Releasing TODAY!
Five all new novellas bring you determined ladies, gallant heroes, and fiery love in the icy winter of 1814 all the way to the Great Frost Fair upon the Thames.
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The Napoleonic Wars have left England with wounded warriors, fatherless children, unemployed veterans, and hungry families. The ladies of London, led by the indomitable Duchess of Haverford plot a campaign to feed the hungry, care for the fallen—and bring the neglectful Parliament to heel. They will use any means at their disposal to convince the gentlemen of their choice to assist.
Their campaign involves strategy, persuasion, and a wee bit of fun. Pamphlets are all well and good, but auctioning a lady’s company along with her basket of delicious treats is bound to get more attention. Their efforts fall amid weeks of fog and weather so cold the Thames freezes over and a festive Frost Fair breaks out right on the river. The ladies take to the ice. What could be better for their purposes than a little Fire and Frost?
Melting Matilda by Jude Knight
Fire smolders under the frost.
Her scandalous birth prevents Matilda Grenford from being fully acceptable to Society, even though she has been a ward of the Duchess of Haverford since she was a few weeks old. Her half-brother, the Marquis of Aldridge, is convinced she will one day be wooed by a worthy gentleman, but Matilda has no such expectations. The only man who has ever interested her gave her an outrageous kiss a year ago and has avoided her ever since.
Charles, the Earl of Hamner is honour bound to ignore his attraction to Matilda Grenford. She is an innocent and a lady, and in every way worthy of his respect—but she is base-born. His ancestors would rise screaming from their graves if he made her his countess.
When his mother and her guardian begin collaborating on Her Grace’s annual charity fundraiser, neither Charles nor Matilda sees a way to avoid working together. And neither can forget the kiss they once shared.
Read an Excerpt:
“You have been hard at work, I see,” Lord Hamner said, as she put her lists to one side and invited him to sit. While they waited for privacy, she told him about her preparations for the charity events, and the complications of not yet knowing the venue for the auction.
“Mother has been saying the same thing,” Lord Hamner said, “but she is most impressed with your gift for organization, Miss Grenford.”
Matilda blushed. “The credit goes to my guardian, my lord. Aunt Eleanor has seen me well trained.”
A footman and two more maids carried in refreshments: tea, coffee, finely cut bread spread with cucumber relish, some of Monsieur Fournier’s little iced cakes, date scones served with cream.
Lord Hamner surveyed it all with delight. “This is a feast, Miss Grenford.”
She invited him to serve himself, while she fixed him the coffee he asked for. As he filled his plate, he asked, “If we are not to stand on ceremony, I wonder if I might beg you to call me Hamner. Or even, should you wish it, Charles.”
Matilda paused, his cup in her hand, then gathered her scattered wits and passed it to him. “You are very kind, Lo– Hamner.”
He shook his head. “Not kind at all. You called me pompous, Matilda. You had the right of it, but I am trying to amend. May I call you Matilda?”
Matilda cast a glance at the maid, but she had her head bent low over her mending and was did not appear to be taking any notice of them.
“Just when we are alone,” Hamner cajoled. “Or am I being an idiot again? I thought… I hoped that you might be coming to care for me as I do for you.”
“I had no idea.” Matilda lifted her chin, her lips firming as she remembered last year’s tears. “Have we not travelled this path once before, my lord? You made your opinion of me clear at that time, did you not?”
His clear blue eyes met hers. If she did not guard her heart, he would break it all over again, but he sounded sincere. “I was a fool, and worse than a fool. A pompous prig, you said, and that hurt, because you were right.”
“You kissed me, then spurned me and proposed to another woman,” she reminded him.
“Ah.” The color rose in his face and he looked down at the coffee cup, dwarfed by his large capable hands. “You are Lady Felicity’s friend. Of course, you know about that.”
“What? You hoped to deceive me?”
“Not that!” The cup clattered as his hands shook, and he put it down on the side table. “I hoped I could explain it before you knew what an ass I had been. To burn for one woman and propose to another, as if they were interchangeable? My mother tells me I deserve for you to send me away and never speak to me again, but I hope to convince you that I have learned from my stupidity.”
My One True Love by Rue Allyn
She vanished into the fog. Will he find his one true love or remain lost, cold and alone forever?
Major Arthur Trevor PenRhyddyrch, Earl of Trehallow, returned to Wales from war and found his best friend gone. No one would speak her name let alone tell him where she might be. Then he found her in the frosty London fog of January 1814 only to lose her in the next moment.
When Miss Mary Percival Cummins saw Trevor in the fog, she ran. She knew he would hate her once he heard what others said, and the memory of their friendship was too dear for her to survive knowing he despised her.
But fate and the Duchess of Haverford had different plans. Her Grace knew, if they did not, that these two friends deserved the happiness of finding their one true love.
Read an Excerpt:
“What delicacy appeals, Miss Cummins?”
