The Housemaid's Scandalous Secret (26 page)

Read
on
to find out more about
Helen Dickson

and the

series…

Helen Dickson
was born and lives in
South Yorkshire, with her retired farm manager husband. Having moved out of the
busy farmhouse where she raised their two sons, she has more time to indulge in
her favourite pastimes. She enjoys being outdoors, travelling, reading and
music. An incurable romantic, she writes for pleasure. It was a love of history
that drove her to writing historical fiction.

Previous novels by the same author:

A SCOUNDREL OF CONSEQUENCE
FORBIDDEN
LORD
SCANDALOUS SECRET, DEFIANT BRIDE
FROM GOVERNESS TO SOCIETY
BRIDE
MISTRESS BELOW DECK
THE BRIDE WORE SCANDAL
DESTITUTE ON HIS
DOORSTEP
SEDUCING MISS LOCKWOOD
MARRYING MISS MONKTON
BEAUTY IN
BREECHES
MISS CAMERON’S FALL FROM GRACE

And in Harlequin Historical Undone!
eBooks:

ONE RECKLESS NIGHT

Did you know that some of these novels are
also available
as eBooks?
Visit
www.harlequin.com

Author Q&A

Apart from your own, which other heroine did you empathise with the most?

I feel it is a little unfair to select one heroine in particular, since they are all appealing, feisty ladies. However, I do empathise with Kate. She comes across as being a mixture of rebel and conformist and I sense she would like to escape the confines of her upbringing. In possession of a sharp mind, she has the most pronounced views on most things. I like the fact that she devotes her life to worthy causes, that she has her own ideas on equality between the sexes, and is of the opinion that women should try and rise above their servitude.

And which hero did you find the most intriguing?

I have to say that the hero I find the most intriguing has to be Giles. Family circumstances and the loss of two of his brothers necessitate that he resign his commission. With a strong sense of duty—and little enthusiasm—he assumes his role as heir to the Dukedom, while, with tremendous fortitude, he romances his beloved Lily throughout all eight books, until he finally makes her his wife.

What is your hero’s favourite childhood memory of Castonbury Park?

Ross’s favourite memories of Castonbury Park are of the times he spent growing up there. As youths, Ross and his male cousins fought together and were wild, as young men are. As young as she was, his sister Araminta took after them. She was his only sibling and Ross treasured the times he spent with Araminta. She laughed often, for she was a madcap who revelled in all the mischievous things her big brother and cousins got up to.

What are you researching for your forthcoming novel?

At present I am researching my next book, which is set in medieval times. It is something quite different for me. I have set all my books after the Elizabethan period, so I am finding writing about knights and castles an enjoyable challenge.

What would you most like to have been doing in Regency times?

If I had lived in the Regency period I would like to have been born into a large and loving wealthy family—noble or gentry, either would do. I would enjoy all the physical pastimes the country had to offer and go to town for the Season’s pleasures—and to relieve my mind from boredom. I would write romantic novels.

AUTHOR NOTE

When I started writing
The Housemaid’s Scandalous Secret
, I
began by working out the structure, approach and theme for the story. But this
book is not like my others, because threaded through is the continuity story and
it includes characters featured in the other books in the Castonbury Park
series.

I have always found the glory days of the British in India a
time of enchantment—of vibrancy, oriental princes and potentates glittering with
fabulous jewels living in medieval state in fantastic marble palaces. All this,
combined with the heady images of sailing ships laden with spices and sumptuous
goods from the east belonging to the East India Company, a uniquely British
creation which took on the world, inspired me to use India as the setting for
the prologue of my book. Books and television have vouchsafed me, as an
outsider, a precious glimpse of India, but it is my dream that one day I shall
visit and see for myself the real India.

Following the death of her parents, knowing she must earn her
own living to survive, my heroine, Lisette, decides to return to England to find
work. She has an unemotional approach to life. She is a reasoning person, yet
passion burns nonetheless beneath the surface. It is an act of bravery for a
young woman to embark on a journey that takes her from Delhi to Bombay, alone in
a foreign land.

Masquerading as an Indian girl, she finds her life saved when
Colonel Ross Montague pulls her from a raging river. Their lives become braided
together by desire, but it is many months after this event before she is
unmasked.

