Bluestocking Belles

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Falling in love in WIP Wednesday

This is an excerpt from Love in Its Season, my contribution to Under the Harvest Moon, the next Bluestocking Belles Collection with Friends.

Jack strolled through the lower town considering ways to approach Miss Hughes without her turning him away. As the farrier’s cottage came into view, there she was. Gwen, his heart said. Stupid heart. What use would a magnificent woman like her have for a broken-down soldier, soon to be an ex-soldier, old before his time, beset by nightmares, with only one working arm, no job and no idea where he was going or what he would do?

She was harnessing a horse to a little vehicle—something between a cart and a gig, with a gig seat in front and a small cart tray at the back. The frown on her face hastened his steps. She was worried, and he wanted to fix it.

“Good morning, Miss Hughes.”

She turned at his greeting, her eyes widening in surprise. “Captain Wrath!”

As an ex-cavalry man, he recognized the setup in the cart back of the vehicle—the farriers and blacksmiths in the army had carried larger versions of the little portable forge, and the other boxes undoubtedly carried the tools of Miss Hughes’s trade.

“Off to work?” he asked, trying to keep the disappointment out of his tone.

“Yes, if…” Relief spread across her face as a boy of about nine raced around the corner of the cottage and skidded to a stop in front of her.

She continued to look in the direction he came, welcome turning to puzzlement. “Is your mother far behind?” she asked the boy.

“Mam can’t come,” the boy reported. “Said to tell you she’s sorry, Miss Hughes, but Chrissie got too close to the fire, and her apron caught, and Mam’s had to take her to the doctor.”

Miss Hughes paled, her eyes widening. “I hope Chrissie is not too badly hurt,” she told the boy. “Does your mother need anything?”

“It’s not too bad, my Mam says. She dropped Chrissie in the rain barrel straight off,” he was backing away as he spoke. “I have to go back and watch the baby. Sorry, miss.” He took off the way he had come.

Miss Hughes nibbled at her lower lip, her eyes full of worry.

“Anything I can do to help?” Jack asked.

Hope lit her face, followed by rejection. “I do not know you, Captain Wrath,” she pointed out. True, but Jack was more and more certain that his heart knew hers. Which surely meant that her heart knew his?

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Spotlight on Under the Harvest Moon

Under the Harvest Moon

As the village of Reabridge in Cheshire prepares for the first Harvest Festival following Waterloo, families are overjoyed to welcome back their loved ones from the war.

But excitement quickly turns to mystery when mere weeks before the festival, an orphaned child turns up in the town—a toddler born near Toulouse to an English mother who left clues that tie her to Reabridge.

With two prominent families feuding for generations and the central event of the Harvest Moon festival looming, tensions rise, and secrets begin to surface.

Nine award winning and bestselling authors have combined their talents to create this engaging and enchanting collection of interrelated tales. Under the Harvest Moon promises an unforgettable read for fans of Regency romance.

Preorder now: https://books2read.com/UnderHarvestMoon

Moonlight Wishes and Midnight Kisses by Collette Cameron

Chronicles of the Westbrook Brides

Time can heal most wounds. Only love can heal what remains…

A wounded veteran with no future…

There was a time when Cortland Marlow-Westbrook wanted little more than to marry the Scottish lass who stole his heart and build a life with her. But that was before the war left its mark on his body and soul. Now, scarred and disabled, all he wants is to be left alone. Unfortunately, fate—and the only woman he ever loved—have another plan in mind…

An heiress who mourns the past…

Avery Levingtone was heartbroken when Cortland went off to war and never responded to a single letter she sent. But now he’s back, and she refuses to waste the second chance they’ve been given. She’ll do whatever it takes to win back her wounded warrior’s heart and prove they were meant to be together—or she’ll remain a spinster forever. On this there can be no compromise…

Can Cortland overcome the pain of his past and embrace a loving future with Avery? Or will he deny his happily ever after…and hers?

The Morning Light by Caroline Warfield

A physician, Adam Wagner is meant to save lives, not take them, but war called, and the ones he could not save haunt him. His nightmares after Waterloo won’t stop and have begun to invade the daytime until he wonders if he’s losing his mind. Images of a young girl caught in the crossfire keep him from his daughter. The horror of it keeps him from Meg Barlow. They courted and he was close to proposing before he left. Now he can only protect her by staying away.

