He stood up and pulled her into his embrace. ‘Always?’
‘Yes. Ever since our meeting in the orangery I’ve wanted to be yours and even though I travelled far and wide, trying to forget you, I couldn’t.’
‘Does that mean you love me?’
She looked down, afraid of telling him, but unable to lie. ‘Of course I love you. I have done from that first moment. How could I not?’
He smiled and pulled her close. ‘I shall thank God for it daily, because I love you so much, I don’t want to live another second without you. We must be married without delay. We’ve waited too long already. Here, I brought you something, but if you don’t like it, we can change it for one that’s more to your taste.’
He pulled out a small box from his pocket and took out a ring that sparkled in the sunlight. It was a fairly plain design but beautiful because of its simplicity, and made of gold with little sapphires set deep inside it in an undulating pattern. He put it on her finger, where it fit as if it had been made just for her.
‘Oh, it’s perfect. Thank you, Jake.’
‘At last she remembers my name,’ he joked, but she never had a chance to reply, because he bent to kiss her and nothing else mattered. Her world was complete.
** Ends **
About the Author
Christina Courtenay lives in Herefordshire and is married with two children. Although born in England she has a Swedish mother and was brought up in Sweden. In her teens, the family moved to Japan where she had the opportunity to travel extensively in the Far East.
Christina is chairman of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. In 2011, Christina’s first novel Trade Winds was short listed for The Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Award for Best Historical Fiction. Her second novel, The Scarlet Kimono, won the Big Red Reads’ Best Historical Fiction Award. In 2012, Highland Storms won the Best Historical Romantic Novel of the year from the Romantic Novelists’ Assocation. And The Silent Touch of Shadows, Christina’s fourth novel, won the award for Best Historical Read at the Festival of Romance.
www.christinacourtenay.com
www.twitter.com/PiaCCourtenay
www.facebook.com/christinacourtenayauthor
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From Christina Courtenay
Trade Winds
Winner of the 2011 RNA Best Historical Fiction Pure Passion award
Marriage of convenience – or a love for life?
It’s 1732 in Gothenburg, Sweden, and strong-willed Jess van Sandt knows only too well that it’s a man’s world. She believes she’s being swindled out of her inheritance by her stepfather – and she’s determined to stop it.
When help appears in the unlikely form of handsome Scotsman Killian Kinross, himself disinherited by his grandfather, Jess finds herself both intrigued and infuriated by him. In an attempt to recover her fortune, she proposes a marriage of convenience. Then Killian is offered the chance of a lifetime with the Swedish East India Company’s Expedition and he’s determined that nothing will stand in his way, not even his new bride.
He sets sail on a daring voyage to the Far East, believing he’s put his feelings and past behind him. But the journey doesn’t quite work out as he expects…
‘A lush setting, vivid characters and a wonderful romance make this a delicious treat.’ Nicola Cornick
Find out more and purchase in the kindle store:
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trade-Winds-Choc-Lit-ebook/dp/B00457XEL
US: http://www.amazon.com/Trade-Winds-Choc-Lit-ebook/dp/B00457XEL
Highland Storms
Winner of the RNA 2012 Best Historical Romantic Novel of the Year
Who can you trust?
Betrayed by his brother and his childhood love, Brice Kinross needs a fresh start. So he welcomes the opportunity to leave Sweden for the Scottish Highlands to take over the family estate.
But there’s trouble afoot at Rosyth in 1754 and Brice finds himself unwelcome. The estate’s in ruin and money is disappearing. He discovers an ally in Marsaili Buchanan, the beautiful redheaded housekeeper, but can he trust her?
Marsaili is determined to build a good life. She works hard at being housekeeper and harder still at avoiding men who want to take advantage of her. But she’s irresistibly drawn to the new clan chief, even though he’s made it plain he doesn’t want to be shackled to anyone.
