First Kiss Friday with C.H. Admirand & a Giveaway!
Hello and welcome to another fabulous First Kiss Friday. Today’s special guest is my dear friend C.H. Admirand who has an excerpt from her upcoming novel The Duke’s Sharpshooter. It releases on September 23 and as of the time that I am writing this post, you can still grab your copy for only 99 pennies! C.H. is also offering a giveaway so be sure to read all the way to the end to find out how to enter. In the meantime… here you go, my lovelies. Happy reading and enjoy!
Excerpt:
Flaherty and Garahan reined in at Wyndmere Hall to shouts and chaos. “What in the bloody hell is going on?” Flaherty demanded.
One of the tenant farmers stopped mid-stride. “’Tis the little lass—she’s gone missing.”
Flaherty frowned. “Abigail?”
“Deidre?” Garahan asked at the same time.
Patrick O’Malley paused in the middle of organizing the search parties. “’Tis Miss Maddy.”
For the first time in his life, Flaherty understood the saying about one’s blood running cold. His mind whirled with questions he needed to ask, but he could not make his mouth work. The cold was debilitating.
“What in the feck is wrong with ye, Flaherty?” O’Malley asked. “Move yer arse and take charge of the tenant farmers. They’ll be searching to the south.”
Eyes blazing, a tearing pain in his heart, Flaherty sprinted to the back door. Calling her name as he yanked it open, he nearly plowed into Temperance. “What happened? How long has she been gone?”
“We were having tea upstairs when I noticed she was quiet. I carried her to the room we have been using and tucked her in and lay beside her.” Tears streamed from her eyes, but she didn’t seem to notice. “It’s all my fault. I should never have closed my eyes.”
Flaherty grabbed hold of her upper arms. “How long ago?”
“But don’t you see—”
“Aye, lass. I do. Ye’re worried sick, but ye need to snap out of it and tell me, was it one hour? Two? Three?”
Her voice was just above a whisper. “Two.” She curled her hands into the lapels of his frockcoat. “Please help me find my little girl! You don’t understand —”
Flaherty needed her cooperation, not conversation! He slid a hand to her waist, the other behind her head, and molded his mouth to hers to shut her up. It was a kiss of frustration. Fear. Promise. “I’ll find her. Ye need to stay here in case she returns from having a lark, looking for the fae.”
“Flaherty?”
He did not have time for this, but he spun around. Walking backward to the door, he growled. “What?”
“If she’s lost, she’ll be waiting for you to find her. She trusts you.”
His resolve clicked into place. “Ye should too.” He stalked outside and shook his head at O’Malley. “No time. The wee cailín’s counting on me to find her.”
“Ye’re heading the wrong way!” Patrick shouted.
“The meadow filled with flowers is to the north. Send someone else to the south with the tenant farmers.” Flaherty turned to the men waiting, pleased it was the Jones brothers on horseback and their eldest sons on foot. They could handle rifles and pistols and had fought bravely when Wyndmere Hall was under attack. Farmers were used to finding stray sheep and a cow or two. “Ye know the meadow I’m meaning?”
Samuel Jones nodded. “Aye.”
“Our daughters pick wildflowers for the duchess in that field,” his younger brother Silas added.
Flaherty gave a nod. “I’m thinking two on horseback leading the way, two on foot behind them, while I bring up the rear. There’s a chance the wee lass has tripped and bumped her head, or climbed a tree and got stuck.”
“Why do ye think she’s headed to the meadow?” Samuel’s son asked.
“Earlier this morning we were in the gardens waiting and watching for the fae,” Flaherty replied.
Silas nodded. “I remember those days well. Our girls are a bit older now, but every once in a while they’d try to sneak out before dawn for the same reason.”
Flaherty was glad for the help, pleased he had a few experts in faerie hunting and flower picking in his search party.
He watched the others move out and lagged behind, waiting, watching, listening. The noise of men gathered and splitting up into groups quieted, until all he could hear was the breeze. Was it his imagination, or did he hear a whisper on the wind? Closing his eyes, he lifted his chin and let it caress his face.
The meadow pond.
Urged on by unseen forces, ones he was Irish enough to trust, Flaherty caught up to the brothers on horseback. “I’m going to the meadow pond. Keep searching!”
