Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors !
It’s beginning to look a lot like release day! I can hardly believe it! In just 17 days The Widow Wore Plaid will launch! Stay tuned for details.
So this week I’m going back to snippets from my historical romance, The Widow Wore Plaid. It’s the sixth and final book of The Widows’ Club series and I’m truly very excited to share it with you again.
BLURB:
The Battle of Waterloo made them widows, but each has found new happiness. And Jane, Lady John Tarkington, intends to keep her freedom, even if love—and one particular gentleman—are determined to claim her heart . . .
It is a truth rarely acknowledged—at least in public—that a wealthy widow is free to pursue a great many adventures. For two years, Jane has privately enjoyed her independence. Why should she remarry, even when the gentleman proposing is as wonderful as Gareth, Lord Kinellan? She entreats him never to ask her again. But as her Widows’ Club friends—now all joyfully remarried—gather at Castle Kinellan, Jane begins to wonder if stubbornness has led her to make a terrible mistake . . .
Kinellan needs a wife to give him an heir, and he wants that wife to be Jane. They are perfect together in every way, yet she continually refuses him. Just as he is on the point of convincing her, a series of accidents befall Gareth and point to an enemy in their midst. He has promised Jane a passionate future filled with devotion, but can he keep them both alive long enough to secure it?
I’m starting my snippets where I left off in November, so now we’re in Chapter 3. Gareth, Marquess of Kinellan has just finished dancing with Jane, Lady John Tarkington, with whom his is deeply in love. Jane loves him as well, but is wary of giving up the independence of widowhood, even for this man she loves. As the last snippet ended, they had just made an assignation for after the festivities are done for the night.
EXCERPT:
Of course, it really needn’t be their last.
Desperately Jane tried to stifle the annoying voice in the back of her mind that kept insisting she could simply tell him she had decided to accept one of his former proposals. He didn’t need to propose again. And this was completely acceptable because women were allowed to change their minds about such decisions.
Did she indeed wish to change her mind?
That was the question she’d been struggling with all day. All month, actually. Ever since she’d become painfully aware of Kinellan’s sudden silence on the topic of marriage. She should have been grateful that he’d done as she had asked and steered clear of the subject. But even louder her whispering voice had asserted that what she really wanted was another proposal.
And a little more for good measure…
That aggravating voice always became loudest just after she and Kinellan had made love and were lying in one another’s arms, sated and sleepy, or laughing and teasing themselves into another fit of passion. At that point, sometimes as she was drifting off to sleep, the bothersome voice bluntly told her to stop deluding herself and tell Kinellan she’d changed her mind so, yes, please, she wanted to marry him.
Well, she’d ignored that voice before and would do it again. Yes, she could admit she loved Kinellan, and the little voice would gloat in glee. But that was never the true issue. The question that tormented her was would love be enough for her to give up her independence. If the laws of the land had made marriage anything but the loss of all the rights for a woman, she’d be the Marchioness of Kinellan this moment. But English law was absolute. If she married, her husband assumed all of her property, save anything agreed upon in her settlements, and he became the guardian of her children. A husband took away all rights for her to choose—anything.
My Rafflecopter giveaway to celebrate the cover reveal and the upcoming release is still available if you’d like to enter it. And as the novel is set in Scotland, I’m giving away a little piece of the Scottish Highlands! A souvenir plot, to be exact, that entitles the owner to be styled Lord or Lady of Glencoe, Scotland! To enter the giveaway, just click this link and follow the Rafflecopter instructions.
Additionally, my contemporary Christmas novella, The Present, is now available on Amazon and on KU as part of a Christmas series called “Christmas on the Side.” It released on November 23rd. You can go check it out here.
On November 17, the Nine Ladies Dancing: Christmas Miracles anthology of Christmas novellas released and is now available on Amazon. My Christmas novella, It Happened at Christmas, is part of that nine author anthology, so you should check it out! Here’s the link. It will also be available on Kindle Unlimited at no cost for members.
And ALL of my historical Christmas novellas are on sale for .99 for the entire month of December: Hearts Beneath the Mistletoe, It Happened Under the Mistletoe, A Match Made at Christmas, Married by Christmas, and Seduction at the Christmas Court.
PLUS–Kensington has my full-length Christmas novel, The Widow’s Christmas Surprise, on sale for .99 as well. Lots of Christmas reading for a bargain price.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of the Warriors here. There’s some fantastic snippets to be read.
The Widows’ Club series
Jenna Jaxon Romance--because passion is timeless. 
That’s a hard decision to make. I don’t blame her for being conflicted.
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She really is between a rock and a hard place. I don’t envy her her decision.
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That’s a difficult dilemma to have to decide, with pros and cons for each. So many young people nowadays have no conception of what it was like to live in such times.
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I tried explaining this very dilemma to my grown daughters and they could scarcely wrap their heads around it. One just kept saying, “Well, I wouldn’t do that.” And I had to tell her she might not have much of a choice. The younger generations haven’t a clue.
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Enjoyed the snippet although her hesitation is getting to be annoying to me. Either she trusts him by now or she doesn’t! Can’t wait to learn what he intends to say to her though….it’s an excellent story for sure.
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Thank you, Veronica! I know. It’s hard to keep the reader on the edge of their seat with this question for a long time, but as an author, you also have to go with the arc of the story. LOL Always an issue in this series. 🙂 Thanks for coming by!
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Sounds like she’s snookered herself by insisting on him doing exactly the opposite of what she really wants!
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She really has. Be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it.
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Hmmm – I’d be debating the decision as well – give up all my rights
Tweeted.
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I can’t imagine today’s woman agreeing to give up all rights, especially to own property and to the raising of her children. But women of the Regency knew that was the deal. And it wasn’t a fair one at all.
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Great snippet!
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Thank you, Karen!
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Oh, I understand her reluctance. Though just because law dictates men can do that, it does not mean Kinnellan will. Right? I think they need to talk.
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They do need to talk plainly, Jessica. He knows the reasons for Jane’s reluctance, but all he can do is reassure her that he won’t be “like that.” We’ll have to go a little further into the scene to see what he does.
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You really give her a dilemma here. Lose a chance a lasting love or all her freedoms. Such was a woman’s lot. Not an easy choice. Let’s hope he makes it impossible for her not to make the right one! I have so loved this series!!
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Thank you so much, Nancy! Yes, we have to throw the kitchen sink at those characters, don’t we? LOL
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