Today I'm here with Susana Ellis to celebrate her new release and a giveaway! Check out the details below!
Beaux, Ballrooms, and Battles:
A Celebration of Waterloo
June 18, 1815 was the
day Napoleon Bonaparte's Grande Armée was definitively routed by the ragtag
band of soldiers from the Duke of Wellington's Allied Army in a little Belgian
town called Waterloo. The cost in men's lives was high—22,000 dead or wounded
for the Allied Army and 24,000 for the French. But the war with Napoleon that
had dragged on for a dozen years was over for good, and the British people once
more felt secure on their island shores.
The bicentenary of the famous battle
seemed like an excellent opportunity to use that setting for a story, and
before I knew it, I had eight other authors eager to join me, and to make a
long story short, on April 1, 2015 our Waterloo-themed anthology was released
to the world.
You are all invited to
Giveaway
One randomly-chosen commenter will receive a Beaux, Ballrooms, and Battles mug.
Our Stories
Jillian Chantal: Jeremiah’s Charge
Emmaline
Rothesay has her eye on Jeremiah Denby as a potential suitor. When Captain
Denby experiences a life-altering incident during the course of events
surrounding the Battle of Waterloo, it throws a damper on Emmaline’s plans.
Téa Cooper: The Caper Merchant
The
moon in Gemini is a fertile field of dreams, ideas and adventure and Pandora
Wellingham is more than ready to spread her wings. When Monsieur Cagneaux,
caper merchant to the rich and famous, introduces her to the handsome dragoon
she believes her stars have aligned.
Susana Ellis: Lost and Found Lady
Catalina
and Rupert fell in love in Spain in the aftermath of a battle, only to be
separated by circumstances. Years later, they find each other again, just as
another battle is brewing, but is it too late?
Aileen Fish: Captain Lumley’s Angel
Charged
with the duty of keeping his friend’s widow safe, Captain Sam Lumley watches
over Ellen Staverton as she recovers from her loss, growing fonder of her as
each month passes. When Ellen takes a position as a companion, Sam must
confront his feelings before she’s completely gone from his life.
Victoria Hinshaw: Folie Bleue
On the night
of the 30th Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, Aimée, Lady Prescott,
reminisces about meeting her husband in Bruxelles on the eve of the fighting.
She had avoided the dashing scarlet-clad British officers, but she could not
resist the tempting smile and spellbinding charm of Captain Robert Prescott of
the 16th Light Dragoons who— dangerously to Aimée— wore blue.
Heather King: Copenhagen’s Last Charge
Christa Paige: One Last Kiss
The
moment Colin held Beatrice in his arms he wanted one last kiss to take with him
into battle and an uncertain future. Despite the threat of a soldier’s death,
he must survive, for he promises to return to her because one kiss from
Beatrice would never be enough.
Sophia Strathmore: A Soldier Lay Dying
Amelia and Anne Evans find
themselves orphaned when their father, General Evans, dies. With no other
options available, Amelia accepts the deathbed proposal of Oliver Brighton,
Earl of Montford, a long time family friend. When Lord Montford recovers from
his battle wounds, can the two find lasting love?
David W. Wilkin: Not a Close Run Thing at All
Years,
a decade. And now, Robert had come back into her life. Shortly before battle
was to bring together more than three hundred thousand soldiers. They had but
moments after all those years, and now, would they have any more after?
About Lost and Found Lady
On April 24, 1794, a girl child was born to an unknown Frenchwoman
in a convent in Salamanca, Spain. Alas, her mother died in childbirth, and the
little girl—Catalina—was given to a childless couple to raise.
Eighteen years later…the Peninsular War between the British and
the French wages on, now perilously near Catalina’s home. After an afternoon
yearning for adventure in her life, Catalina comes across a wounded British
soldier in need of rescue. Voilà ! An adventure! The sparks between them ignite,
and before he returns to his post, Rupert promises to return for her.
But will he? Catalina’s grandmother warns her that some men make
promises easily, but fail to carry them out. Catalina doesn’t believe Rupert is
that sort, but what does she know? All she can do is wait…and pray.
But Fate has a few surprises in store for both Catalina and
Rupert. When they meet again, it will be in another place where another battle
is brewing, and their circumstances have been considerably altered. Will their
love stand the test of time? And how will their lives be affected by the
outcome of the conflict between the Iron Duke and the Emperor of the French?
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Excerpt
September 14, 1793
A beach near Dieppe,
France
“I don’t like the
look of those clouds, monsieur,” Tobias McIntosh said in fluent French
to the gray-bearded old man in a sailor hat waiting impatiently near the
rowboat that was beginning to bob more sharply with each swell of the waves.
“Are you sure your vessel can make it safely all the way to Newhaven in these
choppy seas?”
The old man waved a
hand over the horizon. “La tempête, it is not a threat, if we leave immédiatement.
Plus tard…” He shrugged. “Je ne sais pas.”
“Please, mon
amour,” pleaded the small woman wrapped in a hooded gray cloak standing at
his side. “Allow me to stay with you. I don’t want to go to England. I promise
I will be prudent.”
A strong gust of wind
caught her hood and forced it down, revealing her mop of shiny dark locks.
Tobias felt like seizing her hand and pulling her away from the ominous waves
to a place of safety where she and their unborn child could stay until the
senseless Terreur was over.
“Justine, ma
chère, we have discussed this endlessly. There is no place in France safe
enough for you if your identity as the daughter of the Comte d’Audet is
discovered.” He shivered. “I could not bear it if you were to suffer the same
fate at the hands of the revolutionaries as your parents did when I failed to
save them.”
She threw her arms
around him, the top of her head barely reaching his chin. “Non, mon amour,
it was not your fault. You could not have saved them. It was miraculeux
that you saved me. I should have died with them.”
She looked up to
catch his gaze, her face ashen. “Instead, we met and have had three merveilleux
months together. If it is my time to die, I wish to die at your side.”
Tobias felt like his
heart was going to break. His very soul demanded that the two of them remain
together and yet… there was a price on both their heads, and the family of the
Vicomte Lefebre was waiting for him in Amiens, the revolutionaries expected to
reach them before midday. It was a dangerous work he was involved in—rescuing
imperiled French nobility from bloodthirsty, vengeful mobs—but he had pledged
himself to the cause and honor demanded that he carry on. And besides, there
was now someone else to consider.
“The child,” he said
with more firmness than he felt. “We have our child to consider, now, Justine ma
chère. The next Earl of Dumfries. He must live to grow up and make his way
in the world.”
Not to mention the
fact that Tobias was human enough to wish to leave a child to mark his legacy
in the world—his and Justine’s. He felt a heaviness in his heart that he might
not live long enough to know this child he and Justine had created together. He
could not allow his personal wishes to undermine his conviction. Justine and
the child must survive.
Justine’s blue eyes
filled with tears. “But I cannot! I will die without you, mon cher mari.
You cannot ask it of me!”
“Justine,” he said,
pushing away from her to clasp her shoulders and look her directly in the eye.
“You are a brave woman, the strongest I have ever known. You have survived many
hardships and you can survive this. Take this letter to my brother in London, and
he will see to your safety until the time comes that I can join you. My
comrades in Newhaven will see that you are properly escorted.”
He handed over a
letter and a bag of coins. “This should be enough to get you to London.”
After she had
reluctantly accepted and pocketed the items beneath her cloak, he squeezed her
hands.
“Be sure to eat well,
ma chère. You are so thin and my son must be born healthy.”
She gave him a
feigned smile. “Our daughter is the one responsible for my sickness in the
mornings… I do not believe she wishes me to even look at food.”
She looked
apprehensively at the increasingly angry waves as they tossed the small boat
moored rather loosely to a rock on the shore and her hands impulsively went to
her stomach.
“Make haste, monsieur,”
the old sailor called as he peered anxiously at the darkening clouds. “We must
depart now if we are to escape the storm. Bid your chère-amie adieu maintenant
or wait for another day. I must return to the bateau.”
“Tobias,” she said,
her voice shaking.
He wondered if he
would ever again hear her say his name with that adorable French inflection
that had drawn him from their first meeting.
“Go, Justine. Go to
my family and keep our child safe. I promise I will join you soon.”
He scooped her up in
his arms and carried her toward the dinghy, trying to ignore her tears. The old
sailor held the boat as still as he could while Tobias placed her on the seat
and kissed her hard before striding back to the shore, each footstep heavier
than the last.
He studied the
darkening sky as the sailor climbed in the boat. “You are sure it is safe?”
“La Chasseresse, she is très robuste. A few
waves will not topple her, monsieur.”
“Je t’aime, mon
amour,” she said to him
plaintively, her chin trembling.
“Au revoir, ma chère,” he said, trying to smile, although
his vision was blurring from tears.
Will I ever see her
again?
He stood watching as
the dinghy made its way slowly through the choppy sea to the larger ship
anchored in the distance, grief-stricken and unable to concentrate on anything
but his pain. When the ship finally sailed off into the horizon, he fell to his
knees and prayed as he had never done before for the safety of his beloved. He
remained in that position until drops of rain on his face reminded him of the
Lefebre family waiting for him in Amiens.
With a deep breath,
he rose and made his way to the nearby forest, where his horse waited, tied to
a tree.
“Come, my friend. We
have a long, wet journey ahead of us.”
Setting foot in the
stirrup, he swung his leg over the saddle and urged the horse to a gallop,
feeling his heart rip into pieces with every step away from his beloved.
About the Author
Susana has always had stories in her head waiting to come out,
especially when she learned to read and her imagination began to soar.
Voracious reading led to a passion for writing, and her fascination with
romance and people of the past landed her firmly in the field of historical
romance.
A teacher in her former life, Susana lives in Toledo, Ohio in
the summer and central Florida in the winter. She is a member of the Central
Florida Romance Writers and the Beau Monde chapters of RWA and Maumee Valley
Romance Inc.
***GIVEAWAY***
Comment below on the blog with your name and email to enter to win the really cool mug!