They didn’t question Flaherty’s order. They’d lived near faerie hill forts long enough to have heard voices on the wind and singing in the night.
The Duke’s Sharpshooter (The Duke’s Guard, Book 14)By C.H. Admirand
“Their need to protect and defend seems to be synonymous with love and nurture in the minds of those valiant men.” C.H. Admirand’s fan-favorite series, The Duke’s Guard, continues with Book 14 ~ The Duke’s Sharpshooter.
This Regency Romance features your new Book Boyfriend Rory Flaherty and widowed Temperance Johnson. Readers will fall in love with the auburn-haired, blue-eyed, handsome-as-sin Irishman as he falls first…for Temperance’s four-year-old daughter Maddy!
The Duke’s Guard: The men in black who have sworn an oath to protect the Duke of Wyndmere and his family from those who would stop at nothing to destroy him!
Marriage is the farthest thing from Flaherty’s mind…
On a rain-soaked morning, patrolling from Wyndmere Hall to the Village, a shadow shifts at the base of an oak by the graveyard. Ready to defend, or chase down a vagrant, Flaherty is shocked to discover an exhausted widow shielding her four-year-old daughter from the rain. In that moment his life irrevocably changes.
Exhaustion has Temperance pausing to rest near the church…
The deep rumble and harsh tone of the huge man garbed in black has her springing to her feet, poised to run. His order to stop in the name of the duke, has her glancing over her shoulder into eyes the color of a springtime sky. The irresistible promise of tea and cake for her daughter tempts her to tentatively trust him.
Danger stalks in the night, but it will have to get past The Duke’s Sharpshooter before he will let harm come to those he has sworn to protect with his strength, his honor, and his heart.
Tropes you’ll love:
Hero to the Rescue Widowed Feisty Heroine Hardheaded Hero He Falls First (for her four-year-old daughter!) Forced Proximity Marriage of Convenience Happily Ever After
Read in Kindle Unlimited!
The Duke’s Guard
Book 1 – The Duke’s Sword
Book 2 – The Duke’s Protector
Book 3 – The Duke’s Shield
Book 4 – The Duke’s Dragoon
Book 5 – The Duke’s Hammer
Book 6 – The Duke’s Defender
Book 7 – The Duke’s Saber
Book 8 – The Duke’s Enforcer
Book 9 – The Duke’s Mercenary
Book 10 – The Duke’s Rapier
Book 11 – The Duke’s Man-at-Arms
Book 12 – The Duke’s Lance
Book 13 – The Duke’s Champion
Book 14 – The Duke’s Sharpshooter
Book 15 – The Duke’s Cavalier
Book 16 – The Duke’s Blade
The Duke’s Sharpshooter (TDG, Bk 14) Buy Links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FMHQZRLG
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0FMHQZRLG
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FMHQZRLG
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0FMHQZRLG
About C.H. Admirand:
If we have not met yet, I’m delighted to meet you! Here’s a little bit about me…
I have been writing romance novels for almost half my life, well at least for the last 30 years. I’m a diehard romantic and have to confess the broad shoulders and wicked glint in the brilliant green eyes of a stranger had my breath snagging in my breast, my heart beating madly, and my future flashing before my eyes. At the age of seventeen, I’d met the man I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life with.
I write Historical & Contemporary Romance featuring characters that I know so well: hardheaded heroes and feisty heroines! They rarely listen to me and in fact, I think they enjoy messing with my plans for them. Over the years I have learned to listen to them! I have always used family names in my books and love adding bits and pieces of my ancestors and ancestry in them, too!
C.H.’s Social Media Links:
Website: https://www.chadmirand.com
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/C.-H.-Admirand/author/B001JPBUMC
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/c-h-admirand
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/CHAdmirandAuthor
GoodReads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/212657.C_H_Admirand
Dragonblade Publishing: https://www.dragonbladepublishing.com/team/c-h-admirand/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/c.h.admirand
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRSXBeqEY52VV3mHdtg5fXw
Giveaway Opportunity!C.H. Admirand is giving away an e-book copy—Winner’s Choice—from her website https://www.chadmirand.com. To be in the running, leave her a comment telling her what you love about the fall season. She’ll generate a winner after the weekend and announce it here. Good luck!
