Wagers Gone Awry’s 

Release Countdown Continues!

I’ll be posting an excerpt each week until the release, just to whet your appetite!

Releases April 7, 2014

Available for pre-order now! 

Giveaway too!

 

Brooke Culpepper resigned herself to spinsterhood when she turned down the only marriage proposal she’d likely ever receive to care for her family. After her father dies, a distant cousin inherits the estate and becomes their guardian but permits Brooke to act in his stead.

Heath, Earl of Ravensdale is none-too-pleased to discover five young women call the dairy farm he won and intends to sell, their home. Desperate, pauper poor, and with nowhere to go, Brooke proposes a wager. His stakes? The farm. Hers? Her virtue. The land holds no interest for Heath, but Brooke does and he accepts her challenge.

Brooke loses, and her devastation is compounded when the cousin arrives, intending to haul the Culpepper misses off to London. Heath astounds himself and proposes in order to apply for guardianship of the other girls. Does Brooke dare marry the handsome stranger who’d been bent on compromising her? Will Heath regret his impulsive gesture, or will unexpected love flourish?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only ninnyhammers mistake preparation meeting opportunity as luck.

Wisdom and Advice – The Genteel Lady’s Guide to Practical Living

 

CHAPTER FOUR

 

Lifting his head, Heath squinted into the tumult swirling around him. At the end of a long, tree-lined drive, a stately two-story home rose out of the grayish gloom. A welcoming glint in a lower window promised much-needed warmth.

Deuced rotten day.

The indistinct shapes of several outbuildings, including two immense barns and an unusual round structure, lay to one side of the smallish manor. A cow’s bawl floated to him, accompanied by a pungent waft of damp manure.

Ebénè must have seen the house and stables too, for the tired horse quickened his pace to a trot, ignoring Heath’s hands on the reins.

“Fine, get on with you then.”

He gave the horse his head. Splattering muck in his haste, the beast shot down the rough and holey roadway as if a hoard of demons scratched at his hooves.

The thunderous crack of an oak toppling mere seconds after Heath passed beneath its gnarled branches launched his heart into his throat and earned a terrified squeal from Ebénè. The limbs colliding with the earth launched a shower of mud over them. A thick blob smacked Heath at the base of his skull then slid, like a giant, slimy slug, into his collar. The cold clump wedged between his shoulder blades.

Of all the—

Another horrendous, grinding snap rent the air, and he whipped around to peer behind him. The remainder of the tree plummeted, ripping the roots from their protective cover and jarring the ground violently. More miniature dirt cannonballs pelted him and Ebénè.

Could the day possibly get worse?

The horse bucked and kicked his hind legs.

Yes. It could.

Heath lurched forward, just about plummeting headfirst into the muck. Clutching his horse’s mane and neck, he held on, dangling from the side of the saddle.

The mud oozed down his spine.

 

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What do you think the round structure is that Heath sees as he approaches Esherton Green? 

 

 

 

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I’d love you to join us! 

April 14, 2015 5:0-13:00 PM Eastern Time 

WAGERS GONE AWRY FACEBOOK EVENT