Meg lives on the charity of her cousin, Earl Barlow, and serves the community as a midwife. She doesn’t understand how Adam could turn his back on her so thoroughly, but she isn’t about to let him get away with it.

A Harvest Blessing by Rue Allen

What can the son of an English vicar and the daughter of a French Comte possibly have in common?

After Waterloo, Captain Thom Owen is uncertain what to do with himself. Then fate casts Charité du Pessac and her aunt in his path. No gentleman would abandon a damsel as brave and kind as Miss du Pessac, but how can he help her? With no clear solution in mind, Thom escorts the ladies home to his father.

Charité ‘s aunt believes her niece and the Captain are engaged, and Charité fears the Captain’s father will not welcome them. She is French after all, and while the captain might not object to her nationality, others—like his father—might disapprove of a marriage between former enemies.

Coming Home by Mary Lancaster

Old memories, new love

Captain David Buckley comes home from Waterloo at something of a crossroads in his life. Restless yet weary of war, he contemplates settling down near his home town of Reabridge – only it’s full of painful memories of his late wife and the eternal enmity of her family which goes back hundreds of years.

He is not looking for the added complication of love when the mysterious Lady Lorna falls literally into his arms, though he is happy to retrieve her stolen property and scare off rejected suitors. Only with the harvest moon festival does he begin to understand the true meaning of love and home.

Under the Champagne Moon by Alina K Field

Orphaned by the French Revolution and rescued by a British family, Fleur Hardouin was a solemn and often sullen child. She didn’t—or wouldn’t—speak, until the jolly young Gareth Ardleigh crossed her path one summer and saved her from bullies.

Fifteen years later, Fleur’s life takes another twist when she and the beloved lady she serves lose their home and return to the town of Reabridge. Determined to rescue them both through an advantageous marriage, Fleur tries to brush off the attention she receives from Captain Gareth Ardleigh, who’s home from the wars and as handsome as ever. Her heart longs for him, but her head knows he can’t provide the security she needs.

Gareth’s excuse for visiting Reabridge is to deliver the personal effects of his best friend who perished at Quatre Bras. But his real purpose is finding the little French girl he met years ago, for marriage—not to him, but to the Frenchman who helped save his life. Little does Fleur know that she’s heir to a wealthy French vintner who’s demanded Gareth’s help finding Fleur as repayment of his rescue from Napoleon’s army.

Astonished to find that Fleur has grown into a beautiful—and still intriguing—young woman, it soon becomes clear, he must choose between honoring a promise or trying to win the hand of the woman he loves.

A Quiet Heart by Elizabeth Ellen Carter

Widowed in the Napoleonic Wars and traumatized by the horrors she has seen, Veronica Petersham’s road to Reabridge has been paved with tragedy.

Now she is here as bearer of bad news for one of the families in the town.

But she falls ill just short of her goal and finds herself in the care of kind and stoic Martin Bromelton, a local farmer, and his family.

As Veronica recovers, she learns there might be hope for the future after all and the opportunity to find love once more.

A Love Beyond Time by Sherry Ewing

A Family of Worth (Book Three)

Can love at first sight be reborn after heartbreak, proving a second chance is all you need?

Miss Hannah Pownall fell for a young lord years ago, only to see him leave. After no word from him in eight years, he returns to their small town, wounded and broken. Now, Hannah must reconcile her old feelings with the heartbreak he caused, knowing he plans to stay.

Captain Brandon Worthington returns to the town of Reabridge to recover from the war. He never expected to find the girl he once loved still unwed. Now, he must prove to her that he never forgot her.

Hannah and Brandon’s journey is complicated by their respective pasts, but ultimately, they must decide whether second chances are worth taking a risk. Will they be able to navigate the obstacles thrown their way to find the happily ever after they both deserve?

The Widow’s Harvest Hope by Cerise DeLand

The new Earl Barlow returns home from Waterloo, intending to live by his own rules. The woman he loved and lost years ago visits for the Harvest festival—and he plans to offer the Widow Wright what they both want.

Being an obedient female has brought Vicky only sorrow. But with the need to visit Ford’s home to identify a mysterious toddler who may be her deceased sister’s son, she questions if a lady who has lived by the rules can throw them all away to seize her last chance for happiness.

