First Kiss Friday with Jude Knight

Welcome to my First Kiss Friday blog. Today’s guest is Jude Knight who has an excerpt from the Bluestocking Belles’ next boxset A Christmas Quintet. I just adore this cover by the incredible Dar Albert. Jude’s contribution to the set is entitled Maryanne and the Twelfth Knight. Happy reading and enjoy, my lovelies. Take it away, Jude!

This excerpt is from Maryanne and the Twelfth Knight. This story appears in A Christmas Quintet, the newest collection from the Bluestocking Belles, which is on preorder for 1st December. Just before this excerpt, Dell has told Maryanne he wants her to be his duchess, and she has asked him why.

Excerpt:

The look she gave him said, as clearly as words, that he was evading the question. Which he was. His heart pounding, he told her the truth. “I want you for my wife, my dove, because I have become convinced that I cannot live without you.” He could barely bring himself to look at her. He had known she had the power to destroy him, and now she knew it too.

But she was gazing back at him with soft melting eyes, all the rigidity gone from her body. “Your grace,” she said, on a sigh.

“Call me Dell,” he instructed.

“There he goes again,” Maryanne observed, her eyes dancing. “The arrogant duke. The thing is, I don’t want to marry Dellborough, or Dell for that matter. I would very much like to marry the man who happens to be the duke, but I don’t have a name for him. What name were you given at your baptism?”

His heart was singing. How peculiar. Dell had been convinced that was just poetic nonsense. “You will marry me?”

“You will tell me your name?”

If that was her condition, he would meet it gladly. “Bedivere. But I was the Marquess of Thornstead from my cradle, and always called Thorn until I became duke when I was eighteen.”

“No wonder you are rude and arrogant,” she observed. “But I suppose I must marry you, nonetheless. For I love you, Bedivere.”

Love! That was unexpected, yet he could feel it growing inside him, warming him as he had not been warm for a long time. He took her hands and was about to lean in for a kiss, when she added, “That is, if you truly want me.”

“Oh, I want you,” he told her. Then, after a kiss that threatened to become much more than he thought appropriate for the maiden who would be his bride, particularly since he had not had the foresight to lock the door, he distracted himself by picking the discarded book from her lap.

“Tales of knights and maidens?” he asked. “I enjoyed those when I was a boy.” He settled at her feet, resting one shoulder against the front of her chair arm. “I cannot stop being a duke, my dove, even for love of you, and that, I fear, means you must be a duchess. Yet when we are private together, consider me your knight, and you shall be my lady.”

A Christmas Quintet

By Alina K. Field, Sherry Ewing, Susana Ellis, Jude Knight, Rue Allyn

Five charming stories for your holiday season:

Friends to Lovers—The farmer’s daughter, the viscount’s son, and the estate manager reunite as adults. Della is starry-eyed for the viscount’s son, but is he really the one for her? (Regency, Christmas)Fake Relationship—When the pressure to marry is overwhelming, can a plan put in place at a Christmas house party turn into a love that will last forever? (Regency, Christmas)Second-Chance Love—An accident leaves the modiste burned, blinded and in despair until the physician offers hope and stirs memories. (Regency, Christmas)Country Mouse and Marriage-Shy Duke—Invited at the last minute to make up the numbers, she expects to be an interested observer. The duke has other ideas. (Georgian, Twelfth Night)Two Spies, One Secret—Trapped in a deserted wilderness, will they set aside secrets and past betrayals to rekindle their love and ring in the New Year together? (Medieval, Hogmanay)

Preorder for 1st December:

KDP: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D49S4YQN/d

Other retailers: https://books2read.com/u/m0ND5A

Maryanne and the Twelfth Knight
By Jude Knight

Maryanne is only at the house party as chaperone for her half-sister. She is far too old and insignificant to attract the attention of a duke. Or, at least, if he is pursuing her it cannot be for honorable purposes. Can it? 

Dell knows it is time to take a wife, but the offerings of the marriage mart bore him to tears. The only lady of interest at his sister’s house party is the spinster chaperone. But she isn’t eligible, is she?

Meet Jude

Jude always wanted to be a novelist. She started in her teens, but life kept getting in the way. Years passed, and with them dozens of unfinished manuscripts. The fear grew. What if she tried, failed, and lost the dream forever? The years since 2014 have brought 17 novels, 16 novella, 6 volumes of short stories, a number of awards, and hundreds of positive reviews. The dream is alive.

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