To Claim the Long Lost Lover

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Rivals to the love interest on WIP Wednesday

One common barrier to happiness in romance–although often a spur to the developing interest between the main couple–is another love interest, whether former, would-be, or prospective. In this week’s post, I’m inviting you to share in the comments an excerpt from your work in progress about rivals to the love of one of your protagonists. Mine is from To Claim the Long-Lost Lover, and my heroine is on the hunt for a husband.

After four days at the house party, Sadie was fighting the urge to order her carriage and escape. Lola had not arrived, instead sending a message to say that something had come up concerning the school and she would be there as soon as she could.

Some of the more disreputable house guests had taken Lola’s absence to mean Sadie would be susceptible to their charms, which was more than a little insulting. One had even told Sadie that he was pleased to see her without her twin, since Lola was a bluestocking and a prude, and out to spoil a man’s fun.

As if Sadie, without Lola, would not have the brains to see that Parkswick was all glitter and no substance! In their first year as debutantes, Society had dubbed her the Diamond and Lola the Saint. They seemed to think Sadie’s fashionable colouring and figure were the sum total of her being, and being beautiful must necessarily mean being stupid. Lola’s preference for a quieter social life and her dedication to educational causes meant, in their eyes, she was some kind of a religious fanatic, determined to spoil their fun.

Parkswick’s fun, in this case, fetched him sore toes from Sadie’s riding boot. When the fool chose to take that as clumsiness, she decided that threatening him with her cousin would provoke less gossip, if a lower degree of personal satisfaction, than a sound punch to his mating equipment. Drew’s marksmanship had become legendary in his first months in England, when he had shot the buttons off an opponent’s jacket in a duel, then repeated the feat at Manton’s with a succession of volunteers.

She hadn’t, in fact, told her cousin. Drew presented as an affable easy-going young man, slow to take offence and always ready with a joke to diffuse a tense situation. But scratch that surface, and the warrior lurked beneath. As her escort, Drew would take any threat to her seriously, and she wasn’t convinced that Parkswick deserved to be thrashed or worse.

Besides, on their way to the house party, she had asked him to give her space to get to know the three men she had been considering from her husband short list, and she hated to have to admit that was a mistake. Still, if the rakes and scoundrels couldn’t take a hint from her ever colder demeanour, she might have to ask Drew to have a quiet word.

Sadie sighed. Her husband list was shrinking, too. Out of three candidates at this party, two had disqualified themselves already. Drew had found out that Lord Hurley was an inveterate gambler and needed a wealthy wife to fund his habit. Sadie had no objection to a man marrying her for her dowry, but not if he was likely to wager it away and leave her and Eliza penniless.

Lord Colyford had seemed promising. He wanted a wife to mother his little girls and provide a son or two. Since Sadie wanted a father for her daughter and more children, it would be an even bargain. He was pleasant to talk to, treated her as if her opinions had value, and showed no signs of descending into sentiment. This was to be a practical marriage, with respect and affection, surely, but Sarah had done with love. The twinge when she thought of Nate was a scarred-over wound, mostly sound but subject to the occasional phantom pain. So she had been telling herself, trying not to build anything on the visit her sister had told her about, or his expressed desire to explain himself.

Perhaps next week I’ll share the excerpt in which Lord Colyford shows himself in his true colours.

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Gossip on WIP Wednesday

Drawn and engraved by Robert Cruikshank 

The gossip trope that often appears in Regency novels has been given a wider audience by screening of Brigerton. As one of the perpetrators of The Teatime Tattler, it’s one I’m fond of. You can do a lot with gossip, and–of course–it’s not just specific to the Regency!

So this week, I’m sharing an excerpt in which my hero of To Claim the Long-Lost Lover goes seeking gossip about his beloved. I’d love you to share an excerpt from your work in progress where you use gossip to further the plot.

Nate found that Sarah’s interest in finally choosing a husband had caught the attention of the bored young men who inhabited the clubs, moved in packs to entertainments in both high and low society, and whiled away their hours by wagering, gossiping, and competing within their set: corinthians, dandies, young blades.

“The Winderfield Diamond?” said one rakish gentleman, when Nate managed to bring her name into a conversation over brandy. “Nothing there. She looks lovely, I’ll grant you, but not safe. Even before those terrifying cousins arrived, a man’d risk his future offspring getting too close. Seems very sweet, right up until she freezes you into an ice block.”

