Regency letter

This is a better picture of my latest M&B. It is the third in the Melford Dynasty series. Number four is also out this month in a double book - The wayward woman. Fugitive Countess is already available as an ebook at Fictionwise.com

This is almost the last Regency letter. Enjoy!



April 1816
Letter from Lady Horatia to her lover.

My dearest love
It is with great haste and anxiety I write to tell you that Melton arrived last night. He caused a terrible row and threatened both Robert and I with ruin if I continued to defy him. Robert says I must remain staunch. He says I should go with you and go quickly. I fear it will mean your ruin too, my love. Perhaps it is best if I forget happiness and do as Melton demands, though Robert says he shall restrain me if I am foolish enough to agree.

I fear this means we should have to leave England, perhaps forever. How can I ask such a sacrifice of you? Robert feels certain it would be your wish. I shall resist for a few days longer. If you do not come to me by Thursday next in our usual place I shall know your answer. I will go there every day at the same hour.

If this is to be farewell know that I shall never blame you. My happiest hours have been in your arms.

Forgive me for the pain I must cause you whichever way you choose.

Your own for ever, Horatia


Hope you've enjoyed this series. Anne Herries

Regency Letters

Here is the post I promised a few days ago. The cover showing is for a Medieval book available only in kindle or from me at the moment. If you would like a pdf email me through the contact at www.lindasole.co.uk




March 1816

Letter from Lady Horatia to her lover

My dearest, it is with relief that I write to tell you that Robert is at least a little better this morning. We had a long talk yesterday and I think it has helped him to come to terms with his grief. Forgive me if I do not explain but it was told me in confidence.

Robert has asked if you will visit us soon. He wishes to meet you, dearest, and he is very much on our side. I know that my brother would stand by us if we chose to leave England together. Melton knows that I wish for a divorce but as yet he remains unwilling to grant my request. If you are certain that you feel able to leave everything behind and seek a new life together please come to me here soon.

Robert has urged me to do what will bring me happiness in life and I believe that I can never be happy without you. However, I could not leave my brother until he is able to cope for himself. I know you have been patient with me and I beg you to remain so until we can take our happiness at last.

Your own Horatia
March 1816
Letter from Lady Horatia to her husband Lord Melton

Sir, I write to tell you that I have decided I shall not return to your house, either in London or the country. When our son was lost nothing remained to us. I beg you to forgive me, but I know that you do not love me and I hope you will find consolation in your mistress.

Such bluntness is necessary at this time for we must speak plainly to one another. I do not wish to remain your wife. I beg you to reconsider and divorce me, but if you refuse I shall simply go away.

Forgive me if this causes you pain. I cannot think it ought for you have never offered me love. Yet I would have had us part as friends were it possible. Please believe that it was never my intention to hurt you.

Horatia.

Aologies

The Anne Ireland book is not yet available but it should be in a few weeks. I'll let you know more then.

I want to say sorry to my viewers for not giving you a post for the past several weeks. I fell on the ice and broke a bone in my shoulder at the beginning of December, and I was in too much pain to type for a time. However, I am feeling better now and will be posting another Regency letter quite soon.

In the meantime, news for anyone following the Melford Dynasty books. Forbidden Lady and The Lord's Firced Bride. The latest installment will be out in paperback in March and is called Her Dark and Dangerous Lord.

I am thrilled about a new Regency trilogy I'm working on for M&B and I have lots of other things going on which I hope to tell you about soon.

I'll be back with the Regency letters post soon.
Love to you all and Happy New Year to all my readers.

Latest Regency letters & other

News for Anne Herries fans.
The Lord's Forced Bride has been high in the list of best selling historical romance since early in September. It goes up to number two and then comes down, but it has stayed in the top ten or twenty all this time. So thank you to the fans buying my books on kindle.

The next in the series is Her Dark & Dangerous Lord, which was published a while ago in US but comes out in UK early next year.

Now read about a book I published myself and the latest in the Regency letters.


The Witch Child


First I would like to tell you about something I consider quite daring for me. I have put a book into Kindle myself. I wasn't sure I could do it but I had an MS of my very first published book, which Robert Hale published in 1980. I've had the rights for years but never done anything with it. Then I read about Amazon's new policy for authors, which is much fairer than it used to be and decided to have a go. I didn't have a cover so I used a photo of my garden, a little secret summerhouse, which is actually quite apt for the book. I have published it under Linda Sole and it is now up at amazon.co.uk You just go to kindle then put Linda Sole in and it is there for sale. The picture above is the one you will see and I feel quite chuffed. This is an experiement but if people buy the book I intend to publish some previously unpublished books that are too long for my publishers and rather different. So fingers crossed there will be some interest.