And the young laird has more than romance on his mind. His investigations are stirring up an enemy. Someone who will stop at nothing to get what he wants – including Marsaili – even if that means destroying Brice’s life forever …
Find out more and purchase in the kindle store:
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Highland-Storms-Choc-Lit-ebook/dp/B00629ZK0I
US: http://www.amazon.com/Highland-Storms-Choc-Lit-ebook/dp/B00629ZK0I
The Scarlet Kimono
Winner of the 2011 Single Titles Reviewers’ Choice Award
Abducted by a Samurai warlord in 17th century Japan – what happens when fear turns to love?
England, 1611, and young Hannah Marston envies her brother’s adventurous life. But when she stows away on his merchant ship, her powers of endurance are stretched to their limit. Then they reach Japan and all her suffering seems worthwhile – until she is abducted by Taro Kumashiro’s warriors.
In the far north of the country, warlord Kumashiro is intrigued to learn more about the girl who he has been warned about by a seer. There’s a clash of cultures and wills, but they’re also fighting an instant attraction to each other.
With her brother desperate to find her and the jealous Lady Reiko equally desperate to kill her, Hannah faces the greatest adventure of her life. And Kumashiro has to choose between love and compromising his honour …
Find out more and purchase in the kindle store:
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004Q9TCXC/
US:: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004Q9TCXC/
The Gilded Fan
How do you start a new life, leaving behind all you love?
It’s 1641, and when Midori Kumashiro, the orphaned daughter of a warlord, is told she has to leave Japan or die, she has no choice but to flee to England. Midori is trained in the arts of war, but is that enough to help her survive a journey, with a lecherous crew and an attractive captain she doesn’t trust?
Having come to Nagasaki to trade, the last thing Captain Nico Noordholt wants is a female passenger, especially a beautiful one. How can he protect her from his crew when he can’t keep his own eyes off her?
During their journey, Nico and Midori form a tentative bond, but they both have secrets that can change everything. When they arrive in England, a civil war is brewing, and only by standing together can they hope to survive…
Find out more and purchase in the kindle store:
UK: http://www.amazon
.co.uk/gp/product/B00AN9NX1G
US: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AN9NX1G
The Silent Touch of Shadows
Winner of the 2012 Festival of Romance Best Historical Read
What will it take to put the past to rest?
Professional genealogist Melissa Grantham receives an invitation to visit her family’s ancestral home, Ashleigh Manor. From the moment she arrives, life-like dreams and visions haunt her. The spiritual connection to a medieval young woman and her forbidden lover have her questioning her sanity, but Melissa is determined to solve the mystery.
Jake Precy, owner of a nearby cottage, has disturbing dreams too, but it’s not until he meets Melissa that they begin to make sense. He hires her to research his family’s history, unaware their lives are already entwined. Is the mutual attraction real or the result of ghostly interference?
A haunting love story set partly in the present and partly in fifteenth century Kent.
Find out more and purchase in the kindle store:
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silent-Touch-Shadows-Choc-ebook/dp/B008834GRY
US: http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Touch-Shadows-Choc-ebook/dp/B008834GRY
New England Rocks
First impressions, how wrong can you get?
When Rain Mackenzie is expelled from her British boarding school, she can’t believe her bad luck. Not only is she forced to move to New England, USA, she’s also sent to the local high school, as a punishment.
Rain makes it her mission to dislike everything about Northbrooke High, but what she doesn’t bank on is meeting Jesse Devlin…
Jesse is the hottest guy Rain’s ever seen and he plays guitar in an awesome rock band!
There’s just one small problem … Jesse already has a girlfriend, little miss perfect Amber Lawrence, who looks set to cause trouble as Rain and Jesse grow closer.
But, what does it matter? New England sucks anyway, and Rain doesn’t plan on sticking around …
Does she?
Find out more and purchase in the kindle store:
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-England-Rocks-Christina-Courtenay/dp/1781890307
US: http://www.amazon.com/New-England-Rocks-Christina-Courtenay/dp/1781890307
More from Choc Lit
If you enjoyed Christina’s stories, why not try the rest of our selection? Here’s a sample:
The Reluctant Bride
Beverley Eikli
Can honour and action banish the shadows of old sins?
