A CALCULATED BETROTHAL - Denise Weimer - One Free Book
Bio: Denise Weimer writes historical and contemporaryromance from her home in North Georgia and also serves as a freelance editorand the Acquisitions & Editorial Liaison for Wild Heart Books. A mother oftwo wonderful young adult daughters, she always pauses for coffee, chocolate,and old houses.Welcome back, Denise. Why did you become an author? Isensed the call to write ever since I was in middle school and the trips I madewith my parents to historic sites inspired stories in spiral-bound notebooks. Iknew this was how God had gifted me—absorbing details, nuances of character,and blending them using right-brain creativity with left-brain research andorganization. Being an author allows me to bring the past alive and His loveand healing to readers through story form. Being an editor also allows me tohelp others hone the same skills.
If you weren’t an author, what would be your dream job? Ivery nearly went into historic preservation and restoration. Old homes andbuildings tell such fascinating tales, just like books.
If you could have lived at another time in history, whatwould it be and why? I find American history fascinating during the yearsthe nation was gaining independence and expanding, especially along the Easternfrontier. That time through the Civil War resonates most with me, although Ialso enjoy later periods of history as well. There would be something to besaid for living in the Edwardian era through WWII when the old ways and mannerswere still practiced but some modern conveniences were to be had.
What place in the United States have you not visited thatyou would like to? The Grand Canyon and a snowy resort and Christmas townin Colorado.
How about a foreign country you hope to visit? Idon’t see any international travel coming in my near future, but my top pickswould be Scotland, Switzerland, or a return to Italy or Spain.
What lesson has the Lord taught you recently? My lifehas changed so much and there have been so many lessons in the last year, Icouldn’t begin to name them all. But through it all, the biggest lesson is thatHe’s faithful.
That is so, so true in my life, too. Please tell us aboutthe featured book? The death of her titled husband means that not only isTabitha Gage no longer a lady—but she’s also abandoned on an isolated SouthernGeorgia plantation on the eve of revolution. With the fine house and fieldssold to a neighbor, she’s left with a log cabin on unsettled timber land. Ratherthan marry the neighbor’s son, Tabitha determines to make her own way—and neveragain be shackled to a man she doesn’t love.
Sergeant Edmond Lassiter is one assignment away frompromotion when he comes to the aid of a red-haired beauty fending off cattle rustlers.Thrown together during an attack at a nearby fort, the Patriot scout andLoyalist widow are surprised by the values they share—including honesty,loyalty, and equality. When Edmond learns the same man who ruined his family isafter what little Tabitha has left, he convinces her they should work togetherto make her land profitable—all while fighting off the British from EastFlorida and her greedy neighbor, who sabotages their every effort to succeed.Their work together will be a business arrangement…nothing more. But as aBritish invasion threatens, the truth soon becomes clear—continuing theconnection between them will risk far more than their hearts. Please give us the first page of the book.
Early February, 1777
The morning she awoke at home after the funeral of herhusband, Lady Tabitha Gage opened her eyes to bright winter sunlight andshuddered—with relief. She was free.
But a lady no longer.
Terror quickly replaced the relief.Free, yes, but also alone on a thousand-acre South Georgia rice plantation.Across the Altamaha River, Creek and Seminole Indians roamed the no-man’s landof tangled swamps and bogs, allied to the British who held East Florida. LordRiley’s allegiance to the Crown had not excluded his cattle from being raided.Should an invasion come, it would not protect this plantation,either—especially now he was gone. After Henry’s name appeared on the St.Andrews Parochial Committee’s list of twenty-nine suspected Tories last autumn,River’s Bend was equally susceptible to Patriot retribution.
And yet it was to River’s BendTabitha had returned—fled, more like—the day after she’d seen Henry laid torest in the Christ Church burying ground. Keeping up appearances in Savannahhad required more fortitude—and fortune—than she possessed now. Not to mention,her twin, Temperance, was too apt to see past Tabitha’s façade. And theirfather, too apt to pull her back under his control.
Tabitha sat up but clutched thecovers beneath her chin, not yet ready to relinquish their warmth for the chillof the January morning. Maybe she could stay here all day.
When she’d first set eyes on hernew husband’s country house, she’d cried. The white frame home with its twotiers of piazzas and saltbox-style extension in the rear set among the liveoaks and palms appeared so parochial in comparison to his elegant brickSavannah residence. What a little fool she’d been. Her upstairs room with itstwelve-foot ceilings, walnut furniture, and tapestry curtains and counterpanehad since become her refuge. Lord Riley had sought her out here less and less frequentlyas his hope for an heir dwindled over the eleven years of their marriage.
And now the burden of thatexpectation was gone, along with the silent judgment of the man who’d imposedit. She knew not whether to stretch her shoulders with the relinquishment orcontinue to cringe under the accusation she’d come to expect. Her own headsupplied it in the absence of Henry’s voice. What kind of wife was she to notmourn her husband?
Buy link:
https://www.amazon.com/Calculated-Betrothal-Scouts-Georgia-Frontier-ebook/dp/B0D577ZJ1B/
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