Today, I’m thrilled to spotlight The Secret Life of Lords, a gothic romance with a twist. Love the cover!
CHAPTER ONE
Exeter, England
In a storeroom at the back of a thatched cottage on the outskirts of the city of Exeter, Lady Claire Albright separated chamomile stalks from a wheelbarrow piled high with freshly-picked herbs. Quickly binding the ends with string, she hung the bouquet upside down from a nail in the rafter. As she reached for the next bunch, a deep, rumbly male voice filtered through the wall, and instantly her breath caught and her throat constricted. She knew that voice; had listened for it for two pain-filled years, had longed for it, had fretted about it, had torn through every word it had spoken trying to understand what she’d done wrong. And here it was—so sonorous and wise, laced with a gentleness she now knew she should never have trusted.
“We’ve got fresh chamomile in back there,” said Jenny Martin, the proprietress of the odd little establishment: part dwelling, part apothecary shop, and part medical clinic.
Had he married? Claire wondered. Was his wife unable to rest, so he’d travelled all this way for a sleeping potion?
“My lady,” Mrs. Martin called, “Could you bring three bunches of the chamomile?”
Claire’s heart broke into a gallop and she pressed her knuckles to her mouth, frantically wishing there were a hole to dive into. Go out there and see him? Oh, no. No. As if it were on fire, she hurled the chamomile back into the wheelbarrow then froze like a rabbit.
“Could you go back yourself, my lord? I’m so terribly sorry, but this brew depends on constant stirring.”
My God, where to hide!
“Which would be the chamomile?” he asked, voice as musical as a bass fiddle.
“It’ll be dried, but you’ll want the stuff with yellow buds that look like daisies.”
Yellow buds, yellow buds. Claire dashed behind a multi-tiered rack of dangling lavender, as purple as purple could be. There, she stood absolutely still.
His footsteps approached. If I keep my eyes shut, I’m less likely to be noticed. Down went her lids, and in the darkness the volume of his steps roared in her ears. By the sound of it, he’d stopped at the threshold looking for yellow buds. A few tentative steps further into the room, the rustle of dried foliage. It sounded as if he were moving toward the St. John’s wort. A confused exhalation and more movement… closer. Closer.
She sensed him, felt his nearness, the electricity of his body, the heat from him. Had he halted at the lavender? Unable to bear not knowing, she opened her eyes.
In that instant, he parted two bunches of the purple flowers and looked straight at her. “Lady Claire?” he said, startled.
“The chamomile is over there,” she blurted, poking an index finger through the lavender, causing a shower of violet buds.
But his gaze didn’t waver. Those eyes, with their serious expression, their hint of green, their darkness blacker than velvet… And then, God help her, he smiled that funny smile where the left side lifted a fraction higher than the right and the warmth of the sun beamed through. So she snapped her eyes shut.
“My goodness, how have you been?” he said.
A tremor that rattled the dried flowers ran through her body.
He must have noticed. There was a pause, and then he added, “I didn’t keep writing. I’m so sorry for that, but… well, much has happened since I saw you last.”
Elf Ahearn, yes, that is her real name, lives in New York with her wonderful husband and a pesky (yet irresistible) cat. Before becoming a novelist, she spent 20 years in Manhattan working as an actress in nearly 100 productions (yet rarely getting paid for any of them). From that lucrative career, she jumped to journalism, and then to corporate communications where she garnered multiple awards for a newsletter she wrote and edited. Her novel, A Rogue in Sheep’s Clothing hit #1 in its genre on Amazon this September, and bless its electronic and paper heart, has been consistently selling for over three years.
Website: http://www.elfahearn.com
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Buy links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Life-Lords-Albright-Sisters-ebook/dp/B075JNFZSD
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?Query=the+secret+life+of+lords
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-secret-life-of-lords-elf-ahearn/1127082951?ean=2940154891896
