That was the moment Fawn became pregnant with Crispin Wolfe’s baby and she wouldn’t have it any other way. However, there was still the matter of the child’s legitimacy.
Alone at last in the master bedchamber, Wolfe paced the floor.
She bit her lip, a frown creased her brow. “You cannot convince me a second time that you do not love me, Crispin. I fell for it once; I will not be fooled again. Tell me what is troubling you. I understand if you have doubts. A lifetime is a long time to love one person.”
He raked his hands through his hair and twisted to look at her.
“One lifetime won’t be nearly enough time with you. My happiness in this life began the day I laid eyes on you. You’ve given me all I need and now ... now you’ve given me so much more.”
His radiant blue eyes fixed on hers and held her gaze.
“You are happy then?”
He beamed from ear-to-ear. A smile that lit up the room.
Fawn’s heart burst with joy. “My dark regent, I will never turn you away again.” She lifted her arms to him.
Her words recalled their dark beginning, the nights of rapping on her door seeking admittance. Crispin fell on her, bruising her lips in a shattering kiss.
“We have to marry,” he said, breaking away with a choked gasp. “Mrs. Fawn Wolfe.” His full mouth pulled down. “Oh good God, that is a terrible name.”
Fawn burst into hysterical giggles. “Oh dear, it is! I didn’t think of that. Thank goodness you haven’t asked me to marry you. There is yet time to save myself from such a name.”
Crispin caught her in his arms with a wicked glint in his eye. “I’ve put a baby inside you. You are joined with me forever. I planned to ask you this question tonight on bended knee in front of the fire, but this news has forced me to speed things up. Fawn, will you marry me?”
His voice was firm and somewhat uncompromising.
A new and thrilling emotion swept through her. “Yes! Yes, of course I will marry you! What took you so long?” She couldn’t keep the note of impatience out of her voice.
Crispin burst into a peal of laughter. “I bought the ring weeks ago. I was waiting for the perfect moment and you have outdone me, as usual. There is no moment more perfect than this one.”
She nestled under his arm, listening to the distant sound of the waves crashing against the shore, entranced by the idea of marriage to Crispin and the baby they would have. Too much happiness, she thought. Was there such a thing?
“What is your middle name?” Crispin asked in a musing tone.
“Diana. The Huntress,” she added with a giggle.
“Oh ho! That explains so much. Diana is a wildly appropriate name for you, my love. There is a hidden side to you, I fear. I wish I’d known. You are the huntress. You certainly hunted me, Diana Wolfe. Skinned me and laid me at your feet.”
Aunt Jocelyn’s half-brother found her lips again. The dark regent of her past pressed her back against the pillows. Fawn gave herself up to the man who had won every battle and conquered every demon to be with her.
§
THERE IT WAS AGAIN.
A rapping on her door. Fawn lifted her head from the nursing babe.
“Come in.”
Crispin Wolfe entered and drew near the foot of the bed. He always took a moment when he first saw her, as though her husband could not quite believe his good fortune. Fawn experienced a similar stunned bliss whenever she saw him.
Every moment of this past year had delivered miracle upon miracle. First came their wedding in the chapel in Stokesbay, attended by local gentry and villagers who were shyly glad to see the old estate coming back to life. It was a beautiful country wedding with flowers and children running wild. Fawn loved every moment of it. Molly had stood up for her and Sergeant Welland had stood up for Crispin.
Then came the birth of their daughter, perfect and healthy, and Fawn’s recovery from childbirth had been rapid. They decided to christen her Helen Constance Wolfe after Crispin’s mother and godmother. Crispin had held his daughter in his arms after her birth and swore he would always protect her.
That meant a trip to his solicitors in London to ensure his estate passed to his daughter.
And then the restoration work began on Hawkcliffe Hall which kept her husband busy during Fawn’s recuperation. These late night feedings became the only time they could see each other alone without fear of interruption.
Crispin lifted the sleeping infant from Fawn’s milky breast and settled her in her cot. Fawn watched in awe as her husband kissed their baby’s head and then shucked off his robe.
