A Heartless excerpt....

This past Saturday (11/3), I posted a Sweet Saturday Sample on my author blog. The excerpt was from the revised edition of Heartless. It's not a romantic excerpt, but part of a scene between the duke and his cousin, taken from chapter 15. 

Click HERE if you'd like to take a look. 

♥

~Getting to Know the Duke~ The Proposal

Just because I'm feeling oh-so-generous tonight—oh, it's after midnight here, so...this morning then—here's an excerpt from Heartless. This is the ever-so-romantic marriage proposal Derringer bestows on Merri (Leandra). Enjoy!! 

“You sound like a gentlewoman,” he remarked lazily.

“I was raised in my father’s house. I was sent to Miss Forester’s Select Seminary for Young Ladies when the time came and given every benefit of a daughter of the house. Then papa died and his wife threw me out after the will was not found. Everything of papa’s went to his son, the new earl.” All this was said prosaically.

Her voice changed subtly as she continued. Derringer thought it would have gone unnoticed by anyone but him. “I was told he left nothing for me but I refuse to believe my father would not take care of me. We were very close and he assured me I would always be taken care of, that I need never fear poverty. Well,” she shrugged fatalistically.

“And you had no one else to turn to when you found yourself in straitened circumstances?”

She hesitated. “I first went into the village to see my beau, Mr. Hubbard,” she confessed reluctantly. “He had heard about the lack of will and let me know that he was no longer interested in marrying me. But he was more than willing to give me a much different position.” She shook her head and shrugged. “So now I am alone and apparently at your mercy, sir.”

“So you are,” he agreed with an assessing look, uncomfortably surprised at his sudden desire to tear Mr. Hubbard limb from limb. “Marry me.”

Leandra dropped her fork. It clattered onto her plate and her eyes flew up to stare at the crazy man sitting across from her. “Are you daft, sir?” she asked with her normal candor. “I mean, are you an escaped bedlamite?” She didn’t give him a chance to reply, adding quickly, “I thank you for the meal and the sympathetic ear, but you needn’t feel that such desperate means are called for in helping me. I’m sure you like to help people, but marriage? Is that not going much too far, my lord? I assume you are a lord of some sort based on the landlord's attitude but perhaps you are escaped from your keeper? I mean, even lords can lose their minds. The newspapers overflow with such stories...” Her voice drifted to silence.

How was that? Besides my overuse of words ending in —ly, that is. 

This scene made me laugh all over again and reminded me why I love this book so much. I'm having a blast re-reading it, even with the "errors" I see. And it's very, very true that writers are their own worst critics. Well, most are. 

The preceding is (c) copyright 2012 Laura J Miller. All rights reserved.

~Getting to Know the Duke~ How Rude!

Ready for another example of Lord Derringer's character? Here's an additional excerpt from Deception, where Aurora and the duke officially meet. As for the formal introduction...I don't think that ever happened. 

A rude chuckle reached Aurora's ears. Cheeks heating, she turned and beheld his grace, the Duke of Derringer, watching them with open amusement. Apparently, he thought it was quite a lark to watch the two argue like wronged lovers.

Levi turned on his friend. “This is not a farce for your entertainment, Hart,” he bit out in an undertone.

“Ah, but I think it is,” was the duke’s lazy reply. “Why else would you dare to argue like wronged lovers in Almack's? Besides, Vi, unlike those other gentlemen, I don't fear you and I find I’d like to dance with the lady even if I have to meet you come dawn. Adds a certain something to the exercise.”

Levi bowed, a scowl settling on his boyish features. “Have at her, my friend. I care not.” And he walked away.

“Sometimes that man makes me want to scream,” Aurora said without thought. She blushed and glanced up at the duke. “I apologize, your grace, for that embarrassing scene. It was ill done of me to indulge in it.”

“What has my large and not overly bright friend done to incur your wrath?”

Quite sure she should be insulted by his impertinence, Aurora simply stared at him for a moment. Then she shrugged, saying, “He has done nothing, actually. I am not usually so quick to anger, I assure you.”

Lord Derringer ignored her comment and asked her to dance.

“I have only the waltzes, as Lord Greville pointed out.”

Derringer looked around. He caught sight of Lady Jersey. “Sally,” he called, “a moment.”

Aurora stared, dumbfounded, when that lady hurried over at the imperious call of the duke. She was even more surprised when Lady Jersey flirted with him shamelessly before granting his request to waltz with Miss Glendenning.

Aurora curtsied to the patroness and murmured her appreciation. The duke signed his name beside a waltz and took his leave without so much as a goodbye. Aurora watched him go, perplexed. The man was rude and a most uncomfortable person to be around. She wondered how a cheerful flirt like Levi Greville could even bear being friends with such a man.

The preceding is (c) copyright 2010 Laura J Miller. All rights reserved.

*Deception is available for pre-order from TreasureLine Publishing. Actual release date is July 15, 2010.

~Getting to Know the Duke~ Excerpt from Deception

Lord Derringer's introduction takes place in Deception, where he dominates a few scenes. This is a scene between Deception's heroine, Aurora and her companion, where she is warned to avoid him as he would not make a suitable husband. Enjoy! 

“The one on his left,” Ellie continued quietly, “with the unfashionably long black hair is the Duke of Derringer. Beware of him, my dear. It is said he is a rake of the first order. There are, in fact, so very many unsavory rumors about him that I would hope you would avoid him altogether.”

“What rumors?” Aurora asked in spite of her dislike for harmful gossip.

Ellie pursed her lips for so long a moment, Aurora didn’t think she would tell her. “It is believed that he has killed two men in duels, ruined more than one innocent, drinks heavily, gambles only in the most disreputable of gaming dens, and keeps several mistresses. His grandfather, the first duke, made his fortune in piracy. It is said that he amassed so much wealth, the King, for fear of the man, granted him the dukedom in a bid to keep the man loyal to the crown. Lady Watson said that the present duke is involved in some illegal activities just like his grandfather. No one dares to ask him outright, or accuse him of anything, but the rumors abound anyway.”

To Aurora, none of it mattered. The man was a handsome gentleman, to be sure, and appeared every bit as dangerous as rumor claimed. Why, he wore nothing but black. Even his linen was black. To match his soul?

Perhaps that would be to her advantage. Many a man would think twice before tangling with a peer of such appearance and reputation.

She had to wonder, however, if such a man could be made to fall in love.

“Why is he accepted here?” Aurora asked curiously.

“Oh, his mother was bosom bows with Lady Sefton and he is very powerful for all he is only seven and twenty, nearly as powerful as his grandfather was. Lady Watson said none of it matters since the duke will die soon,” Miss Ellison told her young friend sotto voce. She was rewarded with a gasp at this little tidbit. “Apparently, his grandfather was killed by highwaymen when he was five and thirty. The second duke was four when he ascended to the title. He died in a boating accident when he was two and thirty, a year after his wife was found dead in their home near Folkestone. The present duke has held the title since he was seven.”

“But his father and grandfather died in accidents. Why would that suggest he will die young, as well?” Aurora asked, frowning.

Miss Ellison shrugged. “It is the way of gossip, I suppose. One will find intrigues where none exist.”

“Oh,” was Aurora’s enlightened reply.

The preceding is copyright (c) 2010 Laura J Miller. All rights reserved.

*Reserve your copy of Deception now for only $9.95! Click here for details.