“Oh, I should not, but I would love some of the gingerbread and perhaps some champagne. But you need not purchase…”
“It is my pleasure, my dear.” Trevor raised her hand to kiss her fingers.
“I’ve no doubt my cousin sees to all your pleasures, Trehallow.” The man in front of them, turned with his purchases, revealing her cousin’s disgusted sneer.
“How dare you, sir.” Trevor began.
“Indeed, cousin.” Percy stepped in front of Trevor. “How dare you cast aspersions where you have no knowledge of any dishonorable behavior on my part.”
Percy’s interruption startled Trevor so much he lost his speech.
Donald swept his gaze around the room, suddenly grown quiet. Skirts rustled as women stepped back forming a space in which Trevor, Percy and Donald confronted each other. However, Trevor noted, no one turned their backs. Too avid for gossip to give the cuts they imagined Percy deserved.
“I had the tale direct from your former fiancé, Baron Blanchard . How on the eve of your betrothal, you were found in intimate circumstances with a stable boy. You always did let your passions rule you, and, as I predicted, it led to your downfall.”
“You predicted nothing.” Percy challenged the man’s lies. “You and I had never met in person until my father’s funeral. You did not know me then, and you do not know me now. You believe any tale that suits you. Even if the tale misrepresents the facts.”
“Facts. Facts!” Donald nearly shouted. “You were found by your fiancé in flagrante delecto. That is a fact. Your fiancé could not face the shame of being cuckolded before he was wed and fled the country. That is a fact. Your father killed himself from shame, and your mother, whom I sheltered when you deserted her, died of grief. Those are the facts, cousin. One more fact remains. I denounce you and your licentious ways. Neither belong in the Cummins family.”
Trevor watched Percy go white and tremble. He prepared to catch her should she faint at the bile her cousin spewed. But just as Trevor raised his hand to comfort her, her face flushed. The only remaining white was on the knuckles of the fists at her sides.
Before he could blink, she drew back and punched Donald in the nose.
He fell like a stone.
“You broke my nose,” he said. Though the words sounded more like Do boke ma nofe.
The crowd tittered.
“That, cousin, is the least of what you deserve for spreading lies and rumors of an event about which you know next to nothing.
Lord Ethan’s Courage by Caroline Warfield
War may freeze a man’s heart; it takes a woman to melt it.When a lovely—but foolish— young woman marches into an insalubrious alley full of homeless former soldiers, Ethan Alcott feels something he thought dead stir to life: his sense of honor and will to live. Her innocent efforts to ease the suffering of men might have touched his heart if she hadn’t put herself in danger to do it. Someone needs to take her in hand.
Lady Flora Landrum chafes under her brother’s restrictions, but she’s willing to compromise if they can join forces to join in the Duchess of Haverford’s charity efforts. When she discovers that the mysterious one-armed ruffian she encountered in a back alley is Lord Ethan Alcott, son of the Marquess of Welbrook, her astonishment gives way to determination to make the man see reason.
Courage takes many forms. As Ethan comes to admire Flora’s, perhaps he can recover his own.
Read an Excerpt:
Their eyes held for a long moment while she thought it through. “You’re hiding from your family,” she concluded.
“Did you think they arranged my accommodations in the alley behind Finnegan’s Pub?”
“Of course not. Where do they think you are?”
“I have no idea. Missing. Presumed dead. No idea.”
“But how? Why?”
This time she was certain he would not answer. Obviously, his life did not concern her. The carriage turned onto one of London’s most fashionable squares. With the house still ostensibly closed, the carriage went around to the mews, where the groom opened the door and handed her down. Ethan aided her maid, earning some sympathy from Flo.
She looked up at the coachman. “Return Lord Ethan to the Albany,” she said, daring him to object.
He stood his ground for a moment. Finally, he spoke. “I woke up on a troop ship among the wounded. Enlisted men. No one knew who I was; it seemed simpler to leave it that way.”
She had no answer for that. He bounded back into the carriage and was gone.
A Second Chance at Love by Sherry Ewing
Can the bittersweet frost of lost love be rekindled into a burning flame?
Viscount Digby Osgood returns to London after a two-year absence, planning to avoid the woman he courted and then left. Surely she has moved on with her life; even married by now. A bit of encouragement from a friend, however, pushes him to seek the lady out. Can she ever forgiven him and give them a second chance at love?
Lady Constance Whittles has only cared for one man in her life. Even after he broke her heart, it remains fixed on him. Another man tries to replace him, but she soon learns she can never feel for him a shadow of what she still feels for Digby. One brief encounter with Digby confirms it; she is more than willing to forgive him. Can they truly take up where they left off?
Charity projects and a Frost Fair on the Thames bring them together, but another stands in their way. Will he tear them apart?