Love In Its Season by Jude Knight

The Battle of Waterloo lost Jack Wrath the use of one arm and ended his career in the cavalry. With nothing better to do and nowhere else to go, he sees his doctor home to Reabridge—and stays because of Gwen, the female farrier he rescues from a lustful lord. After all his years of wandering, Gwen’s cottage feels like home.

Gwen Hughes is taller and stronger than many men, and runs her own business. Perhaps she intimidates the men of the town, but that is fine with her. She doesn’t have time for courtship. She’d be a fool to refuse Jack’s offer to help her father, who is in his second childhood, and even more of a fool to read too much into his kindness.

Under the harvest moon, two people who believe romance has passed them finally reach their season for love.

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Declarations on WIP Wednesday

Jack sometimes thought the worst days were the ones when Griffith was most aware of the holes where most of his memories and his old skills should be.

“He won’t help with the chores or settle to spillakins or cards,” he reported to Gwen when she emerged from her stillroom. “He refuses to sing, and he makes loud screeches when I try to tell him a story. If you don’t mind, Gwen, I’ll hire a pair of riding horses and take him out for a ride. I can keep him on a leading rein.”

“I’ll come along, if you can make it three horses,” Gwen said. “I am almost done here, and I’ve earned the rest of the day off. Go and fetch the horses, Jack, and I’ll watch Father while I make us some food to take with us.”

Some things, it seemed, Griffith remembered. He easily mounted the steady horse Jack had hired—a large placid cob that the stable master at the inn recommended. Gwen might think she had kept her father’s condition secret, but the stable master knew. Adam’s housekeeper knew. Jack wondered how many other people were aware. If so, they should be ashamed for leaving his poor darling to try to manage father, house and business on her own.

He hastened to mount his own horse. Griffith was anxious to be off, and was becoming frustrated when his horse refused to obey his commands. It wouldn’t ignore the lead reins that tethered it to Gwen’s horse and Jack’s.

“This was a wonderful idea,” Gwen said half an hour later. She had taken them to an idyllic spot by the river. As soon as Jack spread the blanket for their al fresco meal, Griffith had commandeered it to wrap himself in and had gone to sleep. Jack put his coat down for Gwen to use instead.

She sat on one side, her knees and ankles decorously together, her sensible half boots off the edge of the coat. “There’s room, Jack,” she said. “Come and share.”

Jack shook his head. “Not a good idea, Gwen. I cannot sit that close to you and keep my hands to myself.”

She looked puzzled. “Do you mean that you want to touch me? As if…? Jack, what do you mean?”

Perhaps he’d be off to hell in a hand basket, but he could not resist just once telling her how he felt. He would regret it if she sent him packing, as she should, but just once, he wanted her to know.

“I want to touch you.” It was a ravenous growl. “I want to kiss you until you don’t remember anything but my name. I want to devour you, Gwen, and if you have the least sense of self-preservation, you’ll let me sit over here while you sit over there.”

Was that a flare of interest in her eyes? Heaven help them both if it was, for her father was no sort of chaperone at all, sound asleep as he was.

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Spotlight on Before I Found You

I have followed Miranda de Courtenay’s quest for a title since she first appeared in her sister Grace’s story, in the Bluestocking Belles collection Holly & Hopeful Hearts. I wondered how Sherry Ewing was going to redeem her, for she was, beyond question, a brat. But Sherry did it, in this lovely story, where Miranda at last faces the reality that she has been seeking the wrong goal. I adore the man who taught her to want more, and I love the woman Miranda becomes. Read this book!

Before I Found You

A de Courtenay Novella (Book Three)

By Sherry Ewing

Miss Miranda de Courtenay has only one goal in life: to find a rich husband who can change her status from Miss to My Lady. But when a handsome stranger crosses her path at a Valentine’s Day ball, her obsession with titles dims. Might love be enough?

Captain Jasper Rousseau has no plans to become infatuated during a chance encounter at a ball. He has a new ship to run, passengers to book, and cargo to deliver. But one look into a young lady’s beautiful hazel eyes, and he becomes lost. Does love at first sight really exist?

Their paths continue to cross until they are both stranded in Fenwick on Sea. Their growing connection is hard to dismiss, despite Miranda’s childish quest for a title at all cost. But what if the cost includes love?

