The Rake and the Bishop’s Daughter by Julia Donner 💕 Exclusive Excerpt & Gift Card Giveaway 💕(Historical Romance)

Monday, March 19, 2018

The Rake and the Bishop’s Daughter by Julia Donner 💕 Exclusive Excerpt & Gift Card Giveaway 💕(Historical Romance)

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Society’s beloved wastrel, Sir Harry Collyns, pushes his popularity past the point of acceptability when he poses for a statue that creates a social uproar. People line up for blocks to see Handsome Harry in the nude, sculpted by a female artist! Bored with the fuss and scandal, Harry hitches up his fastest team, heads for the country, and a near fatal curricle accident. When the bandages are removed from his head days later, he discovers the angel-voiced widow who’d cared for him is neither elderly nor as mild as her tone, but a straight-laced do-gooder unimpressed with his flamboyant past and dashing good looks. Head-battered and heading for a broken heart, he falls into love with Widow Olivia St. Clair, who might be the one woman in England that Harry can’t charm into loving him back.

On the trek across the portrait hall, Olivia dredged up the courage to satisfy her curiosity. “I wonder if you would indulge me in a small request.”

Harry’s brother halted. “How may I be of service?”

“There has been so much talk of the statue done of Harry. The newspapers said Lady Asterly purchased the work. Might I see it?”

His eyebrows raised in curious surprise. He tipped his head in a bow and gestured to a side door. “This leads to a collection room not intended for public view.”

‘Oh, my!” was all she could say after she entered and saw the area crammed with statuary and paintings.

Asterly gestured to a marble statue on her right. Almost nine feet high with the addition of its pedestal, the figure had been covered with a lurid green, silk banyan. Harry’s features gazed down, his head angled slightly to the left, his expression distant, contemplative. Cold, smooth stone captured the perfection of his brow and elegant cheekbones that contrasted with the uncompromising contour of his jaw. His mouth curved with wistful humor.

Asterly’s strong, tanned hand reached out and with a gentle tug, slid the banyan off the statue. Green silk slithered to the floor and pooled beneath Harry’s stone bare feet. In a relaxed stance, his long limbs and lean muscle glided in a fluid, visual flow. He held an unraveled scroll in front of his hips for modesty’s sake.

Blunt-spoken when surprised, Olivia almost blurted that he hadn’t posed entirely nude, as the newspapers had reported. Only one aspect of the rendering was inaccurate. The curved mounds of his backside were actually rounder, higher, and dimpled at the base of his spine. She doubted she would ever forget the sight of him rising up from the bed that sunny afternoon at Beechgate Cottage, going to fetch eggs for their luncheon. Before her father had arrived and ruined the most extraordinary day of her life.

She murmured, “No wonder there was such a commotion and public outcry when this was removed from display. It rivals the David.”

“Would you like me to ask my wife to give it to you as a wedding gift?”

Still caught up in its ethereal beauty, she answered, “If Harry would like it, thank you. For my part, what do I need with a statue to look at when I shall have the real thing?”

The odd noise Asterly made sounded like a swallowed laugh, causing her to review what she’d said. Mortified, she whirled and retraced their steps, escaping from her stupid remark that still echoed in the private collection room. She waited in the gallery, furious that she blushed over the slightest thing, until Asterly rejoined her—and blessedly, without a word—escorted her to the foyer.

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Julia Donner (aka M.L.Rigdon) grew up in historic Galena, IL, USA, and spent most of her time in the museum of her aunt, who encouraged her interest in history and understood the need to cherish a dream. She started writing in secret in her teens and never stopped, merging it with her mother's encouragement to study theater and music, which led to performing in the Midwest, California and as far away as Austria.

Donner never forgot what it was like to write alone as a girl and is a happy member of Summit City Scribes. Concern for the failing educational system led her to develop Your Futures in Ink, a panel of local and regional authors, who go into to schools to encourage students and answer questions about writing.

THE TIGRESSE AND THE RAVEN, first book in the regency Friendship Series, is an RWA contest finalist. The ninth book in the series, A ROGUE FOR MISS PRIM and the tenth, AN AMERICAN FOR AGNES, are available now. A LAIRD’S PROMISE will be released by Spring 2018.