Moonlight Mistress is out December 2009 from Harlequin Spice. This scene takes place as Crispin’s regiment is heading to France, in the early days of World War One.
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Crispin mentally shook himself and joined a group of the men lounging on the deck, some of them smoking in tense silence, some talking with nervous energy, some alternating both activities. … Crispin was surprised when Hailey sat beside him, pulling out a sock to darn; they sat together in silence, listening to the men talk.
Evans said, “My girl and I are getting married as soon as I get home.” He unbuttoned his tunic collar to display an impossibly delicate gold ring on a chain. “If I get killed, someone send this back to her, will you?”
“Do we inherit the girl?” Lincoln chaffed. “Cover your tender ears, Hailey.”
Hailey looked up. “You got a girl, Lincoln?”
Lincoln leered. “Any time I want.”
“What about what they want?”
General laughter erupted.
Mason said, “I’ve got my eye on a nice plump French girl.”
“Which one?”
“Any one that’ll have me!” More laughter.
“Make sure she can cook, lad,” said Lyton, scrubbing at his gray mustache. “My wife can make roast turnips taste like the food of heaven.”
Cawley countered, “My sister’s bread is so light it could float away, but she couldn’t keep a husband.”
“He’s the fool, then,” said Lyton. “Hearth and home, lad, hearth and home.”
“Who wants a home when your wife’s screeching at you all the day long?”
“I like screeching,” Lincoln said, raising a significant eyebrow.
Southey sneered. “For Christ’s sake, man, give it a rest. Your mum wouldn’t like to hear that spilling out of her baby boy’s mouth.”
“Not here, is she? War’s no place for a woman.”
“We’ll be sure and get a nice husky fellow to mop your manly brow in hospital, then. Me, I’ll settle for a pretty young thing with soft hands.”
Woods said, “You’d let a lady nurse you? She’d see–you know–“
More laughter. Hailey turned to Crispin. “You got a sister, you said?” he asked, quietly.
Surprised, Crispin answered, “Yes. Always set me right when I needed it. You?”
“Yes,” Hailey admitted. “Doesn’t like me much.”
Crispin said, “Lucilla’s so much older, it’s like…she’s my friend.”
“Not Agnes. She’s stuck home caring for Mum while I–” Hailey didn’t finish.
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c. Victoria Janssen 2009
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victoria janssen
is the first in the series. 
, The Ottoman Empire in 
, and Africa in 
.) 
in a set.
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by Kathryn Shay (HSR 877, 12/99) – I know it seems odd now, but at one point books about firefighters were pretty uncommon. Shay helped change that with her America’s Bravest series, which takes place in upstate New York and gasp, features female firefighters! This is book two in the series, and one of my personal favorites. The heroine lost her husband and young daughter around Christmas, so the holiday only holds sad memories. She’s an instructor at the Fire Academy where she preaches caution and safety, immediately butting heads with the hero, a firefighter turned instructor who’s a bit of a maverick and every bit a risk taker.
by Betsy Eliot (SR 1605, 7/02) – Every reader has a “one hit wonder” author and mine is Betsy Eliot. I loved this story for the now defunct Silhouette Romance line and the author hasn’t published a book since. If anyone out there knows Eliot personally, tell her that I hope she’s still writing and if publishers are rejecting her they’re obviously idiots. The heroine in this story is in a bind. She’s a blue collar, single mother who barely graduated high school trying to raise her son, who has an IQ off the charts. The problem is that she can’t find a school willing to work with him. The smarty pants school says he’s too young, and the regular schools say he’s too advanced and they can’t meet his needs. So out of desperation she turns to the reclusive hero, himself a genius, who, until tragedy struck, used to run a school for gifted youngsters.
by Cheryl Reavis (SSE 1245, 5/99) – Another book that’s part of a series, but I guarantee you it stands alone well. The heroine is a bit of a villain in one of the previous books (see 
) but oh man, what a heroine she is in this story! When her dreams of being a Vegas showgirl go bust, she comes crawling home hoping to reconnect with her young daughter. She also starts visiting her best friend in the hospital, where she quickly runs up against our hero, an Army officer recovering from wounds sustained in the line of duty. He’s ornery as hell, and she’s a straight-shooting, brassy gal. Needless to say, sparks immediately start to fly.
by Elizabeth Bevarly (SD 1363, 5/01) – Before the Desire line morphed into Harlequin Presents II: The Revenge it was my absolute favorite of all the Harlequin lines. Oh, those were the days! This is part of Bevarly’s series about the Monahan family, and honestly the best book of the bunch (says me). The heroine is a librarian (gee, wonder why Wendy likes this book?) who gets a complaint from someone about the Cosmo-like magazine in the library’s periodicals section. So she takes it home to read, and decides, what the heck? Why not try out some of this sex kitten advice? That’s when the shy, bookish hero starts to take notice. When did the local librarian get so…sexy? Were her lips always that pouty? Her legs always so long? A must read for fans of the Beta hero and any reader curious as to why some of us whine about the transformation of the Silhouette Desire line.
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