Released on 21 April. Preorder now through Books2Read: https://books2read.com/u/4XDrva

Excerpt

She was not sure what to expect. Being outside alone with a man she did not know was a bold move. If she needed reinforcements, she could easily call out for help, but that would hardly do her reputation any good. It had barely recovered from her last scheme. Society’s memory was short, remembering scandals only until something new came along for them to gossip about—or until something happened to remind them. She couldn’t afford to give them new fodder to chew on.

She could not resist. Miranda took the remaining few steps until she stood next to him, and he rose to his full height, his hair tousled by the evening breeze. She suppressed the urge to push back the lock of hair across his brow that refused to stay in place. Oh my, but the man was tall!

Miranda did not even realize she offered him her hand until he leaned down and kissed the air between her knuckles. His fingers were warm even through the silk of her gloves. How would they feel if her hand was bare? Good heavens! What was coming over her?

“Mademoiselle,” he whispered in a husky French accent, causing goose bumps to rise on her arms. His voice was utterly divine!

“Miranda,” she said offering only her first name. It was hardly appropriate, but she did not wish to see his disinterest when he learned she was a “Miss” and not a “Lady”.

Although it might not matter. Many gentlemen present this evening were on the lookout for a well-dowered heiress to enrich their estate. The man before her could be one of them. Even though she could not attach “lady” to her name, she was still wealthy in her own right… or would be when she finally wed.

Love had nothing to do with what really mattered in life—marriage to a husband within the nobility, one with enough wealth to keep her and her children in luxury. Not for her a boring life as a country matron, with nothing to do or to talk about beyond counting sheets and breeding children. She wanted a glittering life as a Society hostess! It would be an adventure. Or so she had always thought, and she would not allow her heart to rule her head.

She bit her bottom lip before she realized she had done so. The man before her could not know it was an automatic reaction when she was worried. She watched his brow arch in surprise before a grin turned up at the corner of his lips.

“Jasper,” he finally replied in return, examining her reaction to his touch. “The evening has become brighter now that you have joined me for a breath of fresh air. Look how the stars above beam in approval that they may gaze down upon you.”

Miranda’s lips twitched at the compliment. Very nice, though she sensed that he used this phrase often. She realized he still held her fingertips and she reluctantly pulled them away before waving her hand towards the crowd inside.

About Sherry Ewing:

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. You can learn more about Sherry and her books on her website where a new adventure awaits you on every page!

 

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Meet the hero and heroine of Love in Its Season

Meet Gwenillan Hughes

Gwen Hughes, is too tall and too independent to suit the bachelors of Reabridge. She has helped in her father’s farriery from the time she could toddle, and since her brother left for the wars and her father faded into second childhood, she has been the farrier.

She loves her work and is proud of the family business, but she is also tired. It’s the busiest time of the year for a farrier, when the big houses are preparing for the hunting season and the farms around Reabridge are bringing in the harvest. On top of that, she has a house to manage, meals to prepare, and an increasingly dependent father to look after.

The retired soldier who offers to help out with her father is a God-send, especially when he takes over the housework and cooking, as well. He says his motive is simply that he is at a loose end, and he enjoys helping people. Can Gwen dare to hope that she means more to him than that?

Meet Jack Wrath

After twenty-five years in the cavalry, Jack Wrath has resigned his commission and come home to England. Or not home. An orphan who enlisted when he was fourteen, he doesn’t have a home, and he is only in Reabridge because he brought his doctor home. After all the man saved him from losing all use of his arm after he took a bullet to the shoulder. Besides, someone had to make sure the poor beggar made it home.

Meeting Gwen Hughes strikes him all of a heap. There’s no point in courting her. She is far too good for an unemployed orphan of dubious origins. But he knows something about looking after dazed old men. He can help to make her life easier.

So he volunteers his services. He can help her through this busy season, but every day he loses more and more of his heart to this brave, clever, magnificent woman. When she finally sends him away, he will leave the best part of himself behind. Can he dare hope she will allow him to stay?

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Cover reveal Under the Harvest Moon

As the village of Reabridge in Cheshire prepares for the first Harvest Festival following Waterloo, families are overjoyed to welcome back their loved ones from the war.
But excitement quickly turns to mystery when mere weeks before the festival, an orphaned child turns up in the town—a toddler born near Toulouse to an English mother who left clues that tie her to Reabridge.