“And her sister!” His friend shuddered. “Cut you into little strips with her tongue, that one.”

“Anyway,” Rake One commented, “she’s looking for a groom. Don’t know why this season, when she’s turned down more proposals than any other female on the Marriage Mart. Truth to tell, I only chanced my arm because of that. I usually leave the virgins alone, but I thought she’d decided on spinsterhood.”

“Anyone would have,” his friend commiserated. “Did myself.” He shook his head. “Doesn’t like men.”

“Then why is she getting married?” the first rake asked.

They considered the perplexing conundrum of a woman who did not find their advances appealing while Nate thought about how satisfying it would be to punch them.

Someone sitting nearby interrupted their silence. “Bit of a honey pot all around. Looks, money, connections. A man could do worse. And if she doesn’t warm up in bed, that’s what mistresses are for.”

“Good luck with that,” another opined. “She’s already turned away don’t-know-how-many fortune hunters. The war office should hire her mother and her aunt. Their intelligence gathering is impeccable.”

The topic drifted and circled, but kept coming back to what gossip had gleaned about Sarah’s intentions and expectations. Nate didn’t have to say a word. He sat and sipped his brandy, and before an hour had passed, he had a list of eight men that, the company agreed, the Winderfield Diamond was considering.

Other conversations added two more, and rounded out a picture of a settled man with interests beyond fashion, gambling, and sports. Of the seven landowners, four were peers and three untitled gentlemen. The three younger sons all had independent incomes from their own successful enterprises, one as a Member of Parliament in Commons, one an architect, and one a barrister. Nine of the ten preferred country to London living. Four were widowers, two with children.

One factor they had in common was that all had a name as philanthropists, in some measure. That was another thing Nate had learned about the Winderfield family in general and Sarah and her twin in particular; they not only supported good causes, they actively worked in charitable ventures as diverse as barefoot schools, orphanages, and support for military widows and their children.

Most of the useless fribbles who gossiped in his hearing were contemptuous of such efforts. “Not going to be able to make silk out of that kind of sow’s ear.” The young viscount expressing that opinion was only saying what his fellows thought. “They’re born in the gutter and they belong there. Don’t have the brains for anything else, and will rob you soon as look at you.”

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Settings on WIP Wednesday

Once upon a time, authors might devote pages to descriptions of the setting. Even back in the day, did readers peruse every detail? I’m not sure that they did, and I’m certain they wouldn’t today. The trick is to establish setting and background in as few words as possible. Do you have a bit you’d like to share in the comments? Mine is from To Claim the Long-Lost Lover, and introduces the reader to the home of my villainess.

In the half light just before dawn, the last of the club’s patrons stumbled out of the front door, those employees who did not reside in their place of work left through the back door, and the building slipped into its usual early morning slumber.

The club comprised two houses thrown into one in a street of four-story terraced houses. Behind, the areas that serviced the public rooms had spread to include the building’s neighbours in the parallel street, but that was not obvious from the front. There, apart from its double width, little set the building apart from its neighbours. Perhaps it was a little tidier; its window-sills and doors newly painted, its bricks scrubbed and firmly set in newly pointed mortar. Only the discreet brass sign beside the door identified it as very different from the family homes and boarding houses that surrounded it.

Heaven and Hell, the sign whispered, engraved into the brass in discrete italics, only an inch tall. To read it at all, even in the light of the lamp that had hung just above it all night, one needed to climb the steps from the street. No one came to the building without a personal referral, but occasionally, first-time visitors needed reassurance that they were in the right place before they were emboldened to knock on the door.

A glimpse through the open door as the porter allowed entry  would leave a passerby with an impression of light and gilt. Members, or those referred by members, were surrounded by opulence as soon as they stepped inside. Opulence and decadence. In Heaven and Hell, nothing was forbidden. Everything was available for a price.

The woman known as La Reine, the ruler of the brothel Heaven that occupied the two upper floors of the main house, retired to her personal sitting room in a penthouse suite above the mean street behind the club. It had been a profitable night, at least upstairs. Supper was laid ready, and when her business partner joined her, she would find out how things went in Hell, the gambling establishment on the lower two floors.