Samhain Publishing

The third Richard and Rose book came out this week. I love writing about them, and when I do, they seem more real than the people around me. This one was a delight because it’s set in one of my favorite cities, Venice, and it’s the honeymoon book, so I could finally explore Richard and Rose’s sensuality.

Venice is perfect for their honeymoon. Unless an assassin plays his cards right…
Richard and Rose, Book 3
At long last, it is Lord and Lady Strang’s wedding day. Yet no sooner do Richard and Rose leave their wedding breakfast than two shots ring out, forcing a hasty change in honeymoon plans. Instead of traveling together by yacht, Richard goes on ahead, making sure the road to Venice is safe for his beloved.
Rose is by no means alone, however. Along her journey by packet, coach, even mule, she befriends young couple, the Ravens, who have a strange confession to make. They are traveling incognito—and are really the newlywed Lord and Lady Strang!
Once reunited in Venice, Richard and Rose heat up the sheets, making Richard consider the delightful possibility of keeping his wife in bed for the rest of their stay. Except Venice is as full of knaves as London, and one of them is still trying to find them with a bullet.
The Ravens could hold the key to the assassination attempts. Or perhaps they are playing a deadly game of their own…
“A kind heart.” He took me into his arms. “And a true one.”
We were in the bedroom by then, so he began to undress me, letting my gown slide to the floor. “The last time we shall see Mrs. Locke. You can appear as your own beautiful self from now on,”
I laughed at him. “Richard, please! You know I’m not beautiful.”
He’d bent his head to kiss my neck in the place he knew had most effect, but he stopped at that and looked at me, his arms loosely about my waist. “You are and you will be to the rest of the world. Everyone will say you are and so it will be accepted. Besides,” he added, his eyes gleaming brilliantly, “my taste is known to be impeccable, so you must be beautiful, mustn’t you?”
We laughed, but his laughter stopped abruptly when he undid the tapes to my pockets and they fell to the floor with a decided clunk. He swooped down on them and investigated, finding the loaded pistols. He gave a low whistle. “Did you think we’d have to shoot our way out?” He weighed one of them in his hand.
“I didn’t want to leave anything to chance.”
He pulled back the hammer, enabling the trigger to drop and sighted down the barrel. “Would you have been able to use them?”
I nodded and took the other one from him. “I’m a country girl, my lord. I was taught to shoot in my childhood. James is inordinately fond of field sports, so we were always involved in those kind of activities.”
“So you can shoot. I’m not sure I would have liked to have known you were armed tonight.”
I frowned at him. “Don’t tell me you weren’t armed!”
“That’s different.”
“How so?” I wasn’t best pleased by his assumption the guns wouldn’t have been much use in my hands. I was considered a very fair shot at home. “Come here.”
I seized his hand and pulled him out to the corridor, going down to the front entrance and turning to face the blank wall at the end. This was the longest range we had in this small apartment so I supposed it would have to do. “Is that an outer wall?”
“I think so.” Amusement crept into his voice.
I lifted my piece and sighted along it. “You see that picture? Watch the ship in the middle.” The picture in question was a seascape, a ship in full sail on the ocean, not a very large one. All the better for my purposes.
I fired without hesitation and the corridor exploded in fire and smoke. As I lifted my weapon, he had lifted its partner and fired at the same place. Two simultaneous explosions, creating an immense sound in such an enclosed space, made my ears ring.
The sound brought me to my senses. I clapped my hand to my mouth and dropped the pistol, appalled by what I had just done. All at once, the doors opened and people erupted into the corridor. Carier and Nichols, both wielding pistols of their own, Gervase, confused by the noise, but with his hand in his dressing gown pocket, no doubt in search of his own weapon. Richard was now helpless with laughter, so he was no support. There I stood, in stays and petticoat, my hands to my mouth in horror.
Eventually Richard straightened up. “There’s nothing to worry about.” He laughed again and stopped long enough to say, “Her ladyship was merely showing me how well she can shoot.” Then he was off again.
After an incredulous stare, Nichols went away, about her duties. Carier said, “The building will have been roused, my lord,” in censorious tones and went away to deal with it.
Gervase looked at both of us in astonished amusement. “Well, we might as well see how you’ve done.” He went up to the end of the hall.
As the smoke cleared, Richard’s laughter began to subside and we could see again. “You’ve both gone straight through the picture,” Gervase called down to us “Right through the centre, there’s no ship left any more. You’ll have to redecorate this wall.”
“We’ll just hang another picture over it for now,” Richard said.
We went up to view the damage.
I was still appalled by what I had done. We looked at the black, shattered holes we had made in silence for a few moments. “All right, so you can shoot,” Richard said eventually to me. “But I reserve the right to challenge you to a target shoot when we get home,”
“Accepted,” I said straightaway. We shook hands on it.
Richard studied the ruined picture again. “I’m rather pleased you can shoot. It makes me easier in my mind about your staying here. Meantime, my lady.” He turned to me, making me acutely aware of my appearance. “I can’t think your esteemed sister-in-law would think it at all proper for you to appear in public like this. I would urge you to spare my poor brother’s blushes at once and come to bed.”
I coloured up and lifted my hand to my breast in confusion, which only served to draw attention to my lack of covering. Richard watched me, amused, but Gervase took pity on me. He took my other hand and kissed it lightly. “It’s just as well I don’t notice such things then.” He looked only at my face, something few other men would have done in the circumstances, then nodded to Richard and went back to his own room, leaving us alone in the corridor in front of the shattered remains of the picture.
In a splendidly courtly gesture, Richard offered me his arm. “Shall we?” He led me back into our room, just as if we were entering a ballroom. Once there however, not on the best of terms with him for laughing so much, I insisted on cleaning and reloading both the pistols.
I brought the case into the bedroom from the dressing room and sat by the cold fireplace. I used the table we had used to breakfast from so much in the last week or two. He lay on the bed in his shirtsleeves, his chin propped up on his hand, watching me.
I glanced up at him. “We might need these in the morning.”
He sat up and opened the drawer in the nightstand. “Or these.” He brought out another pair of pistols, larger than mine but equally ready for use.
I realised the ridiculousness of the situation, as he had meant me to. I laughed and forgave him, but I carried on with my task, determined to be ready for our would-be assassin. Richard replaced his guns in the drawer and I finished my task while he watched me. “I have rarely seen anything more erotic.”
“What?” I looked up from my task, startled.
“You. Half-naked, cleaning that gun. You’re so absorbed in what you’re doing you’re not aware of how you look.”
I put down the last flintlock. “And how do I look?”
“Delicious.” He climbed off the bed and came over to demonstrate

Venice – Richard and Rose, book four
Venice is perfect for their honeymoon. Unless an assassin plays his cards right…
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/venice
ISBN: 978-1-60504-517-7