Hello Dear Readers!

A quick announcement: Leave a Widow Wanting More is free today! Grab your copy if you haven't already read it, especially if you've not yet read the Cavendish Family series. Leave a Widow Wanting More is book 1, so it's a great and free way to enter into the series. It returns to its original price on February 4, though, so be quick!

Alrighty, that out of the way, I wanted to share an excerpt with you. It's entirely unedited 😳 and you all will be the first eyes other than my own to see it. It's a novella for my up-coming Art of Love series that will be included, first, in the wonderful Lords and Ladies of St. James anthology collection--Dukes and Diamonds. Dukes and Diamonds will feature stories by Rachel Ann Smith, Caroline Warfield, Rebecca Paula, Amy Quinton, and Lauren smith as well as myself. I'm having fun writing my own little road trip, class difference romance for it, and I can't wait to read the others.

Here's an excerpt from my story for the collection. In it, Miss Posey Frampton, who works with her father in a jewelry shop he owns, is hiding from the duke who is pursuing her for matrimony. Until she's forced to leave her hiding spot and confront him...

“Your grace!” Her father’s voice. “What brings you here to honor our doorstep this day?”

“The Halston bridal jewels need cleaning. Mending, too, by the looks of it. There’s no one I would entrust them to other than you and your daughters.” The sound of something heavy being settled onto the counter.

“Quite right, your grace.”

“Please do call me Archer. Or Crestmore if you must. I hope you will not insist on such formalities much longer, though.”

Posey groaned.

“What was that?” Archer asked.

“The cat,” her father answered. Good sport, he was. Entirely trustworthy.

“When did you get a cat?”

“Ah … yesterday. A stray. Just waltzed in. Won’t go home.”

“Ah.”

The sound of her father’s laughter, nervous, jangling the jewels on display in their cases. “Crestmore, then. I’ll call you Crestmore. Bridal jewels, eh. I could take a look at them, but … the only person for the job is—”

“Posey.”

“Precisely.”

Posey gasped. Had she ever thought her father trustworthy? The traitor! But perhaps it was not all bad. Papa could still claim she was out for the day, ask for the jewels to be left over night.

“Posey has a knack for detail,” her father said slowly, “and a steady hand for delicate fixes.”

Posey held her breath, crossed all her fingers and her toes. Please, please, please, please.

“She’s brilliant, you mean,” Archer said. “I would like it if she could take a look.”

 A pause in which Posey’s heart beat loud enough for the king to hear in his echoing palace miles away. 

“I’ll go get her.” Her father’s voice like a knife in the back.

Bother, blast, hell, and damn! 

Her father’s head peeked around the edge of the doorframe before his entire body followed. His eyes still glittered, this time with sword-sharp determination. “You can’t avoid our most illustrious client. There have been years only his mother has kept this shop open. You are the best. And you are also my brave girl. Don’t hide from anyone. Do you hear?” 

She wiggled and shook and even whined a bit. But she knew he was right. She hated when he was right. “I’ll speak with him.”

“Did you tell him about Fiona?” Papa whispered, “when he … asked you his particular question?”

She shook her head, clenching her hands together before her belly.

“He deserves to know why a woman who’s given him a certain type of hope suddenly has no interest. He likely knows the bit about him being a duke is pure poppycock.”

True, that. More than one thing true. She made herself—skin and bones and soul and all—diamond hard and kissed her father’s cheek. “Wish me luck.”

“Good luck, dear girl.” Then he gave her a twirl and a gentle push, and she found herself standing in the bright light of the shop windows facing the most handsome man of her acquaintance.

The light in the duke's whisky-colored eyes sparked like fire glinting off a crystal decanter. The long, sinewy hand he’d placed on top of a dark blue velvet bag clenched, and the muscle in his jaw ticked. A sweep of golden-brown curls pushed away from his forehead and fell loose around one temple, just above a pulsing vein. An angry vein.

Oh dear. She’d hoped his anger would have abated before they next met. It had not. And the heat of his gaze singed her hair, pinked her skin, and crawled beneath it, boiling her alive. 

He lifted the bag until it dangled before her face. One corner of his fine, sculpted lips quirked up. “Miss Frampton. I’ve brought these for you.”

Blast. She loved that smile on him. It always made him appear boyish. Years ago, she’d given him her first kiss because of that smile. In the music room on the pretense of needing his help moving a harp. Neither of their mothers had likely believed her. She'd taken up the harp during their visits with the duchess merely to create a time in which the young duke might seek her out alone. 

He had. And even though she'd known the kiss was a grievous mistake, singing his taste and smell into her memory so no other man could venture there, she'd never regretted it. Some mistakes were sweet and worth the making. 

“Posey?” His voice a soothing wave she wanted to drown in.

“Mm?”

“Quit looking at my mouth, darling, or I'll kiss you.”

You can pre-order Dukes and Diamonds here!

Ready for some book recs?

Today, my recs are all about daring. Of course! I love my daring historical ladies.

So let's begin with The Duchess who Dared by fellow Brazen Belle Cara Maxwell.

And we also have Sofie Darling's Lady Delilah Dares a Duke.

Now let's end with a daring gentleman-Mary Lancaster's The Devil and the Viscount.

Wanna know what's next for your favorite authors and characters? This promo collects new releases and books on pre order in one place! Take a look and see if there's anything you need delivered to your reading device the day it comes out!

There's so many great books coming out this year! Which one are you looking most forward to?

Happy reading!

Charlie Lane

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