Amanda Scott - [Border Trilogy Two 02] (44 page)

Of all the people who might have rescued her, it had to be the one man who had fiercely warned her, after she had thoroughly humiliated him, that he would someday see to it that she got her just deserts. To be sure, they had met several times in the meantime, but always in company. He had treated her with chilly civility, and she had taken good care never to find herself alone with him.

Forcing herself to stay relaxed so he would not know she had regained consciousness, she peeked through her lashes, hoping to see where they were and be able to judge how far they were from Sweethope Hill House.

But the hood of the thick woolen cloak that enwrapped her covered most of her face, so she could not see enough of the passing landscape to do her any good.

She was warm, though, warmer than by rights she ought to be after her freezing experience in the Tweed. Certainly, the cloak was not her own, though, because the river had swept hers away, doubtless forever. And her other garments—warm or not—must still be wet, because surely, she would have wakened had anyone tried to strip her clothing from her.

Still, the hood’s fur lining was soft against her cheek, the smooth, loping gait of the horse was soothing, and whatever Simon Murray had threatened years ago, she knew he would keep her safe . . . until he could safely murder her.

THE DISH

Where authors give you the inside scoop!

From the desk of Amanda Scott

Dear Reader,

An incident during the Lake Tahoe fire of June 2007 proved to me once again that ideas come to a writer from unexpected sources of every imaginable kind.

BORDER LASS (on sale now) was outlined and its teaser chapter written when I decided, because of the way that first chapter brings together the hero and the heroine—Sir Garth Napier (a Scottish knight) and Lady Amalie Murray—that I should add a brief prologue to show readers why Sir Garth acts as he does.

I was sitting on the porch at the cabin where I spend much of each summer, on a lake a thousand feet above Tahoe, trying to decide how I wanted to structure such a prologue, when I looked up to see a yellow-white cloud of smoke billowing above the granite peak that shoots up another thousand feet directly across the lake.

To anyone in a forest, such a sight is terrifying, but with a medium-sized lake and a tall granite mountain to protect me, I felt fairly safe staying put.

The incident that awoke my imagination occurred a few days later when an irate man accosted a firefighter and his wife in a Tahoe supermarket. The firefighter’s T-shirt identified him as a member of the South Lake Tahoe Fire Department.

The community had signs out everywhere, thanking the firefighters for all they had done and were doing to save the many, many houses they were able to save. As a result, most folks the firefighters met were friendly and grateful. Many called them heroic.

The man in the supermarket loudly began berating the firefighter about the department’s “failure” to bring in “the bombers” (planes dropping retardant) sooner. The firefighter, although exhausted, tried to explain that such planes have to be called in from other areas and asked sympathetically if the man had lost his home.

Admitting that his house was not in danger, the man continued his tirade until the firefighter walked away to avoid losing his temper, only to look back minutes later and see the same irate man approach his wife again in the checkout line and begin poking her in the chest as he shouted at her. Fortunately, a large candy rack stood between the firefighter and the other two, and the store’s security people quickly removed the antagonist from the premises, so no blood was spilled.

When I heard about the incident, my always busy gray cells began to turn the incident into a more violent confrontation in fourteenth-century Scotland. Soon I was recalling other firefighter anecdotes I’d heard that likewise suited my hero’s character and were irresistibly easy to translate into plausible knightly actions.

My brief comparison of today’s firefighters with knights of old gave me a fresh perspective on both. I hope you enjoy the result when you read BORDER LASS.

Until then,
Suas Alba!

http://home.att.net/~amandascott

From the desks of Rita Herron and Diana Holquist

Dear Reader,

Something remarkable happened this month that is too interesting to be a coincidence. In the Deep South, outside Atlanta, Georgia, Rita Herron wrote INSATIABLE DESIRE (on sale now), the first book in her new trilogy
The Demonborn
. Meanwhile, in the deep North, outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Diana Holquist wrote HUNGRY FOR MORE (also on sale now), the last book in her
One True Love
trilogy. These books couldn’t be more different; the authors have never met; and yet, each book is about a being with almost the exact same remarkable talent.

