” Frances reseated herself. “Some new system, very modern he said. So there will be no poor marks for Father to fluster about.”

Alexandra tilted her head. Juliet smiled winningly.

Matilda looked from her sisters to her mother. “And you believed him?”

Matilda’s youngest brother was a handsome whirlwind of practical jokes and smiles. When she had tutored him over holiday, he’d had one excuse after another to be anywhere his books weren’t.

Frances was incredulous. “Why, of course, dear! Fitz would never misrepresent something so serious, I’m sure.”

Parisian World's Fair 1889 and Menage series

Central Dome of the Fair from http://www.mcmahanphoto.com/

The fair is a backdrop for six ménage stories throughout the six months the fair ran. With thirty-three million people having gone through the fair, six stories does not seem unreasonable. There was a mystery and mystique to the Parisian Exposition. It was before the days of television and internet videos; people didn't know much about the world outside their country or even their cities and towns. To go to a fair where the world was coming to them and they could see and experience an Egyptian belly dance or taste a Mexican tamale was the height of exotic to them.

There was as much wonder and joy in the eyes of the goers as was seen when we landed on the moon or the first tablet was delivered to your hands.

In the Parisian series, each story explores not only the wonders of the fair, but the wonders and excitement of new experience in both sex and love. In the first of the series a frigid wife is awakened by a beautiful Egyptian courtesan. In the second we will see a powerful man, used to getting everything and anything be seduced and conflicted by both another man and a woman when they do not bend to his will. Later in the series we will see a wallflower test the limits of her fortitude and a spinster shock her suitors by telling them she enjoys her freedom from marriage. 

 And there will be a rake, because how could there not be? And this rake will be outmatched in every conceivable manner!

Historicals and the frigid wife

The frigid wife is one of the classic ploys in romance literature. A wife who is untried and frightened and the husband who needs to cajole her into experiencing the sensual part of her nature. It has been used again and again in many forms and I decided to use it in Seduction of My Proper Wife but with a twist.

As with many of my stories; a third party is involved in the de-frigiding (yes I know it is not a word) of the wife, Lillian. But this time that third party is a paid companion...a female paid companion. There is a line in the book that says a woman is much more gentler with these matters.

That is how I show Lillian's awakening, with a woman guiding her to become aware of her own sensuality. What it awakens in her is a lust for both her husband, Philip, and for the woman who helped her realize her lust for life, Aria.

But it's all in how a threesome will last when Victorian morals were  too rigid and condemning.

Seduction of my Proper Wife: A Victorian Menage at the Parisian Expostion

Curious, Lillian wanted to touch the fine fabric, to push it aside and see what lay behind the covering, but Hasina acted as if on a mission and hurried her along. No doubt, Lillian thought bitterly, because the Egyptian wished to close the monetary deal with Philip.

But then they reached the far end of the hallway and those thoughts fled in the face of such vibrancy.

The candle-lighted walls were painted in vivid colors, some with floral designs, others with life-like representations of people. Dozens of rugs covered the floor, each an intricate pattern colorfully and beautifully finished down to the last stitch. Dazzling pillows covered the rugs, and as far as Lillian could see no chairs populated the room.

In the center of the room a working fountain sat, water gushing out of the top to trickle down the rest of the tiers. Above that a small domed skylight allowed in the faintest of moonlight.

Only now did women start to move into the room from behind curtained doors. Lillian stared, unable to stop herself. If she’d been mesmerized by the gracefully undulating bodies before, she was shocked and enthralled now.

These women had discarded any semblance of modesty and walked into the room clad only in a single swath of the sheer fabric they danced in. Their tops, the triangle-cut material that barely covered their breasts and was held up only by the thinnest of strings tied behind them.

Beneath the fabric they were completely bare.

Lillian stiffened and, realizing how she stared, lowered her eyes from the sight.

She felt Hasina patiently waiting beside her, but it took a moment for Lillian to raise her eyes and quell her embarrassment enough to look at the other woman. When she eventually did, Hasina moved to stand before her.

“This is our common room,” Hasina said as she waved to the women, who had taken a keen interested in Lillian, behind her. “Here you’ll find some of my girls relaxing or enjoying a meal. On rare occasions, a gentleman or two will enjoy this space with the girls.”

That last statement surprised Lillian. She hadn’t expected anyone else to be here, but then that had been foolish of her to assume. If Philip could procure their services for her, then of course these women were sold to men who wished to enjoy them.

