UniquelyMoi ~ BlithelyBookish’s
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(group member since Sep 20, 2010)
UniquelyMoi ~ BlithelyBookish’s
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from the Pamela Clare ~ Fan Group group.
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I would NEVER torture you girl! Whatchoo talkin' about???
I know when I finally get my hands on a book I've been waiting forever to read, I don't spend any time chatting about it, I just read it!But if any of you would like to discuss DEFIANT, this is the place to do it!
Please remember to use spoiler tags for the first week, then after the spoiler ban is lifted, feel free to spoil to your heart's content!
To use the spoiler tag:
And the winner of DEFIANT is Nisha Mslvoe!Nisha, I'll contact you for your shipping/order information!
Okay, are you ready??
The live action book trailer for DEFIANT is finally out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYQA2W...
FINALLY!!! The DEFIANT live action book trailer is out and Karl/Connor is HOT!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYQA2W...
If you live in the U.S. near an indy bookstore, or have a book club or reading group you meet with and want to help promote DEFIANT, drop me a PM with your mailing address so I can send you some DEFIANT romance trading cards. Keep 1 for yourself and pass the others around to friends, co-workers, reading buddies or bookstores - anyone you can tempt into reading the book!
If you live in the U.S. near an indy bookstore, or have a book club or reading group you meet with and want to help promote DEFIANT, drop me a PM with your mailing address so I can send you some DEFIANT romance trading cards. Keep 1 for yourself and pass the others around to friends, co-workers, reading buddies or bookstores - anyone you can tempt to buy the book!
If you live in the U.S. near an indy bookstore, or have a book club or reading group you meet with and want to help promote DEFIANT, drop me a PM with your mailing address so I can send you some DEFIANT romance trading cards. Keep 1 for yourself and pass the others around to friends, co-workers, reading buddies or bookstores - anyone you can tempt to buy the book!
Has anyone done anything fun lately?We built a 'den' for our desert tortoise. Where we used to live there was a small hill in our back yard and Tom had dug himself a nice burrow, but when we moved here the ground was flat and hard and he ended up hibernating on our back patio during the winters.
Anyway, my grandsons helped dig it out a few days ago and once it was all prepared we had to let the ground dry a bit. We laid a thick plywood on top for the roof then dumped all that dirt back onto the plywood for insulation from the sun during the summer and freezing temps during the winter.
Everything was great. We put Tom in his new home and he was getting all cozy. Until my 10 pound Bichon Frise, Juliette, decided to take up residence, too. Tom wasn't too keen on that and went back to the dog house he's been sleeping in. We can see this is going to be a problem because, for one thing, Bichons are supposed to be white... Juliette came out a very convincing shade of dirt. Then of course the other problem is... if we can't keep Juliette out of there, Tom is still without a good place to live.
You're all so very welcome! I'm glad you're loving this scene as much as I did. I thought it'd be a fun way to pass some time while waiting for July 3rd to finally get here! Thanks to Pamela for sharing it with us!Honestly, if you haven't met Nicholas Kenleigh, you're missing out on one of historical romances greatest heroes. The trilogy is excellent so be sure and put it on your 'books to buy' list for after you've finished DEFIANT and are looking for your next Pamela Clare fix.
Pamela wrote: "IF Sarah had, indeed, been a captive and Nicholas had rescued her, do you think the two of them would have fallen in love, leaving poor Bethie and her baby to die on the frontier (or be taken captive by the Wyandot)? "Bethie and Sarah are such totally different people, as are Connor and Nicholas, that I'm not sure the personality and life experience dynamics would have allowed for them falling in love.
The thing is, Nicholas is such a tortured soul, I'm not sure he could have connected with Sarah's more refined nature, whereas Bethie had lived through her own brand of hell and wasn't as socially... delicate or sophisticated as Sarah.
So, I don't think Nicholas would have ever been able to see himself as worthy of a 'well bred lady' like Sarah, but I think Bethie's kind of strength and understanding is exactly what he needed.
I'm glad you're enjoying this little time with Connor, Sarah and Joseph, and of course, Nicholas Kenleigh. I haven't been this excited about a book release in a long, long time and I KNOW you're all going to LOVE it!
Alyssa (Hesperia Loves Books) wrote: "Wow!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing Pamela & Dhes. I've never read Ride the Fire, but me thinks I'm going to buy it now - I need to know more about Nicholas!"**gasp** Alyssa! For shame! ;) Yes, you must read Ride the Fire It's sooo good! Nicholas is seriously one of my absolute favorite heroes ever and that book... have tissues handy. And a fan.
Just sayin'...
Auntee wrote: "And ohhhh, I remember how Nicholas got those scars..."OMG... I still cringe when I think about it and it's been months since I read it. Talk about truly tortured hero.
I'm convinced Pamela can write no bad. Even the deleted stuff is magic.
Lynsey A wrote: "Do we get to know what Lady Sarah's secret is? :) Is that one part of the story we will still get?"YES!!!!!!!!!! And what a secret it is!
