Christine Lindsay – Romantic Excerpt – Part 3 of 3

Shannon here: Christine Lindsay shares a second romantic excerpt from her latest Historical Romance, Veiled at Midnight. Comment or answer the question at the end of any post dated Feb 9 – 13 to enter the drawing for her complete trilogy of e-books. One will will receive 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:
Note from the author—Veiled at Midnight has two romances, this is the excerpt from the second romance in this book. And now for Miriam’s romance . . .
Jack’s mouth twitched into a smile.
Miriam bristled in her seat. “I fail to see what’s so funny.” Jack Sunderland had no idea he was stomping on thin ice.
“I was only wondering,” he said, “if I should stop the jeep and locate a soapbox for you. Your lecture is rather refreshing. Has anyone ever told you, that you resemble the American film star, Carole Lombard?”
His comparing her to a film actress stung after her mental comparison of him to the handsome and distinguished actor Peter Lawford. “No.” She bestowed him with her frostiest glance. “How kind of you to mention that though.”
His laughter barked. “Obviously, not your sort of compliment.”
“Anyone who knows me, knows that I prefer to use the brains the Lord gave me—”
“And not slide through life, Miss Fraser, eased by your incredibly good looks.”
“Shall we change the subject? First of all, I’m not Miss Fraser but Miss Richards. General Geoffrey Richards is my dad, and Cam’s stepdad.”
“Oh yes, I know your father. Now that I think about it, you resemble him.”
She softened at the mention of her father, and laced her tone with woe. “I inherited his height. Thank you Daddy. During my schooldays it was the bane of my existence, but nowadays, my height has its merits. Keeps unwanted men at arm’s length.” She sent him the usual delicate sniff that warned off amorous advances, and looked away in an attempt to hide her grin.
“Ah.” He glanced around, seemingly at anything and everything to keep from laughing. “You must be in excellent fighting form, keeping gawky young males in their place, but your warning to me is a total misfire, Miss Richards. Mercy, you’re just a slip of a girl, probably only twenty-five or so, and I’ve just celebrated my forty-second birthday.”
“Oh my, that old?” Normally, she had no trouble keeping her distance, but bantering with Jack Sunderland was like tasting one Turkish delight from the chocolate box. She wanted just a nibble more.
“Yes, an old soldier returning to his regiment.”
“Like my father.” Laughter overtook her.
He slapped a hand to his chest. “Ouch, a mortal wound straight to my heart. But you’re right, Miss Kitty Claws, I am a doddering old career man like your dear old dad.”
“That was rather brutal of me. Do forgive. As for my dad, he’s far from doddering. Still swoops Mother into deep embraces when he thinks no one is looking. And you’re a good twenty years younger than him. Besides, there’s no such thing as just an old soldier.” Her laughter faded. “Not easy for soldiers’ wives though, sending them off to work. Not at all like sending a vicar off to the church after tea and toast in the morning, is it?”
“I’m sensing that a prudent young woman like you, Miss Richards, would never want a soldier for any…ahem…romantic entanglements.”
“You’re a shrewd judge of character, Jack, but it’s not just soldiers. I’m not interested in any romantic entanglements at all.”
“None-what-so-ever?”
“Absolutely nil.” A fresh smile tugged at her mouth. He was brave to match her at wits. Usually, men withered after five minutes of her indifference.
He let out a mock sigh. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am. I know my reason for avoiding entanglements, but why is a pretty girl like you unattached? You’ve not decided to join some religious enclave? God forbid, veil yourself behind cloistered walls? His chuckle fell flat as she kept her eyes on the streets ahead.
Heat rose from her neck to her cheeks. “Not a religious enclave exactly.”
He glanced away and seemed to curse under his breath. “I’ve embarrassed you, and I ought to be drawn and quartered.”
Now it was her turn to feel rotten for embarrassing him. No doubt she’d laid on him that piercing gaze she’d inherited from her father, where she could make a seasoned soldier feel like a raw recruit. And this Jack was oh so pleasantly seasoned, all six feet of him, very fit, and rather dishy with that bit of gray at his temples. Her laughter pealed. “Oh do be sensible. For a man of your rank and…age…you really should act with more dignity and not accuse a woman of entering a nunnery just because she doesn’t fall at your feet in a swoon.”
“Age! Dignity! Do sheath those claws of yours.” He tugged at his ear. “But you’re right, a man of my rank has brought you back to Calcutta, so where precisely may I take you before I head off to Army HQ?”
“I moved out of my old digs yesterday and my trunks are on their way north by another train, but my former roommate will take us in.”
“Was your brother going to escort you all the way?”
“Cam is traveling with me to my new lecturing position at the Kinniard College for Women.”
“So you’ll be lecturing at Kinniard,” he sputtered. “Let me guess…English literature, Shakespeare, sonnets?”
“I teach English lit only on occasion. I have a minor in psychology, but my degree is in theology.”
He blinked. “Theology,” he confirmed with a pointed glance.
She flashed him her most mischievous grin. “Predominantly New Testament theology, my strength being in the Greek languages, Koiné and Classical.”
“Great Scott! You already have a soapbox, a theological soapbox of all things. If only I’d known this when I made my idiotic joke at the expense of religious groups.” He shook his head. “Forgive me for mentioning, you do not look the part.”
“Why, because I’m not fifty years old and male with gray whiskers?”
“I’d say it has more to do with the fact that you are a tall, leggy, blond bombshell.”
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?

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Come back Feb 23rd  for Marji Laine!