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:
our Rafflecopter
(ends April 18th)
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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Read an 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.
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