Emily Micklen has no option after the death of her loving fiancé, Jack, but to marry the scarred, taciturn, soldier who represents her only escape from destitution.
Major Angus McCartney is tormented by the reproachful slate-grey eyes of two strikingly similar women: Jessamine, his dead mistress, and Emily, the unobtainable beauty who is now his reluctant bride.
Emily’s loyalty to Jack’s memory is matched only by Angus’s determination to atone for the past and win his wife with honour and action. As Napoleon cuts a swathe across Europe, Angus is sent to France on a mission of national security, forcing Emily to confront both her allegiance to Jack and her traitorous half-French family.
Angus and Emily may find love, but will the secrets they uncover divide them forever?
Regency romance.
Find out more and purchase in the kindle store:
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Reluctant-Bride-Choc-ebook/dp/B00E9ZVJOS
US: http://www.amazon.com/The-Reluctant-Bride-Choc-ebook/dp/B00E9ZVJOS
To Turn Full Circle
Linda Mitchelmore
Life in Devon in 1909 is hard and unforgiving, especially for young Emma Le Goff, whose mother and brother die in curious circumstances, leaving her totally alone in the world. While she grieves, her callous landlord Reuben Jago claims her home and belongings.
His son Seth is deeply attracted to Emma and sympathises with her desperate need to find out what really happened, but all his attempts to help only incur his father’s wrath.
When mysterious fisherman Matthew Caunter comes to Emma’s rescue, Seth is jealous at what he sees and seeks solace in another woman. However, he finds that forgetting Emma is not as easy as he hoped.
Matthew is kind and charismatic, but handsome Seth is never far from Emma’s mind. Whatever twists and turns her life takes, it seems there is always something – or someone – missing.
Set in Devon, the first novel in a trilogy.
Find out more and purchase in the kindle store:
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Turn-Full-Circle-Choc-ebook/dp/B0080HDVO2
US: http://www.amazon.com/Turn-Full-Circle-Choc-ebook/dp/B0080HDVO2
The Road Back
Liz Harris
Winner of the 2012 Book of the Year Award from Coffee Time Romance & More
When Patricia accompanies her father, Major George Carstairs, on a trip to Ladakh, north of the Himalayas, in the early 1960s, she sees it as a chance to finally win his love. What she could never have foreseen is meeting Kalden – a local man destined by circumstances beyond his control to be a monk, but fated to be the love of her life.
Despite her father’s fury, the lovers are determined to be together, but can their forbidden love survive?
‘A splendid love story so beautifully told.’ Colin Dexter, O.B.E. Bestselling author of the Inspector Morse series.
Find out more and purchase in the kindle store:
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Road-Back-Choc-ebook/dp/B008RMKX0U
US: http://www.amazon.com/The-Road-Back-Choc-ebook/dp/B008RMKX0U
The Silver Locket
Margaret James
Winner of 2010 Reviewers’ Choice Award for Single Titles
If life is cheap, how much is love worth?
It’s 1914 and young Rose Courtenay has a decision to make. Please her wealthy parents by marrying the man of their choice – or play her part in the war effort?
The chance to escape proves irresistible and Rose becomes a nurse. Working in France, she meets Lieutenant Alex Denham, a dark figure from her past. He’s the last man in the world she’d get involved with – especially now he’s married.
But in wartime nothing is as it seems. Alex’s marriage is a sham and Rose is the only woman he’s ever wanted. As he recovers from his wounds, he sets out to win her trust. His gift of a silver locket is a far cry from the luxuries she’s left behind.
What value will she put on his love?
First novel in the trilogy.
Find out more and purchase in the kindle store:
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Silver-Locket-Choc-ebook/dp/B004D4ZYTQ
US: http://www.amazon.com/The-Silver-Locket-Choc-ebook/dp/B004D4ZYTQ
Regency Romance Collection From Christina Courtenay Page 31