Author of the Month

JO BEVERLEY





A Note from the Author

Dear Readers:

Hi, I’m delighted to be Bookbug’s author of the month, especially in anticipation of Rothgar’s book finally hitting the shelves in April.

In case the word "Rothgar" doesn’t mean anything to you, the Marquess of Rothgar is the head of the Malloren family, and the last to succumb to love. Ten years ago, when I was writing the first Malloren book, Rothgar strolled into an orgy and uttered the words: "Your fate has arrived." He was speaking to a whore who was playing a kind of strip hazard, but he could have been speaking to me. Life has not been quite the same since.

I was bombarded with letters from readers saying that they loved the book, but they were anxiously "waiting for Rothgar." It’s been a long wait, but now it’s nearly over. The title is DEVILISH, as is the situation when Rothgar becomes involved with Diana, Countess of Arradale.

 Devilish  DEVILISH

April 2000
Signet


The attraction is rapid, but both have excellent reason not to marry. The countess is a peeress in her own right, but will lose most of her extraordinary powers and independence if she marries. The marquess has resolved never to marry. His mother went mad and murdered his new-born baby sister and he will not pass on her blood. A Devilish situation.

Both being determined and strong-willed, it should not be too hard. They only have to survive the three day house party around Lord Brand Malloren’s wedding.

You can find out more on the special web page I’ve created for the marquess here. For now, here is an excerpt from the first evening of that fateful house party in Devilish.


Excerpt of  D E V I L I S H :

     After a while, Rosa took up music duty at the harpsichord, and Lord Brand joined her to play a duet. He did not have equal skill, but listening to the melded notes, seeing the bodies side by side, the occasional glances, Diana felt a deep quiver of envy.
     She had never realized how exact the phrase "speaking glances" truly was. She swallowed and looked away.
     Did her guests have everything they needed?
     Was the marquess still apart?
     Was he eyeing her darkly and plotting revenge?
     Of course he wasn't. He was playing whist with Lord Bryght, Elf, and Lord Walgrave. Interestingly, Lord Walgrave was playing as the marquess's partner, not his wife's.
     Diana wandered over to watch, and being skilled at cards, soon saw that Lord Bryght and the marquess were players of extraordinary skill. No doubt their family knew never to let them partner each other.
     When the hand finished, the marquess looked up. "Do you wish to play, Lady Arradale?"
     As he began to rise and she demurred, Lord Walgrave rose. "Please, dear lady, rescue me. It's like eating a chicken between three tigers."
     His wife chuckled and turned to Diana. "Truly, it would be a kindness. He doesn't have the lethal instinct."
     Since Lord Walgrave had already moved away to speak to Lord Steen, it would be awkward to object. Diana took his seat across from the marquess.
     Another freak connection, or was there a conspiracy here? She shook off that thought. The adjoining rooms were her own doing, and nothing had contrived their solitary single status, or this partnering over cards.
     "I didn't know whist could be so dangerous," she remarked lightly as Elf dealt.
     "You haven't asked what stakes we play for," the marquess pointed out, eyes resting on her almost speculatively.
     Her shoulders twitched, and to counteract it, she sat up straighter. It occurred to her that this was the most intimate situation they had ever been in, sitting close and unavoidably face to face.
     "And what stakes do we play for, my lord?" she asked, fanning her hand and assessing her cards.
     "Love."
     She looked up sharply.
     "Points," Elf said simultaneously and in quite a different tone. "My brother doesn't permit gambling within the family."
     Diana looked only at him, the thread stretched taut. "Isn't it dangerous to gamble with love, my lord—in a family?"
     "Or the safest place to do it. Appropriate, then," he said, laying down a card, "that I play the ace of hearts."
     Diana watched the cards instead of him, as everyone discarded low.
     "Not King of Hearts?" she asked lightly as she gathered their trick.
     "Perhaps that, too," he said, playing the card.
     As she placed those cards in front of her, she looked straight at him. "Oh, do say you have the knave as well, my lord."
     His lips twitched. "Whatever I have, I play low."
     The play came toward her. There was no way he could know she held the queen, but when she played it—her only remaining heart—she felt as if he had forced the move. She was also aware during the rest of the hand of speculative interest from his brother and sister on either side.
     Plague take the man, he was flirting with her! Why? Whatever his reasons, plague take her own absurd reaction. She took the last trick and smiled calmly at him. "Our hand, love or not."
     He gathered the cards and shuffled, long fingers deft within the froth of lace, one large ruby flashing in candlelight. Aware of staring at their beauty, of sudden curiosity about how they would feel in contact with her skin, she looked down at her own hands, glittering ring on every finger.
     He began to deal. "I do not insist on my rules in your house, Lady Arradale. If you would prefer to play for stakes...."
     She met his eyes, smiling calmly. "Not at all, my lord. The pleasure of the game is in the skill of it."
     "My thought entirely, my lady," he said as he picked up his hand. "And you play very skillfully indeed."
     Heart suddenly pounding, Diana swallowed and fixed her attention firmly on her cards. Skillful or not, she was too sensible to play flirtatious games with him.
     Three days, though.
     Despite her new friendship with Elf, Diana wished the three days over.
     She and the marquess won decisively. They had the luck of the cards, but there was also a fine meshing of skills, almost an ability to read each other's mind. She'd seen Elf and her brother exchanging more looks, and had wanted to protest: This is nothing. This is just good card play!
     She wasn't sure that was true, however, so by the time she went up to bed, her nervousness about his bedchamber had reached the snapping point. The Countess’s Bedchamber was just a room, and someone had to sleep in it, but still, as her maid stood waiting to undress her, she looked at the adjoining door, wishing she could see through it.
     On this side, the earl’s side, the door was gleaming mahogany inlaid with decorative woods. On the other side, she knew, it was sparkling white paint with flower decorations on the panels, and details picked out in gold. Beyond the door lay a lady's bedchamber of the most flowery type. The colors were all white, pink, and gold, with shell-pink draperies swagged up by plaster cupids. It had been created for her mother and kept unchanged through the years, perhaps in memory of magical times.
     What was his reaction?
     Curiosity warred with caution, and curiosity won.
     After all, the marquess had been coming upstairs not far behind her.
     He could hardly have undressed already.
     She turned the key and knocked.


Copyright © 2000  Jo Beverley Publications Inc.  All rights reserved.



May you never be stuck on a long flight with a bad book!

All the best,
Jo Beverley
March 2000


E-mail: jobev@poboxes.com
Web site: www.poboxes.com/jobev







Publication List

Regency Historicals:

   FORBIDDEN MAGIC – 1998

Medieval Romances:

   LORD OF MIDNIGHT – 1998
   THE SHATTERED ROSE – 1996
   DARK CHAMPION – 1993
   LORD OF MY HEART – 1992

Georgians – Malloren Series:

   DEVILISH – April 2000
   SECRETS OF THE NIGHT – 1999
   SOMETHING WICKED – 1997
   TEMPTING FORTUNE – 1995
   MY LADY NOTORIOUS – 1993

Rogues Regencies:

   DANGEROUS JOY – 1995
   FORBIDDEN – 1994
   CHRISTMAS ANGEL – 1992
   AN UNWILLING BRIDE – 1992
   AN ARRANGED MARRIAGE – 1991, 1999

Traditional Regencies:

   DEIRDRE AND DON JUAN – 1993
   THE FORTUNE HUNTER – 1991
   EMILY AND THE DARK ANGEL – 1991
   THE STOLEN BRIDE – 1990
   THE STANFORTH SECRETS – 1989
   LORD WRAYBOURNE'S BETROTHED – 1988

Anthologies:

   A CHRISTMAS DELIGHT – 1991
   A REGENCY VALENTINE - 1991
   ALL HALLOW'S EVE – 1992
   MOONLIGHT LOVERS – 1993
   A REGENCY CHRISTMAS – 1995
   THE CHRISTMAS CAT - 1996
   A SPRING BOUQUET – 1996, 2000
   MARRIED AT MIDNIGHT – 1996
   FAERY MAGIC – 1998
   THE BRIDES OF CHRISTMAS – 1999
   STAR OF WONDER – 1999





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