By Beverley Oakley
I absolutely adored the series Downton Abbey set in a grand English mansion in the first part of last century. For those who haven't seen it, the English drama featured a lush cast of characters including the earl's family, upstairs, to the servants, downstairs. Love, desire and intrigue send the story in all manner of exciting directions.
It was only after I finished the first in a series of erotic romances for Ellora's Cave that I realised my own story, Her Gilded Prison, could be considered along the lines of 'Downton Abbey with Sex'.
Here's a little about it.
Her Gilded Prison
Coming soon from Ellora’s Cave.
The lovely Lady Sybil’s 20-year
marriage has not produced an heir - which is hardly surprising since her
husband cannot bear to be parted from his long-term mistress.
When heir-apparent, handsome
cousin Stephen arrives at Grange Hall to be briefed on his duties as the next
Viscount Partington, he sets many feminine hearts a-flutter, including those of
Sybil’s two daughters: plain, dumpy Hetty and fiery, exquisite Araminta.
Then a unwelcome contender for
the viscountancy emerges. Presumed dead, Edgar turns out not to have died on
the battlefield - but nor has he distinguished himself there, either.
In order that mutton-headed
Edgar never inherit what her husband has spent his lifetime creating, Lady Sybil
devises an extraordinary plan...
In his wildest dreams, Cousin
Stephen never expected his duties would be so diverse.
EXTRACT
Chapter One of Her Gilded Prison
The three men were
on their knees now, heads craned forward, eyes fixed with prurient interest on
the amorous adventure playing out on the gossamer web before them.
“He’s launching in, for God’s sake! Dipping his wick – if you could
only see it! Look at him.”
Stephen felt the young Earl of Barston’s breath hot on his arm, then
intercepted his gaze: rapt, enquiring, as he whispered, “She’ll kill him for
it?”
His host, Sir Archie Ledger’s coarse laugh cut in as he jostled for
a better look. “You say he knows his reward is death?” He twisted his head to
look at Stephen, darting a glance at his wife who sat calmly embroidering at
the far end of the drawing room, before adding under his breath, “The fuck of
eternal damnation, eh? I reckon that’s what I got.”
It was no secret Sir Archibald Ledger had been pressured into
marriage following an indiscretion with the lovely but sharp-tongued Miss Julia
Preston.
Lady Julia raised her head at the commotion and her voice cut like
scissors into the schoolboy game Stephen was master-minding.
“I say, gentlemen, what’s more interesting than paying some
attention to the ladies. Mr Craven, I want you to please take a seat by me and
tell me all about your new benefactor.”
Archie’s voice dropped a notch and the three young men huddled
closer, eyes still fixed on the spider’s web, just below the escritoire. “Take
cover, gentlemen, here she comes.” His voice soured. “No, it’s no good. She’s
found us. Story of my life. Fun’s over.”
Stephen, still on his knees, blinked to see first Lady Julia’s well
turned ankle and then, as she bent down, her lovely face. As her lively green
eyes locked with his, he felt the tug between gaze and groin, and wondered at
Archie’s discontent. She was a diamond of the first water.
“What is so fascinating, gentlemen?” Her intimate murmur sounded as
if it were just for him. Her gaze was certainly focussed on him as her mouth
curved in a secret, knowing smile.
Stephen sucked in a breath and found he was quite unable to answer.
Since he’d come back from war he was unused to mixing in such elite company,
though as a boy, before his mother’s decline, he remembered frequenting houses
like this.
Just when he assumed she’d solicit her husband for information she
brushed his hand with hers, the smile that was just for him, still in place.
Good God, he thought he’d imagined it before. Now, with Sir Archie
still on his haunches, to her right, reluctantly in the process of rising,
Stephen was quite clearly being conveyed a secret message. Lady Julia admired
him. He forced himself to breathe evenly as his cock sprang to attention. He
could not rise now, for God’s sake. He must keep them watching at least a few
seconds longer.
“She’s going to devour him.”
He heard the urgency in his voice that had nothing to do with the mating
spiders.
“Nothing happening.” Archie sounded bored as he groaned and gripped
the table leg to heave himself up. Stephen remembered having wondered at a
match which had the spindly-legged, unprepossessing Sir Archie marching the
very lovely Miss Julia Preston down the aisle with such haste the season
before. He’d not thought about the lovely debutante again until news spread
that the couple had been blessed with twin boys within a barely timely eight
and a half months of their nuptials.
Now Lady Julia looked as dewy fresh and desirable as she had when
Stephen had gazed admiringly at her in the ballroom as a young man experienced
in battle but completely unprepared for London society. His mother had left him
little of the vast fortune she’d frittered away through drink and gambling
though enough to at least deport himself like the gentleman he’d been born.
He managed, but only just.
“No, nothing happening,” repeated Archie. “I’ll wager a thousand
monkeys you’re all hot air, Craven.”
Lady Julia, who’d straightened, bent at the waist to peer again at
the scene which had so excited the gentlemen.
“Oh, my goodness, the spider jumped!” she squeaked, twisting round
so suddenly she tripped over her husband’s arm and fell full length upon
Stephen.
For a second he just lay prone beneath her, eyes wide with shock as
her soft curves moulded his hard – very hard – contours – not all of them his
bones … and swallowed as he broke into a
cold sweat – for she must clearly recognise she was lying upon where there
should be no peaks.
“Get up Julia. Craven, do you accept the wager?” Archie, who sounded
as if these were everyday occurrences, took his wife’s elbow and hauled her to
her feet. But not before Julia had slanted a knowing, and very provocative
look, at Stephen.
“What? Er, yes,” Stephen mumbled, paying only half a mind. He rarely
gambled these days. He had only to recall his wretched, fatherless youth, and
the antics of his feckless, beloved, wager-mad mama.
“Good fellow!” A hearty handshake followed as Stephen rose. He took
refuge behind the back of the Egyptian sofa and forced a strained smile at his
hosts.
“I do love an unusual wager,” Lady Julia murmured, adopting a pose
of rare solidarity beside her husband. “So this big, bold, female spider –
obviously a prime article in the arachnid world – has just suffered the amorous
attentions of her tiny, boring, timid, ineffectual husband.” Her knowing smile
broadened and her words were heavy with emphasis as she enunciated each word.
It was impossible to miss her meaning and Stephen could only wonder that Archie
didn’t bristle at the obvious allusion to their own marital situation. She
stroked Archie’s arm while asking Stephen in silky tones, “You’re the
celebrated man of science in the room, Mr Craven. Please explain in … explicit
terms … the courting rituals of the spider world.”
Stephen flicked a glance at Archie. Fortunately he appeared to be
his usual good-humoured self – and just as keen for information as his wife.
He cleared his throat. “The male spider will court the female and …
and then after he…”
“Impregnates her,” Lady Julia supplied with an enquiring smile.
Thank you so much for dropping by. I hope you enjoy the story when it's released in March, 2013.
In the meantime you can find out more by visiting my
website at:
