http://www.jobev.com/corexc.html
A complete list of my e-novellas is
available at here.
A complete list of books can be found
at http://www.jobev.com/booklist.html
My next
new book is Seduction in
Silk , a historical romance set in the 18th century,
out in August 2013. Here’s a free sample.
“ You have betrayed me, Giles
Perriam. You have made me a whore and my unborn child a bastard and
your money cannot wash that clean. You’ll hear no more from me, but
now and with my last breath I wish on you the sufferings that your
black heart deserves. May you suffer as I must suffer. May any wife
you take die young as I must die, and any children die young as
mine must die. May you yourself die young and suffering. May your
guilt oppress you every day until Satan comes to carry you to burn
in hell, and may this curse pass to your heirs as long as time may
be.”
(This decades old curse has haunted Perriam
Manor, and now it seems it will fall on the new owner, Peregrine
Perriam, if he cannot persuade a clergyman’s daughter to marry him.
Though inconvenient, that shouldn’t be a challenge. Perry is known
for his charms, and Claris Mallow is reduced to living in a
ramshackle cottage. Little does he know!)
Perry approached a terrace of four small
cottages, skeptical that one housed Miss Claris Mallow, daughter of
the Reverend Henry Mallow, once friend of Giles Perriam. On arrival
in Old Barford, he’d left his horse at the inn and gone to the
rectory, which was a handsome house that couldn’t be more than
forty years old. There he’d learned that Mallow was a year dead and
that his family was living at Lavender Cottage.
Sometimes “cottage” was applied to a small
house of some style and dignity, and that’s what he’d expected.
This row lacked both, but the end one on the left was fronted by
lavender plants, so that must be his destination. The modern
rectory lay only a hundred yards away as the crow flies, but it was
a hundred miles away in all other respects. Henry Mallow hadn’t
provided well for his family, but that could be to his own
advantage.
If the family was impoverished, Miss Mallow
would be eager to wed. In fact, he’d be an angel to rival Gabriel
at the Annunciation. Amused by that image, he walked up to the
warped door and rapped on it with the head of his riding crop. He’d
soon be back in Town.
In the week since Giles’s death, he’d
received two reproaches about tasks abandoned when he’d obeyed
Cousin Giles’s summons. One was indirectly from the king. There’d
also been a fuming letter from his father. As usual, his father
fumed to no purpose, for there was nothing to be done about Perriam
Manor other than this.
He was about to knock again when the door
was opened by a maidservant so short he thought her a child until
he saw the wrinkled face. Sixty if she was a day, though when she
smiled her teeth all seemed sound.
“ Good afternoon, sir. Can I help
you?”
“ Is Miss Mallow at home?”
“ Miss Mallow, is it?” the maid asked,
seeming surprised.
“ Yes.” Was she married after all? No,
for then she’d not be a Mallow.
“ She’s in the garden, sir. Would you
mind going round, for I’m swabbing the floor.”
He could see the truth of that behind her.
The door opened into a front room with an uneven flagstone floor,
which was awash with water. A mop was propped against the wall.
Oddly, the room contained a large table and shelves of jars and
bottles.
A stillroom?
Potions?
The curse returned unsettlingly to mind.
Clarrie had laid a curse on Giles, and her
sister, Nora, had claimed to know how to raise it. Nora was Claris
Mallow’s mother.
Would he be marrying into a family of
witches? Witches who knew how to cast curses?
Even so, it must be done.
“ A shame to bring Miss Mallow indoors
on such a lovely day,” Perry agreed. “The path to my
left?”
“ That’s right, sir. She’ll likely be
down the end.”
Whatever that meant. Perry headed for
A complete list of my e-novellas is
available at here.
A complete list of books can be found
at http://www.jobev.com/booklist.html
My next
new book is Seduction in
Silk , a historical romance set in the 18th century,
out in August 2013. Here’s a free sample.
“ You have betrayed me, Giles
Perriam. You have made me a whore and my unborn child a bastard and
your money cannot wash that clean. You’ll hear no more from me, but
now and with my last breath I wish on you the sufferings that your
black heart deserves. May you suffer as I must suffer. May any wife
you take die young as I must die, and any children die young as
mine must die. May you yourself die young and suffering. May your
guilt oppress you every day until Satan comes to carry you to burn
in hell, and may this curse pass to your heirs as long as time may
be.”
(This decades old curse has haunted Perriam
Manor, and now it seems it will fall on the new owner, Peregrine
Perriam, if he cannot persuade a clergyman’s daughter to marry him.
Though inconvenient, that shouldn’t be a challenge. Perry is known
for his charms, and Claris Mallow is reduced to living in a
ramshackle cottage. Little does he know!)
Perry approached a terrace of four small
cottages, skeptical that one housed Miss Claris Mallow, daughter of
the Reverend Henry Mallow, once friend of Giles Perriam. On arrival
in Old Barford, he’d left his horse at the inn and gone to the
rectory, which was a handsome house that couldn’t be more than
forty years old. There he’d learned that Mallow was a year dead and
that his family was living at Lavender Cottage.
Sometimes “cottage” was applied to a small
house of some style and dignity, and that’s what he’d expected.
This row lacked both, but the end one on the left was fronted by
lavender plants, so that must be his destination. The modern
rectory lay only a hundred yards away as the crow flies, but it was
a hundred miles away in all other respects. Henry Mallow hadn’t
provided well for his family, but that could be to his own
advantage.
If the family was impoverished, Miss Mallow
would be eager to wed. In fact, he’d be an angel to rival Gabriel
at the Annunciation. Amused by that image, he walked up to the
warped door and rapped on it with the head of his riding crop. He’d
soon be back in Town.
In the week since Giles’s death, he’d
received two reproaches about tasks abandoned when he’d obeyed
Cousin Giles’s summons. One was indirectly from the king. There’d
also been a fuming letter from his father. As usual, his father
fumed to no purpose, for there was nothing to be done about Perriam
Manor other than this.
He was about to knock again when the door
was opened by a maidservant so short he thought her a child until
he saw the wrinkled face. Sixty if she was a day, though when she
smiled her teeth all seemed sound.
“ Good afternoon, sir. Can I help
you?”
“ Is Miss Mallow at home?”
“ Miss Mallow, is it?” the maid asked,
seeming surprised.
“ Yes.” Was she married after all? No,
for then she’d not be a Mallow.
“ She’s in the garden, sir. Would you
mind going round, for I’m swabbing the floor.”
He could see the truth of that behind her.
The door opened into a front room with an uneven flagstone floor,
which was awash with water. A mop was propped against the wall.
Oddly, the room contained a large table and shelves of jars and
bottles.
A stillroom?
Potions?
The curse returned unsettlingly to mind.
Clarrie had laid a curse on Giles, and her
sister, Nora, had claimed to know how to raise it. Nora was Claris
Mallow’s mother.
Would he be marrying into a family of
witches? Witches who knew how to cast curses?
Even so, it must be done.
“ A shame to bring Miss Mallow indoors
on such a lovely day,” Perry agreed. “The path to my
left?”
“ That’s right, sir. She’ll likely be
down the end.”
Whatever that meant. Perry headed for
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