Lady Maggie's Secret Scandal (43 page)

He took a nip of his flask—a small nip. Unless he spent hours in the saddle or hours tramping the woods with his fowling piece, or a snow storm was approaching, or a cold snap, his leg did not pain him too awfully much—usually.

***

“The little season is a great pain in my backside.”

Lady Louisa Windham didn’t bother keeping her voice down. She was riding in at the back of the third flight along with her sister Genevieve, to whom it was always safe to grumble.

“We’ve missed all but the last two weeks of it,” Jenny pointed out. “Thank God for Papa and his hunt madness.”

From Jenny, that was an admission that she too did not look forward to the impending, though blessedly brief, remove back to Town.

“It’s like hunting grouse,” Louisa said, letting her mount drop back farther from the other riders ambling toward the hunt breakfast. “Lent ends, and the husband hunting begins, the mamas beating their charges forward into the waiting guns virtually until Town empties out for the holidays. I don’t know how many more years of this I can take, Jenny.”

“I don’t relish two weeks in Town either,” Jenny said at length. “We sit about in the same parlors we sat about in all spring, trying to pretend we’re only a little envious of the ladies now married or engaged who were not spoken for in the spring. And yet, in some way, we
are
only a little envious when we’re supposed to be torn up with it.”

“I am torn up with the entire pretense.”

“You’ve been at it a little longer than Evie or I. You’re entitled.”

Jenny could be counted on for such kindness. She was truly good, truly kind, things Louisa had long since stopped aspiring to. Jenny had willowy blond good looks to go with her sunny disposition, while Louisa, appropriately enough, had throw-back dark hair to go with eyes closer to agate than green.

“Ladies.”

Sir Joseph Carrington came up on Louisa’s left mounted on a raw-boned black gelding, one suited to the rider’s own dark coloring and somber turnout.

Louisa and Jenny greeted him civilly. He was a neighbor, after all and he’d served on the Peninsula with their brothers Devlin St. Just and the late Lord Bartholomew Windham. Just because the man sported a mere knighthood and raised pigs was no excuse to be rude.

“Louisa, Sir Joseph, if you’ll excuse me, I promised to help with the breakfast.”

Lady Jenny smiled at Sir Joseph and cantered off, abandoning her sister to the pig farmer’s company without a backward glance.

Even the truly good had limits to their generosity.

“I’ve a question for you, Lady Louisa.”

Writing is usually a solitary activity. Not only does an author spend months drafting material while sitting alone before the computer, but she also spends long hours walking the countryside, driving from coast to coast, and making burnt offerings to the gods of external conflict, all without much companionship.

And while I have a great capacity for enjoying solitude, I am never lonely as a writer, because the team at Sourcebooks, from our publisher Dominique Raccah, to my editor Deb Werksman, to all the “book people”—Skye, Susie, Cat, Danielle, Madam Copy Editor, Madam Proofreader, my fellow Casablanca authors, and countless others—is just a phone call or email away and sometimes closer than that.

These are not
my
books, and the Windham siblings’ stories are not
my
stories. These stories belong to you, as the reader, and they belong to the Sourcebooks publishing team members, without whom these tales would never see the light of day. I think this sense of cooperative endeavor informs the mutual regard my characters feel toward each other and is reflected in the writing in intangible ways.

In any case, I’m grateful to be part of such a team. Writing is a pleasure. Writing with that much capable support is a pleasure and a privilege.

New
York
Times
and
USA
Today
bestselling author Grace Burrowes hit the bestseller lists with both her debut,
The
Heir
, and her second book in The Duke’s Obsession trilogy,
The
Soldier
. Both books received extensive praise and glowing reviews from
Publishers
Weekly
and
Booklist
.
The
Heir
was also named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2010, and
The
Soldier
was named a Publishers Weekly Best Spring Romance of 2011. She is hard at work on stories for the five Windham sisters, the first of which,
Lady
Sophie’s Christmas Wish
, is already on the shelves, along with
The
Virtuoso
, the story of Valentine, the third Windham brother. Grace is a practicing attorney specializing in family law and lives in rural Maryland.

Grace loves to hear from her readers and can be reached through her website at
www.graceburrowes.com
.