Almost.

The authors discuss:

Diana Holquist:
Rita, I can’t believe that in your book INSATIABLE DESIRE, the God of Fear touches people, then knows their greatest fear and uses that fear to kill them. In my book HUNGRY FOR MORE, the heroine, Amy, touches people and then knows the name of their soul mate, their greatest love. And guess what—the soul mate almost always turns out to embody the person’s greatest fear in some way. Of course, in HUNGRY FOR MORE, no one’s trying to kill anyone . . .

Rita Herron:
Yeah, killing demons probably wouldn’t work so well in romantic comedy. But seriously, the idea that what people fear most is the very thing they have to face to make them whole is such a visceral, primal theme. It works across genres, from my dark paranormal to your romantic comedy.

Diana Holquist:
Which is what makes this month so fascinating: two very different authors treating the same theme. And we really couldn’t be more different. HUNGRY FOR MORE is a sexy romantic comedy about a Gypsy con-woman who falls for a sexy chef.

Rita Herron:
And INSATIABLE DESIRE is a dark paranormal thriller about a medium who falls for a sexy FBI agent. Only he is part demon, part human, and must battle his inner dark side while fighting demonic crimes.

Diana Holquist:
Even the titles of the books are similar. HUNGRY FOR MORE. INSATIABLE DESIRE. Er, do your characters’ insatiable desires have to do with sex? Because in HUNGRY FOR MORE, they’re not just talking about food . . .

Rita Herron:
Hmm . . . maybe there’s another similarity between our books. My hero’s insatiable desires are definitely for sex, lots of it. In fact, he needs a woman daily to keep his dark side at bay, and only his soul mate’s love can keep him balanced.

Diana Holquist:
I love that! It’s just like in HUNGRY FOR MORE. Well, the soul-mate-balance part, not the dark-side-at-bay stuff.

Rita Herron:
In INSATIABLE DESIRE, the hero also possesses a dark hunger for blood, which enables him to get into the minds of killers and to track them down. And evil has definitely risen from the underworld to test him . . .

Diana Holquist:
OK, so I don’t have the bloodlust or evil-from-the-underworld stuff, either. HUNGRY FOR MORE is about really, really yummy food, though. A dark hunger for truffles, maybe—it’s about the inner workings of restaurants. Also, it’s about how food and sex are linked in mysterious, funny ways.

Rita Herron:
Which is why I can’t wait to pick up HUNGRY FOR MORE. It sounds really fun.

Diana Holquist:
And INSATIABLE DESIRE sounds exciting, scary, and very sexy! I can’t wait to read it to see how you treat this material. So let’s stop writing and get reading! Enjoy, everyone! Two very different books with a lot in common. Happy reading!

Yours,

www.dianaholquist.com

www.ritaherron.com

DON’T MISS . . .THE FIRST BOOK OF THE BORDERS TRILOGY:

BORDER WEDDING

By Amanda Scott

Amanda Scott plunges readers into the untamed and breathtaking fourteenth-century Scottish Borders—a land of blood and beauty.

Marry or hang! For Sir Walter Scott, caught stealing back his own cattle from his thieving neighbor, death is almost preferable to wedding his captor’s eldest daughter. Yet to save his loyal men, Wat trades the hangman’s noose for a woman he barely knows, Lady Margaret Murray—reputed to be one of the homeliest women in the Borders. For Meg, marriage means the promise of a life she thought beyond her grasp. She offers herself unreservedly to this proud man, stirring his desire with her innocence and a body he finds hard to resist . . .

But their union has also made Meg a pawn in the end-less violence between England and Scotland. Soon, with treachery at every turn, Meg must choose between standing up to her unscrupulous brothers—or betraying the husband with whom she is falling deeply, passionately—and dangerously—in love.

A
VAILABLE NOW FROM
G
RAND
C
ENTRAL
P
UBLISHING

AND . . . BE SURE TO READ THE UPCOMING THIRD BOOK OF THE BORDERS TRILOGY:

BORDER MOONLIGHT

Coming in January 2009

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