Fun things to do on a hot day1. read in the hammock
2. stay inside with the a/c going
3. Go for a swim
4. eat ice cream
5. Drink Lemonade!
6. boating/water skiing
7. Get nekkid!!!
With Pamela's permission, we've posted a deleted scene from DEFIANT. It's totally awesome, very cool and also totally amazing. Check it out and comment for a chance to win a copy of DEFIANT!Defiant Deleted Scene
So there you have it! A scene I loved so much I wanted to share it with you all, especially those of you who are fans of the Blakewell/Kenleigh Family trilogy, and Nicholas Kenleigh. I truly hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.Pamela, thank you for sharing this with the group! You put your heart and soul into your stories, and it shows, each and every time, and Defiant is no different. It's going to be a HUGE success, and it couldn't happen to a more deserving woman!
Want to win a copy of Defiant?
Tell us what what you thought of that deleted scene, or what you've been doing to pass the time waiting for Defiant. One commenter will win a ebook copy of Defiant from either Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or a paperback copy from Book Depository. Open to U.S. residents only, or international residents anywhere Book Depository ships.
Comments must be posted by 12:01am EST July 3rd.
Master Kenleigh journeyed with them for the rest of the afternoon. He insisted Sarah ride while he walked, but Connor would allow this only if he sat upon the horse with her, apparently trusting neither the stallion nor its owner with her safety. He climbed onto the beast’s back, then drew her into the saddle before him, positioning her so that she sat astride. But Sarah had never sat a horse in so bold a fashion before. Heat flooded her cheeks as her already short doeskin skirt was pushed up, leaving her legs exposed from the top of her leggings, which tied off just below her knees, to the middle of her thighs. “I cannot sit like this. ’Tis indecent and—”
“Stop thrashin’ about, or you’ll frighten the horse.” Connor steadied her, taking the reins from Master Kenleigh, who held the bridle, speaking to the stallion in low, reassuring tones.
Though Sarah couldn’t be certain because of his thick beard, it seemed to her Master Kenleigh was smiling.
Then Connor spoke softly for her ears alone. “This journey has been hard on you, lass. Rest while you can. Besides, ’tis no’ as bad as being bare-breasted, aye?”
And Sarah’s cheeks burned hotter.
For a time, they moved through the forest without speaking. Birds filled the forest with song, their staccato chirps and trills a merry chorus. The sky was still blue, warm sunlight filtering down through budding branches onto a carpet of wet leaves, last summer’s crowning glory now a faded carpet. A warm breeze blew through the trees, carrying the mingled scents of damp earth, moldering vegetation, and sunshine, mountains and valleys stretching out around them as far as the eye could see.
Oh, how Margaret would have loved to paint this for one of her landscapes! Yet, even Margaret with her eye and her skill with the brush would have struggled to capture such beauty on canvas. How could any art depict a wilderness as fierce and vast as this?
Sarah’s gaze dropped to Master Kenleigh, who walked beside them. What a mystery he was. In appearance, he seemed every bit the wild man, a trapper of little means, crude and unkempt, a haunted look in his eyes. Yet his speech was refined, his manners those of a well-bred gentleman.
It touched Sarah that he had thought to rescue her. A stranger, he’d been willing to risk his life to save hers. Yet, how fortunate it was for all of them that he’d chosen to seek out the truth of her situation before striking. Who’s to say who might have emerged the victor had he attacked Connor and Joseph? Of a similar height to Connor, he clearly knew how to fight and survive.
She’d often heard her father say that Britain was well rid of the riffraff who emigrated to the Americas—the poor, convicts, traitors, heretics, zealots. But it seemed to her that the American frontier bred men of uncommon strength and courage, men who were every bit as gallant as they were rough.
And something Joseph had said came back to her.
In this land, nobility comes not from one’s fathers or a title or from the land one owns, but from one’s actions. The MacKinnon brothers are the highest nobility to those who live on the frontier—true warriors, men who know how to fight and survive, men who put the lives of others before their own.
Sarah could see that now. Though Connor, Joseph and Master Kenleigh would not have been welcome in her father’s halls, they were noble men, possessed of skills and qualities few London gentlemen could match.
It was Master Kenleigh who finally broke the silence, pointing through the trees toward sun-dappled hills beyond. “When you reach the valley between those two mountains, veer east. The Delaware are gathering at the northern end of that valley, most of them ready, like the Shawnee, to abandon their peace with Britain. Unless I am mistaken, MacKinnon, there is still a price on your scalp.”
There was a price on Connor’s scalp?
“Aye, so there is.”
The men began to speak of the land and the surest routes to Fort Edward, their knowledge of this forest beyond her comprehension. How they could tell one stand of trees, one mountaintop, one valley from the next, she could not say. And lulled by the motion of the horse and the fresh, warm air, Sarah drifted off to sleep.
She roused sometime later—how much later she couldn’t say—to find her head resting against Connor’s chest, his arm wrapped gently around her ribcage just beneath her breasts. She felt safe in his embrace, sheltered, cared for. Not wanting that feeling to end, she let herself doze, her mind catching snatches of quiet conversation.
