Shannon here: Christine Lindsay shares a romantic excerpt from her latest Historical Romance plus a chance to win her entire 3 book trilogy of e-books. Comment or answer the question at the end of any post date Feb 9 – 13 to enter the drawing for Shadowed in Silk, Captured by Moonlight, and Veiled at Midnight. Deadline: Feb 21st, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Christine:
Excerpt from Veiled at Midnight by Christine Lindsay:
Inside the city of Srinagar, Dassah’s eyes could not take in their fill of loveliness. The many waterways could only be compared to photographs she had seen of Venice. Picturesque stone bridges arched over the river and canals while the balconies of wooden and fretted chalets hung over the water.
Cam parked his car outside an agency, and came out twenty minutes later. “Do you mind if I keep our final destination a surprise for a bit longer?”
“I have given you my heart, Cam. You have my trust as well janu.”
His face filled with light at the pledge of her belief, though the words cost her. There were so few people she trusted. But was that not what marriage meant—believing in the one you loved?
“Only one more stop, my darling.” His voice grew rough, a sweet roughness like that of a cat’s kiss on her hand, sending a tingle down her spine. “Once I get you alone with my ring on your finger, Dassah, it is my intention to enjoy marital bliss in complete—I repeat—complete seclusion.”
Her stomach went into a wild dervish. Last night she had marred their evening with questions. Today she would show only love, no fretful questions, only trust.
Cam went into another shop up the street, leaving her still in the car. She did not mind when this honeymoon that he had planned so quickly was a dream of a lifetime come true. She only wished she could stroll along the narrow, winding street with him arm in arm, but perhaps it was best she wait until they were married to outwardly act his wife.
He came out awhile later with several large flat boxes and put these in the boot of the car. The smile he sent her set her pulse to tripping. Since last night when he had held her hand and ran with her to the car, they had not touched, not even a finger tracing the side of a cheek. Her breath ceased. But now he was beside her, driving her to their wedding.
Her breathing resumed a normal rhythm as Cam pulled the car up to a mooring where a long, slim flat-bottomed boat waited, that Cam told her was called a shikara. He helped her into the shikara, and along with the young Kashmiri man, Cam packed the bags and boxes into the craft. Cam learned the driver’s name and passed it on to her—Asheesh—who took his position at the back. At last, Cam sank to the seat in the middle of the craft with her, a gaily colored canopy flapping above them. Asheesh dipped heart-shaped paddles into the water and pushed them forward.
Trailing branches of willows whispered along the waterway as they glided past. For the first time since last night, Cam touched her by drawing her near to rest her head against his collarbone. She breathed in the clean scent of his cotton shirt as the sun set. Snow-packed peaks around them flushed like a ripe peach as their craft slid out to the openness of an immense placid lake, dotted with lotus blossoms.
She tilted her face up. Cam filled her vision with the angular line of his jaw, the strong mouth that appeared vulnerable the closer she inched toward him. His fresh, warm breath fanned her hair, and she arched closer as he drew her nearer, tracing his finger along the line of her cheek, the outline of her lips. “My beautiful—” His voice broke. “Sweet janu, I don’t deserve you.” He buried his face at the side of her neck, and she clung to him, looking over his shoulder, her mouth still yearning for the touch of his lips.
She stroked the roughness of his jaw where he needed a shave. “Will we be married tonight?”
He looked out to a light glimmering on the far side of the lake. In the growing darkness, she couldn’t make out what it was. A house on the shore? Another shikara? “I hope so, janu. I hope so.”
She snuggled close, though he had said he did not wish for touch until they were married, but his use of the Indian endearment filled her to overflowing.
“From this day forward,” he said, “nothing will ever separate us.” His gaze did not waver. “Not nationality, nor country, nor people. We’ll be one before God, forever.”
The light across the lake brightened, the closer they drew. As their shikara pulled alongside a small houseboat moored at the bank, this part of the lake struck as more of a backwater, hidden, secluded. Perfect for a honeymoon…if one did not wish to be seen.
About Christine: Stories of Christine Lindsay’s ancestors who served in the British Cavalry in Colonial India inspired her multi-award-winning, historical series Twilight of the British Raj, Book 1 Shadowed in Silk, Book 2 Captured by Moonlight. The third and final book Veiled at Midnight has just been released this past October, 2014.
Christine makes her home on the west coast of Canada with her husband and their grown up family. Her cat Scottie is chief editor on all Christine’s books. Learn more and connect: www.christinelindsay.com, https://twitter.com/CLindsayWriter, https://www.pinterest.com/clindsaywriter/, https://www.facebook.com/ChristineLindsayWriter, https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4767699.Christine_Lindsay
About the book – Veiled at Midnight: Book 3 of the multi-award-winning series Twilight of the British Raj
As the British Empire comes to an end, millions flee to the roads. Caught up in the turbulent wake is Captain Cam Fraser, his sister Miriam, and the beautiful Indian Dassah.
Cam has never been able to put Dassah from his mind, ever since the days when he played with the orphans at the mission as a boy. But a British officer and the aide to the last viceroy cannot marry a poor Indian woman, can he?
As this becomes clear to Dassah, she has no option but to run. Cam may hold her heart—but she cannot let him break it again.
Miriam rails against the separation of the land of her birth, but is Lieutenant Colonel Jack Sunderland her soulmate or a distraction from what God has called her to do?
The 1947 Partition has separated the country these three love…but can they find their true homes before it separates them forever?
Purchase Links: Amazon Barnes and Noble
Question: Have you ever been on or lived on a houseboat? If not, would you want to?
Come back Feb 13th for a second excerpt from Veiled at Midnight!
I always thought it would be fun to live on a houseboat. But I’ve never been on one. And since I get motion sickness, I’d probably have to take a pill before I tried it.
Have never lived on a houseboat but think it would be fun
Me too, I’m not much good on the water either, but the idea sounds romantic.