He was magnificent. And fully erect.
The doctor said she was recovered enough to resume marital relations. Wolfe needed no further encouragement. He kissed her deeply, pressing her back against the pillows. His lips drifted over her tender breasts and suckled each sensitive nipple gently.
“I am more profoundly in love with you than ever, Mrs. Wolfe.”
“And so the wolf lay down with the fawn,” she whispered in awe as he entered her.
The greatest miracle of all was that Fawn had found her home in the arms of her dark regent.
The End
§
DEAR READER: In the age of ebooks, readers are the curators of literature. The New York Times doesn’t have as much influence! Thank you for taking a moment to leave a review of this novel and helping other readers in making a decision. ~ Catherine Lloyd ~
About the Author
Catherine Lloyd loves reading, watching great episodic television, and writing romance. Love stories that are hot and soul-satisfying are her drug of choice.
Lloyd has explored all shades of romance from small town romantic comedy to medieval adventure romance to the gritty dark love stories of Victorian Age villains. In Lloyd’s novels, the journey belongs to the heroine as her spiritual, physical and intellectual metal is tested by the man she grows to love.
The author has two grown children, two stepdaughters, a cat named Harry (who thinks he’s a dog) and five grandsons. She lives with her long-suffering spouse in the country where she enjoys having no hobbies and writes full time.
Contact Catherine Lloyd at [email protected]
Or visit: Writewood Creations
Victorian Villains Saga
Gothic Romance
“What’s bred in the bone will come out in the flesh.”
WINDEMERE HALL
Shy, stammering Clara Hamilton is shocked when her father announces her betrothal to a cousin she barely knows. Her uncle’s stepson, Branson Hamilton is handsome, avaricious and rumoured to be unstable. Nineteen-year-old Clara, anxious for her father’s approval, agrees to the union unaware of what is at stake. A sinister family secret surfaces and Clara soon discovers that master of Windemere Hall has a dark revenge in store when she enters into his power.
Heat Level: Sizzling – ISBN 978-1-988003-29-0
MARK OF CAINE
Nineteen-year-old Laura Mayhew is the only witness to a sex scandal at Windsor Castle and is committed to Gateshead Insane Asylum to discredit her story. Tanner Caine, a cold, solitary and emotionally damaged ex-naval officer is tasked with silencing the girl permanently. Laura has the gift of second sight and she has been expecting an assassin for months. Haunted in her dreams by a baby’s cries, Laura decides to trust the dangerous Mr. Caine to escape the asylum and find the missing royal infant. When she is compelled into marriage to obtain her release, Laura discovers Tanner Caine is the one man whose thoughts she cannot read. And it is possible she has married her assassin.
Heat Level: Sizzling – ISBN 978-1-988003-31-3
THE MASTER OF CLIFF HOUSE
Jenny Raine awaits the arrival of Jackson Zephyr, the new master of Cliff House. The untimely death of her husband, Sir Richard has put the villain in possession of the estate and he intends to evict the young widow. Jack is a handsome thief who has stumbled across the haul of his career. Stolen gold from a long-ago heist is hidden on the estat
e and Jackson needs to find it but Richard’s young widow thwarts his efforts. On the attack, Jackson pressures Lady Raine to spend one night with him in an attempt to break her will and Jenny must struggle against her growing desire for the villain. She manages to escape his advances but not before Jackson discovers a terrible secret about Jenny. The knowledge gives him power over the beautiful widow until a sinister threat arises that forces them into a passionate alliance.
Heat level: Spicy – ISBN 978-1-988003-37-5
WRACKER’S COVE
Connor Black’s efforts to fight his father’s curse by taking work as a lighthouse keeper are derailed when a young woman washes up on shore, the victim of a shipwreck. Suffering from amnesia, Emily Axelrod is glad to take refuge with the reserved but beautiful Connor Black. Soon her rescuer becomes her all-in-all and his lust for her is equally all-consuming. Emily welcomes his passion until she discovers she bears an uncanny resemblance to a girl from Connor’s past. A girl named Alice who died under mysterious circumstances.