“Have you seen the great river?” Connor’s voice rumbled in his chest.
“The river the Ojibwa call Mshi-ziibi? Aye, I’ve seen. I’ve crossed it, in fact, and journeyed west beyond it for most of a year.”
“What lies beyond the river?”
“Plains so vast they seem like an ocean of tall grass and beyond that mountains that make these peaks look like mere hills.”
And for a time she dreamt she was floating over waves of grass in the birch bark canoe, her head lying against Connor’s chest as he rowed.
“Your wife is a gentle creature. Why in God’s name did you bring her out here? You of all people should know the frontier is no place for a woman.”
“My reasons are my own affair, Kenleigh.”
They were talking about her, she realized. But then she was drifting again.
“Where are your men? Why are you out here alone? You’ve long leagues yet to travel and just the two of you to watch over her.”
“We hadn’t yet mustered for the season. Most of the Rangers are winterin’ wi’ their families. I sent for volunteers, but I dinnae think they’ll be able to find us ere we reach Fort Edward. They’ll track us as far as Mequachake, but whether the village will still be there or they’ll be able to find our tracks leading westward, I dinnae ken.”
When next Sarah opened her eyes, she saw Master Kenleigh set his rifle against a tree and draw his buckskin tunic over his head as if he’d grown overly warm from his exertions. The shirt of white linen he wore beneath it got caught in the supple leather and nearly came off, too, giving her a glimpse of his bare back.
It took a moment for Sarah to understand what she was seeing.
Scars.
His body was covered with them. Cuts. Pinched flesh. Burn marks. It looked as if someone had tried to cut him to bits or burn him alive. Or both.
She sat upright and might have gasped had Connor not covered her mouth, his lips pressed against her ear as he whispered an almost inaudible, “Shhh.”
And Sarah’s heart filled with pity for Master Kenleigh. Someone had hurt him horribly, and his flesh bore the marks of that cruelty.
Now he lived alone on the frontier with no home, no family, no one to call his friend. How lonely he must be! And yet, even in the midst of his loneliness he had turned aside from his own path for her sake.
But who had hurt him and why?
Joseph, who had been scouting ahead, was waiting for them as planned at the top of the next ridge. He acknowledged Connor with an almost imperceptible nod.
“It’s here we part ways, Major.” Kenleigh took the stallion’s bridle. “A good day’s journey east of here, you’ll find an old farmstead where your wife can take shelter.”
“Are you certain you willna travel wi’ us?” Connor dismounted, then reached up for Sarah, setting her on her feet beside him, strangely pleased by this fiction of his being her husband. “You can trade at Fort Edward, build up your stores. There’s always room in the Rangers for a man wi’ your skills and knowledge.”
Kenleigh took the reins and rubbed the horse’s muzzle, answering without meeting Connor’s gaze.
“You honor me, Major, but I have seen enough war.”
’Twas as final an answer as a man could give, and having seen the scars on Kenleigh’s body, Connor did not begrudge him.
“Should you ever be in need, seek me out.” Connor adjusted his tumpline pack, then reached for the rifle he’d tucked behind Kenleigh’s saddle. “Thank you for sharin’ the venison—and your horse. I hope we didna take you too far out of your way.”
“I have no destination, so you needn’t fear on that account.” Then Kenleigh faced Connor, holding out his hand. “’Tis not every day a man meets a living legend.”
Connor shook Kenleigh’s hand, feeling vaguely discomfited by the praise. ’Twas Iain and Morgan who were legends, not Connor. “I bid you farewell and a safe journey.”
Kenleigh’s gaze came to rest on Sarah, and he bowed his head. “Ma’am.”
He turned away and began to mount his horse.
“Wait!” She hurried over to him. “You would have risked your life for mine, and for that, I am most grateful. I’ll not forget your courage. May God bless and keep you and guide you on your journey, wherever it may lead. I shall keep you in my prayers.”
Then she stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to the man’s cheek, much to Connor’s astonishment. Kenleigh’s gaze dropped once more to Sarah’s face, but it wasn’t lust Connor saw in his eyes. It was soul-deep longing, loneliness, regret.
When Connor glanced over his shoulder a few minutes later, Kenleigh still stood there atop the ridge, watching them as they made their way down the mountainside.
###
“Who hurt him? How did he get such terrible scars?”
“I suspect the Wyandot tormented him. He didna wish to speak of it, and I didna ask.” Connor glanced down at Sarah, who walked beside him, her brow furrowed. “Is that why you’ve been so pensive?”
To the west, the sun hovered just above the horizon.
“I cannot bear to think of how he must have suffered.” She looked up at him. “Does the thought not distress you?”
Her question, asked in innocence, gave Connor pause. It wasn’t that he didn’t care what had befallen Kenleigh, but it hadn’t shaken him the way it clearly had Sarah. “I’ve seen cruelty enough in this war to sicken a man’s soul.”
Sarah watched him through troubled eyes. Clearly, this wasn’t the answer she’d expected, but it was the only one Connor could give.