With two prominent families feuding for generations and the central event of the Harvest Moon festival looming, tensions rise, and secrets begin to surface.

Nine award winning and bestselling authors have combined their talents to create this engaging and enchanting collection of interrelated tales. Under the Harvest Moon promises an unforgettable read for fans of Regency romance.

Love in Its Season by Jude Knight

The Battle of Waterloo lost Jack Wrath the use of one arm and ended his career in the cavalry. With nothing better to do and nowhere else to go, he sees his doctor home to Reabridge—and stays because of Gwen, the female farrier he rescues from a lustful lord. After all his years of wandering, Gwen’s cottage feels like home.

Gwen Hughes is taller and stronger than many men, and runs her own business. Perhaps she intimidates the men of the town, but that is fine with her. She doesn’t have time for courtship. She’d be a fool to refuse Jack’s offer to help her father, who is in his second childhood, and even more of a fool to read too much into his kindness.

Under the harvest moon, two people who believe romance has passed them finally reach their season for love.

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Cover reveal coming this weekend

The next Bluestocking Belles collection is finished and going through the editing process, and we’re ready to tell you about it and show you the cover.

We’re revealing the cover for the first time at the Belles Brigade regular Saturday brunch, at 1pm EDT this weekend. Please join us, if you can, to find out about Under the Harvest Moon.

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Tea with Chloe

“Don’t be nervous, my love,” said Dom Finchley to his darling bride. “She may be a double duchess, but she is very kind.” They were visiting the Duchess of Winshire, who had been the Duchess of Haverford until her husband died and she married again. Dom was in some sort related, for he was the product of an affair between his mother and the Duke of Haverford.

Lord and Lady Diomedes Finchley were in London, and Dom was determined that Lady Diomedes (who much preferred to be called Chloe) should be given a chance to make a splash on the London social scene. She had had a season, she pointed out to him. Somewhat belated, and in York not London. But both of those circumstances were to his advantage, surely, since he met her and married her.

Dom thought that the Duchess of Winshire might consent to introduce Chloe to some hostesses. He was sure she’d find Society much more fun as a wife than she did as a bookish wallflower. Chloe thought that Her Grace had no reason to think kindly of the Finchleys, and besides, she might not be a bookish wallflower, but she was a bookish wife.

She had just made that retort when the door opened, and the grand lady herself entered. The duchess set Chloe at ease immediately, by advancing to Dom with a hand held out for him to bow over, and the words, “Dom Finchley! How delightful of you to visit. And you have brought your wife. Lady Diomedes–oh I do hope you will let me call you Chloe, dear. I have been longing to meet you, ever since Charlotte and Anthony told me how nice you were, and how perfect for our Dom. I say ‘our’, my dear boy, for I do quite take a proprietary interest, since you are half brother to my sons and my darling wards.” Anthony was her son, the current Duke of Haverford, and he and his duchess had come to Dom and Chloe’s wedding, in York.

Her Grace invited them to sit, and sent immediately for tea. “You will have to come to my ball next week,” she said, before Dom could even introduce the topic of Chloe’s social life. “I will also speak to my girls and my friends about including you on their invitation list. Chloe, Matilda, who is your husband’s half sister, has a regular weekly meeting that might interest you: a book club. If you are interested, she would be delighted to hear. Oh. And the theatre! I am sure Anthony will allow you make use of his box. We shall have such fun!”

Dom and Chloe are hero and heroine of Lord Cuckoo Comes Home, which is a story in the Desperate Daughters collection.

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Wounded heroes on WIP Wednesday

I’ve been working on my story for the next Bluestocking Belles collection, and thought I’d share. Jack has offered to look after Gwen’s father, who has dementia (not that they called it that then, while Gwen works.

Back at her home, she soon found her father and Captain Wrath. All she had to do was follow the two voices singing in the kitchen—a somewhat bawdy song about a miller and his customer. Her father’s deep bass and Captain Wrath’s light tenor wound around one another to turn the silly lyrics into a thing of beauty. On impulse, she joined in the chorus.

“To me right ful la, my diddle diddle lay do,
Right ful, right ful ay.”

Captain Wrath turned to smile at her. “That was just what the song needed,” he observed. “An alto.”