Heat Level: Spicy – ISBN 978-1-988003-38-2
♥
Mandrake Falls Four Seasons Series
Small Town Romantic Comedy
Four brides. Four seasons. One rocky road to romance.
THE JILTING ~ Summer
Best friends forever. Until one of them falls in love. The groom is AWOL. It’s Scout Rutherford’s wedding day and in the next 24 hours, she is shot at, lied to, forced to reveal a secret, abducted at gunpoint and thrown down a ravine. But a night spent in hiding with her best friend Ryder Dean puts her in the worst danger of all.
Heat level: Warm – ISBN 978-0-9937704-1-8
LIE FOR ME ~ Autumn
Sworn enemies, until they pretend to be lovers. Is the lie really the truth? Shelby Porter doesn’t like Sheriff Sawyer McIntyre and everyone in town knows it except Dolly Porter, Shelby and Sawyer’s much-loved, daffy aunt. Dolly’s health hasn’t been good of late. She worries too much over Shelby’s single status. To ease her mind, Shelby tells a little white lie that morphs into a whopper, until she is standing in Sheriff McIntyre’s bedroom at three o’clock in the morning with a teeny request: “Lie for me.” And that’s when things really get scary.
Heat level: Warm – ISBN 978-0-9937704-4-9
THE WAY HOME ~ Winter
The one thing they agree on is to never fall in love. Mandrake Falls is cocooned in a thick blanket of snow when Michael Shannon, the star of Tomorrow Never Comes is dropped like a bomb into Hudson Grace’s bachelor life. For the next seventy-two hours, due to a bureaucratic mix-up, the forester is stuck with the daytime diva. A fire on the hearth. A raging blizzard. And a three-year-old holy terror. Who will crack first?
Heat level: Warm – ISBN 978-0-9937704-9-4
LOVE RISING ~ Spring
Nobody expected them to fall in love. Nerdy stage manager, Jeremy Marks sees right through Jocelyn Tate’s stunning beauty to the vulnerable girl she is underneath. It’s no secret he’s in love with her. Jocelyn thinks Jeremy is sweet but poor and she’s determined to marry a rich man—preferably a billionaire. Jeremy doesn’t have a hope until a mysterious notice appears in the Gazette announcing their engagement. Thrown together, the young couple form a bond to find out who has it in for them.
Heat level: Warm – ISBN 978-0-9938963-1-6
Mandrake Falls Four Seasons Romance ~ Boxed Set Edition. Four books, one low price! $4.99 ISBN 978-0-9938963-6-1
♥
Dark Redeemer Historical Romance
Medieval Adventure
Love. In a dangerous time.
WANTON
Callie of Wideopens is the beautiful 18-year-old ward of Jane and Ethan. Ethan has had impure thoughts about his ward. Jane is dying and the crone who supplies her herbs has had a vision of a terrible act. In a misguided attempt to alter the fate of her husband, Jane makes a desperate request of Callie. In doing so, she unwittingly sets in motion the crone’s prophecy.
Heat level: Sizzling – ISBN 978-0-9937704-8-7
WASTREL
Lord Sebastian Redford’s drinking, card-playing and womanizing is legendary at court and his brazen affair with the wife of the most powerful man in England has put his life in danger. To ward off disaster, Lord Redford’s man hastily arranges a marriage of convenience to Beatrice Fall. Sebastian’s bride proves to be anything but convenient when he consummates their marriage and their marriage of convenience becomes a dangerous wedding of illicit love.
Heat level: Spicy – ISBN 978-0-9938963-0-9
TRAITOR
The Earl of Dorset has betrothed his only child, pampered 18-year-old Lady Elspeth to the French lord, Tyndale to secure his favour with the new French king. The trip to Canterbury is a great adventure accompanied by her father’s Captain of the Guard, Griffith of Nottingham. The captain is a skilled bowman, loyal to the Earl and admired by Lady Elspeth—he is also a double agent working to restore King John to the throne.