The story is set in the Regency period, which was one of the
most turbulent, glittering and romantic times in our history, when rakes and
dandies, outrageous gambling and scandals abounded. But Lisette, working as a
lady’s maid at Castonbury Park in Derbyshire, is as far removed from this
glittering world as she had been in India.

The story is consistent with what I perceive to be the
atmosphere of the times and the class divide. Lisette is aware of the gulf
between her lowly status and that of Ross Montague, a dashing soldier stationed
in India who is home on leave. Men of his ilk are not for the likes of her.
Lisette has to overcome many pitfalls and prejudice from below stairs before she
attains her heart’s desire—Ross—and is able to return to her beloved India.

Writing this book has been a challenge, but I found it an
absolute delight to write.

Don’t miss the next instalment of Castonbury
Park—
THE LADY WHO BROKE THE
RULES
by Marguerite
Kaye

‘Your rebellion has not gone
unnoticed…’

Anticipating her wedding vows and then breaking off the
engagement has left Kate Montague’s social status in tatters. She hides her hurt
at her family’s disapproval behind a resolutely optimistic façade, but one thing
really grates… For a fallen woman, she knows shockingly little about
passion!

Could Virgil Jackson be the man to teach her? A freed slave
turned successful businessman, his striking good looks and lethally restrained
power throw normally composed Kate into a tailspin! She’s already scandalised
society, but succumbing to her craving for Virgil would be the most outrageous
thing Kate’s done by far…

THE LADY WHO BROKE THE
RULES

Marguerite Kaye

I’m so glad you decided to accept my invitation,’ she
said brusquely, for it was embarrassing enough, this girlish reaction, without
letting him see it.

‘I could not pass up the opportunity to visit this
school of yours.’

It was most foolish of her to be disappointed, for what else
was there between them save such business? Kate smiled brightly. ‘I’m glad.’

Virgil frowned. ‘Yes, but I’m not so sure that your family will
be as enthusiastic. It is one thing to test barriers, as you said last night,
but another to force an uninvited guest on people who, frankly, may not be very
happy to receive me.’

‘You are invited, for I invited you.’

‘Did you tell them—the note you sent—how did you describe
me?’

‘As a man of great wealth and extraordinary influence, a
business associate of Josiah with a fascinating history.’

She had not mentioned the one salient fact that he was sure
would have been the first to occur to almost anyone else.

‘You don’t think,’ Virgil asked tentatively, ‘that it would
have been safer to warn them about my heritage?’

‘Why should I? I look at you and I see a man who has achieved
what very few others have. You are rich and powerful and you have succeeded
against overwhelming odds, which also makes you fascinating. Why should I tell
them the colour of your skin any more than I should inform them the colour of
your hair, or whether you are fat or scrawny?’

Or attractive. Really extraordinarily attractive. Which, she
should remember, was quite irrelevant.

‘Besides,’ Kate said disparagingly, ‘why encourage them to
judge you before they have even met you?’

Virgil drew himself up. ‘I don’t give a damn—begging your
pardon—about what your family think of me. I was more concerned about what
they’d think of you.’

‘My family can think no worse of me than they already do,’ Kate
said with a toss of her head.

I don’t doubt that. I suspect you take pride in being a
rule-breaker.’

‘Not at all,’ Kate said. ‘You misunderstand me. Breaking rules,
even unjust rules, is far more painful than unquestioning obedience. I wish I
did not have to be a “rule-breaker”, as you call me.’

She looked quite wistful and Virgil found himself
at a
loss, for it seemed that they were speaking about two different things. He
could, however, agree with the sentiment. ‘I know exactly what you
mean.’

Kate nodded, touching his sleeve in a gesture of sympathy he was
already beginning to associate with her. ‘Our cases are hardly comparable. There
are a good deal of rules which ought to be broken, no matter how
painful.’

She would not have said so if she knew the price he had paid for
his disobedience. No matter how unconventional she was, she would likely condemn
him for it—and quite rightly so.

Virgil rolled his shoulders, as if the
familiar burden of guilt were a tangible weight he carried. ‘I play by my own
rules,’ he said.

ISBN: 9781426876721