Текст книги "A black tie affair"
Автор книги: Sherrill Bodine
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Текущая страница: 13 (всего у книги 13 страниц)
EPILOGUE
Opening night of the Founding Families Exhibit, highlighting Bertha Palmer’s exquisite gowns, had been promoted by Kathy Post’s PR firm as the black tie affair of the season.
Beside Athena, Drew, not the winner of the Fastnet, but the winner of her heart and soul, stood with his arm draped around her shoulder.
Just as Athena had wanted, people were laughing, dancing, and congratulating Makayla on her scholarship and the museum on the brilliant exhibit. Chicago society at play to support a worthy cause.
Dazzling in a red Valentino gown, Rebecca strolled everywhere, covering the event for both the Journal and Courier and her television program.
Her husband, David, stood to the side of the room, talking to Dr. Harry Grant, Kate Carmichael, and Athena’s father. But very little time would pass before David would glance up to find Rebecca in the crowd and, smiling, return to the conversation.
Connor, looking uncomfortable but devastating nonetheless in black tie, prowled around the room making young and old feminine hearts flutter. Just generally being a Clayworth male, infinitely desirable because he seemed so very unattainable.
But her Clayworth male was within reach.
Athena lifted her head to look into Drew’s eyes and saw the wealth of love, tenderness, and desire there.
Yes, together we can, will, overcome whatever life deals us.
He smiled down and pressed a kiss on her nose.
Maybe her high emotion made her more in tune with others.
Her father still seemed uncomfortable, and the problems he predicted for Clayworth’s hadn’t made their appearance yet, but she sensed they would. Whatever happened, she would be by Drew’s side.
The way Connor and Venus so studiously ignored each other’s existence seemed strangely powerful tonight.
Leaning into Drew, she felt his chest move in a deep chuckle. “For better or worse. They’re family,” he whispered into her ear, before gently biting it.
She twined their fingers together and raised his knuckles to her lips. “For better or worse. Always. I promise.”
THE DISH
Where authors give you the inside scoop!
From the desk of Susan Crandall
Dear Reader,
After a good friend of mine finished reading one of my suspense novels, she asked my husband how he could sleep next to me at night, knowing how my mind works. After I’d given her a good dose of stink-eye, I really started thinking. Not about how dangerous it is for my dear husband—although that could probably be debated. Many of us do it every night without pause, but think about how much trust it takes between two people to fall into innocent, blissful, and completely defenseless sleep next to that other person.
But more important to SLEEP NO MORE is the question: When in our lives are we more vulnerable than when we’re sleeping? I mean, it starts when we’re children with the monster in the closet or the bogeyman under the bed. And for sleepwalkers, that vulnerability multiplies exponentially; their fears are real and well-founded, not imaginary.
Think about it. You go to bed. Fall asleep… and never know what you might do during those sleeping hours. Eat everything in your refrigerator? Leave the house? Set a fire? It would be horrifying. Even worse, you will have absolutely no recollection of your actions.
As they say, “From tiny acorns mighty oaks do grow.” The disturbing vulnerability induced by sleepwalking was the seed that grew into SLEEP NO MORE.
As for my husband… the poor man continues to slumber innocently next to me while my mind buzzes with things to keep the rest of you awake at night.
Please visit my Web site, www.susancrandall.net, for updates and extras you won’t find between the covers.
Yours,
From the desk of Sherrill Bodine
Darling Reader,
You know I can’t resist sharing delicious secrets about some of Chicago’s best stories!
When I discovered that my friend, the curator of costumes at the history museum, was poisoned by a black Dior evening gown (don’t worry—he’s perfectly well!) and that it happened at a top secret fall-out shelter that houses some of the most treasured gowns in Chicago’s history, I knew I had to tell the tale in A BLACK TIE AFFAIR.
After all, what could be more irresistible than a time-warp fantasy place that houses row after row of priceless gowns that were once worn by Bertha Palmer, the real-life legendary leader of Chicago’s social scene?