Heat level: Spicy – ISBN 978-0-9938963-3-0
Dark Redeemer Historical Romance ~ Boxed Set Edition. Three books, one low price! $4.99
ISBN 978-1-988003-00-9
§
SOLDIER ~ Medieval Christmas Double Novella
Two amoral men are transformed by love. In Mercenary, Broderick has been made a new father but his infant son is failing to thrive. Then Tess is brought before him, the daughter of the lord whose lands Broderick has usurped. The new master of Castlemuir confines the young woman to his inner sanctum to nurse his son, but his desire for the silent girl drives him to take dangerous risks. In Jester, Dumas is a hideously deformed clown who travels the countryside in a caravan with his young assistant, Fallon, a young woman disguised as a boy. In return for keeping her identity a secret, Fallon must perform for the misshapen man each night. But Dumas has a secret of his own as Fallon soon learns after a performance at Castlemuir Hall.
Heat level: Sizzling – ISBN 978-1-988003-17-7
CHRISTMAS ROSE ~ Medieval Christmas Novella
King John’s illegitimate daughter, Lady Asta has chosen the day before Christmas to run away from the man she was pledged to marry when she was twelve-years-old. Captain Galinn Strongbow has the tedious task of addressing Lord Althfael’s complaints about his young wife, but he is rudely sent away. Riding through the wood, Galinn comes upon a young woman with an injured ankle and offers the girl his assistance—a good deed that changes him forever.
Heat Level: Warm – ISBN 978-1-988003-49-8
♥
My Guilty Pleasure Titles
Standalones
The odds are stacked against them....
THE PIRATE LORD
A curate’s daughter with an iron will to survive. A ruthless pirate with a secret identity.
Bronwyn Barlow and Captain Jon Stag clash wills aboard the Black Adder. With the life of Bronwyn’s little brother at stake, a deal is struck—join the pirate captain in his bed at six bells each night that the Black is at sea. Set against the backdrop of a mad king and a revolutionary war in a far-off land, Bronwyn and Jon enter into a passionate world of discovery that leads to love and heartbreaking separation.
Heat Level: Spicy – ISBN 978-1-988003-44-3
THE DARK REGENT
A forbidden love more powerful than either of them.
Eighteen-year-old Fawn Heathcote resisted her uncle’s advances for as long as she dared. Captain Crispin Wolfe, the rakish half-brother of Fawn’s aunt, became obsessed with his niece-by-marriage from their first meeting. From the moment he moved into the London mansion, he’s had one aim in mind—to bed her. Night after night, the captain visits her bedchamber, in the hope of being admitted. Fawn has always refused. Until one night, Wolfe arrives to deliver a devastating message and she realizes only her tormentor can save her. Fawn’s resistance to Crispin’s seduction gradually breaks down under his protection and, caught in his web, she soon discovers a secret side to her captor.
Heat Level: Spicy – ISBN 978-1-988003-52-8
THE M
AIDEN BRIDE
Endicott heirs have always taken Stark maidens for their brides.
A blood oath forged eight centuries ago promised Helen Stark to Lord Weathersky Endicott in marriage from the day she was born. The nineteen-year-old orphan bride-to-be arrives at Cragmoore Castle eager to meet her betrothed, sensibly trading love for the security of an arranged marriage. Weathersky has other ideas—and a secret power. The handsome, brilliant Endicott heir is a warlock with mastery over everything but love and he balks at entering into a loveless marriage. But eight hundred years of supernatural rule is not easy to overthrow. Weathersky finds he is drawn to Miss Stark. The wedding is in three days. Is what he feels real—or mere magic?
Heat Level: Spicy – ISBN 978-1-988003-55-9
THE TUDOR PRINCE
Dangerous secrets make for unholy alliances.
Avery Weller flouts the law that forbids women on the stage. Her nemesis, Lord Nicholas Blackstone, Master of the Revels, is a soulless bureaucrat who wields royal power over London’s theatres and has been hunting her for months. His pursuit has driven her into the poorhouse until one day the handsome lord makes her an astonishing offer: fifteen pounds in exchange for becoming his brother’s companion.
The Dark Regent Page 17