 

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Excerpt: Seduction of my Proper Wife: A Victorian Menage at the Parisian Exposition

Philip Thornton only wanted to help his frigid wife enjoy their marriage bed.

Lillian agreed, but once freed from her past, hadn't expected such a fierce transformation.

Aria was paid to educate and entice, but what she found was more than she ever dreamed possible.

The Parisian Exposition of 1889...the world is changing and the three of them are caught in its whirl. Philip and Lillian went to Paris to save their marriage and to help Lillian overcome her fears. Aria danced and seduced Lillian, but before Lillian left, Aria found herself seduced, in turn, by the beautiful Englishwoman.

When Philip and Lillian break all the rules and escort Aria around Paris for a week, will it be the beginning of their future? Or will this seductive interlude be nothing more than a dream?

“Would you like to spend time with one of them?” Hasina asked then added, “Or perhaps more than one?”

Shocked, though he realized he shouldn’t have been, Philip stared mutely at the small woman who seemed undeterred at his silence.

“A finely dressed man such as yourself must have exquisite taste in female companionship.”

Appreciating Hasina’s lack of information, he had, after all, come to the dances without Lillian, Philip shook his head. “This isn’t what I expected,” he admitted. “This type of offer. But I must decline. While the offer does hold temptation, I must decline.”

“This would be a unique experience,” Hasina insisted in the same clear, even voice. “One you’d remember for the rest of your days. A delight as you’ve never known.”

“In another circumstance,” Philip said, “I may have accepted your offer. However, I’m newly wed and am cursed to truly love my wife.”

He’d had hoped the bitterness he currently felt didn’t bleed through to his words, but knew that not to be the case. Hasina cocked her head and moved further into the room, feeling obliged to follow her, as they still conversed, Philip did so.

“Cursed,” she repeated. “Such an interesting word for a man truly in love. Why is it you are cursed?”

Philip took a moment to reply then said simply, “It’s a private matter.”

“I am but a stranger,” Hasina said with a quick smile. “And there is nothing more private than confiding in a stranger. Allow me to help. Unburden yourself.”

Tempted, Philip took a moment longer to debate the wisdom of her invitation. She was right; she didn’t know him, know anyone he did, and he was desperate.

“My beautiful wife is unable to fulfill her duties in our bed,” he admitted.

“Is she ill?”

“No,” Philip whispered, the truth of seeping into his words. “She’s afraid.”

“I see.” Hasina nodded. “She’s cold to you.”

Nodding, Philip realized what he’d said and stepped back, nodding in farewell. “Goodbye. I’ve said too much as it is.”

Where to buy:
All Romance
Amazon
Amazon UK
Barnes and Noble

Lack of the Death of the Historical

Downton Abbey, Les Misérables, Anna Karenina, Copper, Mad Men, Spartacus, Boardwalk Empire, I could go on!

It is also my understanding that ABC is developing a new historical set during the Gilded Age. My point in mentioning all of this is that the historical's death has been greatly exaggerated! The historical story transports us to a place and time we could never dream of imagining in real life. A contemporary fiction story can take us to all corners of the world and some of the most exotic locales but a historical can truly take us somewhere we can't go now.

In my latest story, Seduction of My Proper Wife, a Victorian Ménage at the Parisian Exposition, aside from it being a mouthful, it takes place in Paris 1889 during the famous World's fair that brought to being the Eiffel Tower.

I was recently in Disney world and walked through the Epcot Pavilions and I just know Disney would have given his left eyetooth to get the magnificent Pavilions they had at the 1889 Fair. That fair was visited by millions and is arguably one of the most successful fairs in history. So many countries brought so much to Paris for those six months, it was exotic and erotic all at once. A true feast for the senses. And I could not help but to set a story amongst such wonder.  

There was both an innocence and a savvy in the Victorian era that is so much fun to play with as a writer. The face of the prim and proper that is accepted history of the Victorians but there was also the seedy underbelly that exists throughout time. The mystique and allure of the unknown and the curious.

Kristabel Reed lives on the East Coast and loves to explore the steamier side of historical romance. "There are so many sexy situations that didn't just pop up in the 21st century and my goal is to burst the myth of the prim and proper debutante." She loves romances but historical ménages particularly which add an element of danger and discovery not seen in contemporaries. Historically speaking, unusual romantic connections put lives on the line-people were ostracized and some even put to the death. 

How to contact me: Email, Twitter, or my Blog.