She was beautiful. She was wicked. She was wanton. And she drove men mad with desire! But to love her was to court death or despair. She was the Witch Child…

Now read the latest in the Regency Lady's letters.


From Lady Horation Melton to her mother

Dearest Mama

It is with great relief that I write to tell you that my brother is at last feeling a little better in himself. For a while I feared that he might succumb to his illness but he begged me not to worry you. Now he asks that you will visit him when our sister can spare you.

I had a letter from Melton asking me to return but refused him on the grounds that I could not leave Robert while he was so ill. Once you are free to visit I may return to London briefly, but I must tell you, Mama, I have grave doubts about my marriage. I believe it must come to an end soon for neither of us is happy. Robert has offered me a home here and I may take him at his word. I cannot say for sure, because I have thought of going abroad. Please try not to be too shocked or upset. I know you believe it is a wife's duty to obey her husband in all things but I no longer feel able to do this. There was never true love in the marriage and now there is no longer respect.

Please do not lecture me for my mind is made up.

Your affectionate daughter.


From Lady Horatia to her lover

My dearest One

At last Robert is feeling better. He asks that you visit soon, because he wishes to meet you. He has given me his blessing in the matter of our affair and I have made up my mind that I shall see Melton once more only, to tell him that our marriage is over. It will not be pleasant, for I fear he will try to stop me leaving him, but I am not afraid of him.

I long to see you. Do come soon.

Your adoring Horatia.

Letters From a Regency lady

The Lord's Forced Bride has been in the top one hundred historical romance and historical books. This morning it was number four in kindle and number seventeen in books (historical).

Very exciting for me!

|Now read the latest in Regency Letters.


An entry in Lady Horatia’s diary

I cannot write this in a letter to anyone for my dearest Robert told me in confidence and I would not betray him for the world. Yet it is too hard to keep inside and so I must put down what he told me.

I understand now why he has been so ill and why for a time he did not seem to wish to recover. I suspected that Robert had been disappointed in love but it is so much worse, so painful that I can hardly bear to write the words.

Robert was and is in love, but the object of his affection was a chambermaid who worked at an inn, a girl of no breeding and little education. My brother tells me that she was the sweetest, kindest girl in the world and I believe him for he wept as he told me. He knew that to marry his darling Alice would mean that his mama would never forgive him. He would have received no further preferment in the army and might have been ostracised by his friends. It is his grief and his shame that he let these things weigh with him yet still embarked on a clandestine love affair with the girl. Even when she told him she was to have his child, my brother begged her to keep their secret, which she did until the last. When her employer at last discovered the truth she was dismissed. She went away and hid herself in shame telling only Robert where she lived. He visited her and promised to take care of her but his regiment was out of town when she gave birth, alone and in great distress.

Robert wept bitterly when he told me that on his return he went to visit her and found both Alice and the child dead. She had bled to death after the birth and the child died either at birth or soon after of neglect.

No man could bear such guilt. I do not wonder that my beloved brother was close to death when I reached him. Had I not pledged to stay with him I think he must have given up. I do not think that he will ever truly recover for how could he? His pain is mine and I feel his shame and his despair. He has told me that I must never do as he did, never hide my love for the person I wish to be with.

‘If you send him away and something should happen you will never forgive yourself,’ he told me as I held him while he wept out his sorrow and regret.

I shall write to my dearest love later. Robert’s story has broken my heart. For now I can write no more.

Regency Letters 7

Another installment in my regency letter story.
Enjoy! Anne Herries

Regency letters 7

My very dear mother and sister.

I must tell you that I found your brother and son very ill indeed. Dearest Robert hardly knew me when I reached him and in his fever he called for someone of whom I have no knowledge. I think it is a lady but I did not recognise the name. I was able to comfort him and after some hours of deep anxiety, he came back to me. The fever has broken though he seems in low spirits. He has asked me if I will take him home and stay with him until he feels able to return to his regiment. I have agreed to do this and shall write to Melton and tell him of my intention. If my sister is well enough to part with her mama, I think my brother would like to see her once we are at home. However, I shall not desert him while he is so low for I fear that he might sink into a decline if he were to spend too much time alone.

I must go now, because he will be wanting me to read to him. We hope to return home in three days and you should send your reply there.

Your loving daughter and sister Horatia.


My dear Melton

I have your letter of last week demanding that I return to you in London. Forgive me but I find I am unable to comply with your request, sir. My brother is still very unwell and I shall not leave him until he is able to return to his regiment.

