Tag:
Separated by lies,
united by secrets
Five facts about The Marquess and the Midwife
·
I’d planned to have my midwife heroine assist a
delivery where the new mother makes a miraculous recovery from eclampsia, but I
sat next to an obstetrical nurse turned author at a book signing, and she said,
no, no, no. It seems that eclampsia,
even unto the present day, carries just too much risk of death.
·
What most of us think of us as a jolly old
English Christmas originated with the Victorians. I knew this, so I downplayed
my Regency characters’ Christmas festivities. Too much, my English editor said,
so I had to add in some mistletoe, syllabub, and good eats.
·
An organ grinder appears off stage in the story.
My research told me that in this era, there were quite a few Italian organ
grinders who fled to England. Who knew?
·
In my first draft of the story, Ameline had only
one child. But there was much that was “off” in that first draft, and I decided
to go for broke in the rewrite and give her twins. Oh, the power of the pen!
·
Ameline’s host and hostess star in one of my
earlier books,
Bella’s Band. Their
steward, Bink Gibson, who makes a cameo appearance in
The Marquess and the Midwife, is the hero of my next book,
The Bastard’s Iberian Bride. For more on
that book, please visit my blog tomorrow at
http://alinakfield.com/blog.
THE MARQUESS AND THE MIDWIFE IS A
2017 RONE NOMINEE IN THE NOVELLA CATEGORY. IF YOU HAVE TIME, AND ARE WILLING, I
WOULD VERY MUCH APPRECIATE A VOTE IN THIS “PEOPLE’S CHOICE” CONTEST. BOOKS WITH
THE MOST VOTES MOVE ON TO THE RONE FINALS. HERE’S THE IND’TALE LINK:
http://www.indtale.com/
Enjoy this Excerpt and Blurb:
Logline:
Finding the woman he lost turned out to be easy. Winning her is another
matter.
Blurb:
Once upon a time, the younger brother of a
marquess fell in love with his sister's companion. He was sent off to war, and
she was just sent off, and they both landed in very different worlds.
Now Virgil Radcliffe has returned from his
self-imposed exile on the Continent to take up his late brother's title and
discover the whereabouts of the only woman he's ever loved.
Abandoned by her lover and dismissed by her
employer, Ameline Dawes has found a respectable identity as a Waterloo widow, a
new life as a midwife, and a safe, secure home for her twin girls. Called to
London at Christmas to attend her benefactress's lying-in, she finds herself
confronted by an unexpected house guest--a man determined to woo her anew and
win her again.
But, is loving the new Marquess of Wallingford a
mistake Ameline cannot afford to repeat?
Short blurb:
Uncovering a lie drives a new marquess back from
a self-imposed exile at Christmas to find the only woman he’s ever loved.
Finding her turns out to be easy, uncovering her stunning secrets, a bit
harder. But winning her back will be the greatest challenge of all.
Excerpt
He released her and leaned back, and his shirt gaped around
a starburst scar, corded and jagged right above his heart.
She gasped and reached to touch it, but he clasped her hand
and pushed it away.
“Waterloo?” she whispered. “I’d heard you were wounded,
but—”
“I survived,” he said in a tight voice.
Her lungs squeezed and her heart quickened. Had he? If so,
it was just barely. He’d been stabbed or speared, or shot, and somehow, somehow, his great heart had carried on.
This had been no minor wound. Virgil had suffered terribly.
“I want to see.” She pushed his hand away and grasped his
collar. He grabbed for her hand, but she dodged him and ripped the fine cotton,
rending the shirt down the front.
“Ameline—”
“You have a trunk full of shirts. I want to see.” She knelt
before him on the sofa, yanked the shirt down his arms, and studied his chest.
Small cuts marked his side and his belly, but the mottled scar was the worst.
It would have taken months to fully heal a wound like this from the inside out.
He should have died.
Her vision blurred so she couldn’t see. But her hands,
trained to examine a babe in the womb, they could see. She flattened her palms
and set a course over the ridges knots, and hard ripples.
He surely had almost died. A world without Virgil, without
his laughter, and his generally kind heart. He’d used her, true, as men did. It
was in a man’s animal nature, wasn’t it? And she’d used him also, hadn’t she?
Both of them grieving over his sister’s death, and comforting each other. And
she was left with her girls, and things had turned out all right, hadn’t they?
Her hands cupped his shoulders and slipped over to his back.
No scars there that she could feel. The ball, or saber, or…what else did men
use to kill each other?…had not gone clean through. It had merely dredged a
hole in his front and wreaked havoc inside him.
And nearly killed him.
She’d always pictured a wounded Virgil, binding up a minor
slash and heading off to the Continent to charm actresses and diplomats’ wives,
maybe taking a wife there himself, and bringing her back to breed pretty,
cheerful children. Virgil, rich, content and happy.
How she’d wallowed in that vision.
The feel of the scarred skin melted away her resentment. Let
him have that happy life with his marchioness and heirs. And perhaps, on a rare
occasion, he could come down to Longview and visit his twins.
“Ameline.” Virgil’s breath touched her cheek.
Large hands cupped both of her hips.
Warmth spurted through her. Too late, she realized her
error. She’d got too close again.
She pulled the sides of his shirt up, her gaze sliding over
the rip and…
Right. He was fully erect. Of course he was.
Hot need shrieked inside her, and she battered it down and
found her breath. “I apologize. My infernal curiosity.” She patted his
shoulders and eased away.
His eyes had gone dark and feral, his lips parted like a
hungry man ready to chomp down on a long-awaited meal. Inside, she melted more.
She took in a great breath. She must keep him talking. “How
did the wound happen?” she asked.
His eyes shuttered and he yanked her hard against him,
smashing his lips to hers.
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Author Bio and links:
Award winning author Alina K. Field earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree
in English and German literature, but her true passion is the much happier
world of romance fiction. Though her roots are in the Midwestern U.S., after
six very, very, very cold years in Chicago, she moved to Southern California
and hasn’t looked back. She shares a midcentury home with her husband, her
spunky, blonde, rescued terrier, and the blue-eyed cat who conned his way in
for dinner one day and decided the food was too good to leave.
She is the author of the 2014 Book Buyer’s Best winner, Rosalyn’s Ring, a 2015 RONE Award
finalist, Bella’s Band, and a 2016
National Reader’s Choice Award finalist, Liliana’s
Letter, as well as her latest release, The
Marquess and the Midwife. She is hard at work on her next series of Regency
romances, but loves to hear from readers!
Visit her at:
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/alina-k-field