“My Ellen,” Da said, smiling. Once again, he thought she was her mother. Gwen had given up arguing with him when he was like this. Captain Wrath put a bowl down in front of him—stew, which he was eating with a spoon. What a good idea! Gwen had been serving her father on a flat plate, and with a fork and knife. And where did the stew come from? Had Mrs. Carr sent it in apology? Which reminded Gwen that she would have to call by and see how Chrissie was.

Captain Wrath had filled another bowl. “Are you ready for stew, Miss Hughes?” he asked. “I can make a pot of tea, too. The kettle has just boiled.”

“Thank you,” she said, taking a seat on the bench next to her father. Jack put the bowl in front of her. “What have you two men been up to today.”

Da was shoveling stew into his mouth. He spoke without waiting to finish the mouthful. “Jack tells stories,” he swallowed. “He went to the war.” He took another spoonful.

“Did he?” Gwen asked, at a loss for what else to say.

“Damn fool thing to do,” Da grumbled. “No good comes of going for a soldier. Thugs and villains.”

Gwen took a worried look at Captain Wrath to see if he was offended, but he grinned as he brought his own bowl to the table. All three of them with bowls and spoons, and bread they could tear with their fingers. Well, why not? It was not a formal dinner party.

“Ellen likes us to eat proper,” Da said to Captain Wrath in what might be intended as a whisper. He dipped his bread into the soup, scooped soup on to it and lifted it up, dripping, to shove into his mouth.

“It’s not the officers’ mess,” Captain Wrath whispered back. “Proper doesn’t count if it’s not the officers’ mess.” He nudged the bowl toward Da, so more of the soup would fall into the bowl while the bread was being transferred to Da’s mouth. Da had a towel tied round his neck, so the rest would at least be easy to clean up. Another good idea.

Father accepted Captain Wrath’s explanation, and continued spooning up his stew, while Captain Wrath gifted Gwen with a twinkling smile.

“How has your morning been?” he asked. The kettle whistled again, and he got up to pour the water into the teapot, then brought it, a cup, and a jug of milk to her place at the table. Gwen had not been waited on since she could toddle. It felt both wonderful and slightly uncomfortable. Shouldn’t it be her job to serve the food and the tea? But if it did not bother Captain Wrath, why shouldn’t she enjoy it?

“Is all well?” Captain Wrath asked.

Gwen collected herself and answered his question. “I have had a busy morning, thank you. Everything is well.” What was it about Captain Wrath that scattered her thoughts? “How have you and Da enjoyed yourself?”

“I think it has been a good morning for him,” Captain Wrath confided. “He has been talking well, and has accepted me, though he keeps forgetting who I am.”

At that moment, Da pushed back from the table and glared at them both. “What are you doing in my house?” he demanded. “Who are you?”

Gwen tensed. Last time he had suddenly had no memory of her at all, he taken offense at having a strange woman in his kitchen and had chased her from the house brandishing a broom.

“I am Jack,” Captain Wrath said, “And this is Gwen. You may remember you invited us to a meal with you.”

Da frowned, but didn’t challenge Captain Wrath’s statement. He pointed. “Something wrong with your arm?”

“Bullet in the shoulder,” Captain Wrath said. “Dr. Wagner says it damaged the nerves and muscles. Now the arm is pretty much just a useless lump of meat.”

Da nodded thoughtfully. “Poacher, was it? Or highwaymen. Not a duel, I hope.”

“No,” Captain Wrath said. “Not a duel.”

“Good,” Da said. He bent over to take a closer look. “No movement at all?”

Jack wiggled the fingers that poked out of the sling. “A little.”

“Hmmm.” Da frowned in thought. “A good sign. Keep it bound so you don’t bang it into things. But make sure you get your wife to exercise it twice a day. Massage, too. Ellen can give you some of my liniment to use. Do the dishes, Ellen, and see this stranger out. I’m going to have a little lie down.”

Gwen was back to Ellen again. She began to get up to see that her father made it up to bed, but Captain Wrath gestured for her to sit. “I’ll do it,” he said. “You finish your meal. I know you have a busy afternoon ahead of you.”

Gwen should have insisted. After all, it was her job to look after her own father. But it was such a blissful luxury to sit and eat a meal on her own; to finish a cup of tea while it was still hot. She had to admit that Captain Wrath was handling her Da well. Better, in fact, than she did.

The least she could do was offer him the liniment Da mentioned, and help him exercise his arm. Unless he had a wife. He had not mentioned a wife.