by Christina Dudley
Excerpt from A Winter’s Romance: A Regency Anthology
It was a cold December day which promised a hard frost, and Eliza drew her cloak closer about her. She had not, in truth, been looking forward to spending the vacation with the Ardens, though Lady Arden had been her mother’s dear friend and never failed to extend regular invitations. Indeed, of all the teachers at Mrs. Turcotte’s Seminary for Young Ladies in Winchester, Eliza Blinker was one of the few who never went anywhere between terms, having nowhere else to go. But this December, Mrs. Turcotte had been determined to repaint and repair the depredations wrought by two decades of pupils, and to this end she declared that absolutely everyone must find somewhere else to shelter for the month. With no alternative but to visit Ardenmere, if she did not want to share a narrow room in town with Madame Froissart the French teacher, Eliza yielded.
“Pardon me, miss,” came a low voice, and with a start she retreated a step to let the gentleman by. He was a trim person—perhaps six inches taller than she and of pleasing proportions, and though not even the edge of his sleeve brushed her, she felt her face warm as if it had. Something about the hooded eyes which met her involuntary glance, eyes the shade of an amontillado sherry, set deeply in a finely cut face.
The moment was fleeting.
“Come on, then, Thornton!” someone hailed him. “We must ride hard to catch up.”
Without a backward glance, this Thornton swung himself up, clicking his tongue to his mount and trotting away.
“What did I tell you?” grumbled Kirby, looming at Eliza’s elbow. “Town swells.”
About the author:
Christina Dudley is the author of two complete series of sweet Regency romances, The Hapgoods of Bramleigh and The Ellsworth Assortment, as well as contemporary Austen adaptation Pride and Preston Lin.
Her novels have been called “sparkling,” “swoon-worthy,” and “compulsively readable” (Publishers Weekly). Pride and Preston Lin was the February 2024 Fiction Editor’s Pick for Kirkus Reviews (starred review) and chosen as a 2024 Top 10 Best Debut Romance by Booklist (starred review).
Find her at ChristinaDudley.com.