Read an Excerpt:
“As I live and breathe, Digby Osgood.” She watched his eyes widen before his spectacles began to fog up as the warm air of the shop hit them. His cheeks were red, probably because of the cold outside, and she hid a smile at her imagination, which almost thought he was blushing because she addressed him so informally. She should not have been so presumptuous and quickly corrected her mistake. “I mean… Lord Osgood.”
Reaching inside his coat, he pulled out a linen handkerchief and began wiping his glasses before placing them back on the bridge of his nose. “Lady Constance,” he said just as formally. He gave her a welcoming smile before removing his hat. “It has been too long.”
Her breathing elevated just seeing Digby again, and she moved behind the desk to try to calm her thoughts. Still… she could not prevent herself from taking in the sight of him. His black hair curling at the edges was slightly damp where his hat had not covered his head from the falling snow. A slight cleft in his chin had always fascinated her whenever they had been together in the past. His face reminded her of the sculptures she had seen in her aunt’s garden; classical and timeless. But it was his vivid blue eyes that were her undoing. He gazed upon her as though asking if he was assuming too much by being here. The silly man.
“Too long indeed. There are not many who would brave such inclement weather to venture outside,” she finally answered.
The Umbrella Chronicles: Chester and Artemis’s Story by Amy Quinton
Beastly duke seeks confident woman who doesn’t faint at the sight of his scars. Prefers not to leave the house to find her.
There comes a time in every bachelor’s life, when his good-natured but meddling sister gets it into her mind to play matchmaker. And in every occasion, they contact none other than Lady Harriett Ross, self-proclaimed Motley Meddler, the Mistress of Destiny, and Wielder of the Infamous Umbrella.
Enter the Duke of Eastly. A man with just such a sister. He has scars, thinks society is nonsense, and prefers to stay far away from any and all shenanigans. But he could never resist his sibling, who tells him a sorrowful tale of woe, of a dear friend’s shy plight ahead of an important auction at the Frost Fair of 1814. No worries. He has the perfect solution. Help is on the way!
Enter the friend, Miss Artemis Synclaire. The precise opposite of timid and shy. And as such, she won’t stand for the Beast’s asinine resolution. She’d rather dine with an elephant (which could actually be arranged) than deal with a man such as he.
Can two such stubborn people ever bend enough to discover they’ve found their perfect match?
Read an Excerpt:
He focused on Miss. Synclaire.
He was already consumed with the daring woman before him.
And she returned his gaze with such intensity, he momentarily forgot all about his scarring, not to mention the whispers of beast dripping from everyone’s lips. A first.
He’d been captivated the moment she stood and dared to risk the wrath of a Duke, particularly one with a reputation that was the stuff of children’s nightmares.
“Miss Synclaire.” He executed a flawless bow.
“Duke.” She dipped her head as she followed his movements with her eyes. Eyes that didn’t hold a trace of fear, merely interest.
The effect on his body was most inconvenient. Eastly pulled out his chair, and out of habit, checked its structural integrity. At six foot five, he was not a small man, and the delicate furniture so fashionable today was ill-suited to his size. The specimen groaning beneath his grip was no exception and was an example of one of many reasons why he preferred the comfort of his own home.
But there was nothing for it; he couldn’t very well stand. So, he hooked Harriett’s Umbrella on the back of the chair and sat. With extreme caution.
Miss Synclaire leaned to her left and watched. Slowly, she straightened. “Five pounds says it doesn’t last the hour.”
The duke shifted in his seat, testing its strength, then returned her gaze and pulled a flask from his jacket. “Deal.”
She narrowed her eyes. He tossed her a wink—what in the hell had gotten into him?—then, tucked away the whisky and opened the basket.
About the Authors:
Amy Quinton is an author and full time mom living in Summerville, SC. She enjoys writing (and reading!) sexy, historical romances. She lives with her husband, two boys, and three cats (George, Astrid, and Toothless). In her spare time, she likes to go camping, hiking, and canoeing/kayaking… And did she mention reading? When she’s not reading, cleaning, or traveling, she likes to make jewelry, sew, knit, and crochet (Yay for Ravelry!).
Award winning author Caroline Warfield reckons she is on at least her third act, happily working in an office surrounded by windows where she lets her characters lead her to adventures in England and its Empire. She nudges them to explore the riskiest territory of all, the human heart.
Jude always wanted to be a novelist. She started in her teens, but life kept getting in the way. Years passed, and with them dozens of unfinished manuscripts. The fear grew. What if she tried, failed, and lost the dream forever? The past 5 years have brought, 7 novels, 13 novella, 3 awards, and hundreds of positive reviews. The dream is alive.
Author of historical and contemporary romances Rue Allyn is insatiably curious, an avid reader and traveler. She loves to hear from readers about their favorite books and real-life adventures. Crazy Cat stories are especially welcome.
Sherry Ewing picked up her first historical romance when she was a teenager and has been
hooked ever since. A bestselling author, she writes historical and time travel romances to awaken the soul one heart at a time. When not writing, she can be found in the San Francisco area at her day job as an Information Technology Specialist.
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