For those of you who may not be familiar with her, Bertha leveraged her social standing and family fortune to improve lives and to champion women’s rights. So I thought, how perfect it would be if her gowns helped the women of Chicago once again, and one woman in particular!
It wasn’t long before my heroine, Athena Smith, was born. I gave her two fabulous sisters who are just as devoted to fashion as Athena is—and, of course, as I am—and I determined that a couture gown would change her life forever. One of Bertha’s gowns would poison Athena, just as that Dior had poisoned my friend, and that would throw her back into the arms of her first love, notorious bachelor Drew Clayworth. Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg of this story because, as we all know, the course of true love never does run smooth.
Find out what other surprises and tributes to my beloved Chicago I have in store for you in A BLACK TIE AFFAIR. And never forget that I love giving you a peek beneath society’s glitter into its heart. Please tell me your secrets when you visit me at www.sherrillbodine.com.
XO
From the desk of Amanda Scott
Dear Reader,
What sort of conflict between the heads of two powerful Scottish clans might have persuaded Robert Maxwell of Trailinghail to abduct Lady Mairi Dunwythie of Annandale, the heiress daughter of a baron who defied certain demands made by Maxwell that he believed were unwarranted? Next, having abducted the lady, what does Robert do when Lord Dunwythie still refuses to submit? And why on earth does Mairi, abducted and imprisoned by Robert, not only fall in love with him but later—long after she is safe and a powerful baroness in her own right—decide that she wants to marry him?
These are just a few of the challenging questions that faced me when I accepted an invitation to consider writing the “true” fourteenth-century story of Mairi Dunwythie and Robert Maxwell—now titled SEDUCED BY A ROGUE.
The invitation also came in the form of a question—a much simpler one: Would I be interested in the story of a woman who had nearly begun a clan war?
Since authors are always looking for new material, I promptly answered yes.
A friend had found an unpublished manuscript, dated April 16, 1544, and written in broad Scotch by “Lady Maxwell.” Broad Scotch is a language I do not know.
Fortunately, my friend does.
Lady Maxwell related details of how two fourteenth-century Dunwythie sisters met and married their husbands. (“Dunwythie” is the fourteenth-century spelling for Dinwiddie, Dunwoodie, and similar Scottish surnames.) SEDUCED BY A ROGUE is the story of the elder sister, Mairi.
Relying on details passed down in Maxwell anecdotes over a period of two hundred years, Lady Maxwell portrayed that clan favorably and Mairi’s father as a scoundrel. The trouble, her ladyship wrote, was all Lord Dunwythie’s fault.
So the challenge for me was to figure out the Dunwythies’ side of things and what lay at the center of the conflict. That proved to be a fascinating puzzle.
Her ladyship provided few specifics, but the dispute clearly concerned land. The Maxwells thought they owned or controlled that land. Dunwythie disagreed.
The Maxwell who had claimed ownership (or threatened to take ownership) was just a Maxwell, not a lord or a knight. However, Dunwythie was Lord Dunwythie of Dunwythie, and that Annandale estate stayed in Dunwythie hands for nearly two hundred years longer. In the fourteenth century, landowners were knights, barons, or earls—or they were royal. So, clearly, Dunwythie owned the land.
Next, I discovered that the Maxwells were then the hereditary sheriffs of Dumfries. Sheriffs (“shire– reeves”) were enormously powerful in both Scotland and England, because they administered whole counties (shires), collected taxes, and held their own courts of law. The fact that Annandale lies within Dumfriesshire was a key to what most likely happened between the Dunwythies and the Maxwells.
The result is the trilogy that began with TAMED BY A LAIRD (January 2009) and continues now with SEDUCED BY A ROGUE. It will end with TEMPTED BY A WARRIOR (January 2010).
I hope you enjoy all of them. In the meantime, Suas Alba!
http://home.att.net/~amandascott
