Project: A Harmless Lie and a Dangerous Spy
Status: First Draft, COMPLETE
Word Count: 52,737
Project: A Harmless Ride and a Dangerous Bride (Companion Short Story)
Status: First Draft
Word Count: 4,382
FOR AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY
I am pleased to report mission success on the A Harmless Lie and a Dangerous spy project. The book is being read/edited while we speak, and publication is anticipated for this summer. The cover has been completed, and the full front and back proof was provided last week. Here’s a sneak peek of the full cover:
In the meantime, I began the companion short story, A Harmless Ride and a Dangerous Bride that will continue Lady Caroline and Viscount St. David’s adventures. At the bottom of this dispatch, you’ll find an excerpt from this work.
Until next month’s dispatch.
Excerpt from A Harmless Ride and a Dangerous Bride
Olive rushed into the drawing room, nearly crashing into the low stool Caroline had left out of place.
Caroline nearly dropped the padlock she had been practicing her lock picking skills on. It wasn’t going well. Forty minutes later, and the device was still withstanding Caroline’s best attempts. Most daughters of earls spent their morning hours practicing their music or engaged in other ladylike pursuits like embroidery.
Caroline wasn’t like most earls’ daughters.
Olive leaned against one of the decorative spindly chairs Mrs. Brownden had liberally used to decorate her Manhattan townhouse. She panted as she tried to adjust to the confining corset and multiple crinolines she now wore. No longer dressed like the maid she’d been in London, Olive wasn’t accustomed to the confining clothing Caroline had worn her entire life.
“Is everything all right?” Caroline rose from the divan, leaving the impossible to open padlock behind. She rubbed Olive’s arm. “I told you we shouldn’t lace you so tight this morning.”
“I’ll admit I was wrong,” Olive conceded. She stood back up with one final shallow breath. “And I didn’t really need to run to fetch you. I was seeing if this morning dress would be good for chasing down a rogue agent.” She frowned down at the peach confection with its acres of lace. “It’s not.”