I am sorry that you feel I have behaved badly. I assure you that I have done nothing I regret or of which I am ashamed. If you feel that the situation between us is irretrievable I would be agreeable to a separation and an amicable divorce in a year or so at your convenience.

I truly believe that our marriage was a mistake and regret any pain I may have caused you.

Horatia.


My dearest and true friend.

Your letters have been a wonderful support to me in this time of my brother’s illness. I could not tell Mama or my sister that I feared he would die for they would have come at once and he was too ill. Mama is a dear but she can be very trying and my sister is still recovering from her disappointment.

I have written to Melton and asked if he will agree to a separation. I am taking Robert to his estate soon and shall stay with him until he feels well again. After that…perhaps you will come to me at the estate, where we may be alone and talk of the future? I am quite determined that I shall not return to a life that contains nothing but unhappiness.

However, for the moment I know you will understand that Robert must come first with me. I know something is troubling him deeply and I think he must have suffered a disappointment for he is very low. My brother has always been so strong and confident and to see him like this is distressing. I have hopes that he will confide in me soon.

I shall count the hours until I see you, my very best of friends.

You have my love and always shall. Horatia

The Pirate's Willing Captive

A small taster from The Pirate's Willing Captive.

Enjoy!

Spring 1557

The man walked away from the hostelry on the waterfront deep in thought. He had booked passage on a ship bound for France and it might be many years before he returned home. His thoughts were regretful and angry for he had parted from his father with bitter words.
‘You take the word of others above mine, Father – you would believe a stranger above your own son.’
Justin Devere’s blue eyes had flashed with pride, making Sir John snort impatiently. ‘You were a damned fool, Justin. By God, sir! There is no excuse for what you have done. You are the great grandson of Robert Melford and a more devoted supporter of the Crown could not be found. Your grandfather was much favoured by King Henry V111 – and my own family has always been loyal. By becoming involved in this conspiracy to murder Queen Mary and replace her with the Princess Elizabeth you have let your whole family down. I am ashamed of you!’ ‘No, sir. You wrong me…’
Justin raised his head defiantly. He was a handsome devil, with pale blond hair and deep blue eyes; reckless, arrogant and dismissive of rules, he stood head and shoulders above most men, including his father. His grandfather said he was a throw back to Robert of Melford in temperament and build, though not in colouring. He was also fiercely proud and it pricked his pride to hear his father call him a fool.
‘You have spoken treason against the Queen and that cannot be tolerated.’
‘It was no such thing, sir!’ Justin declared passionately. ‘I will grant that some hotheads have talked of such a plot in my hearing but I am innocent of any conspiracy – as is the princess herself. She was gracious enough to grant me an audience for many of us wished her to know that we support her and if any attempt were made to disbar her from inheriting the throne when the Queen dies we should rise to her…’
‘Be quiet!’ John Devere thundered. ‘Do you not realise that that in itself is sufficient to have you arrested for treason?’
‘I shall not be silent, sir. I am as loyal an Englishman as any but I cannot love a Catholic queen who puts good Englishmen to the fire in the name of religion.’
‘It is not so many years since we were all Catholic and proud of it,’ Justin’s father reminded him. ‘King Hal saw fit to break with Rome and we were all forced to follow or lose our favour at court but that does not mean…’ He broke off for the anger was writ plain on Justin’s face. ‘While the Queen lives ‘tis treason to speak of her death and well you know it.’
‘We did not plot to murder her, merely to protect our own Elizabeth.’
‘Surely it is enough that talk of your conspiracy has reached Her Majesty? The Princess has herself faced questions from the Queen regarding treason and was lucky that Her Majesty was in good humour because her husband has promised to visit her soon. Had it not been for that fortunate circumstance she might have found herself in the Tower once more.’ John placed a hand on his son’s shoulder. ‘Go to France or Spain, Justin. I know that though you have done wrong your heart was good. You have my blessing. Send me word of your situation and as soon as I think the coast clear you may return.’
‘You would have me flee like a coward?’ Justin’s face reflected his disgust.
‘I would have you live, sirrah! Stay and I may have no son to inherit my estate – and you will break your mother’s heart.’
Lost in the memory of the bitter quarrel with his father, Justin did not notice the shadows behind him. Not until it was too late did he realise that he had been followed from the hostelry. Even as he turned, about to draw his sword, a crashing blow to the back of his head sent him to the ground and he lost consciousness as he was carried aboard a ship, not as the passenger he had paid to be but to serve before the mast.



Excerpts have not been copy-edited.

Hope you enjoyed this. Anne Herries