Realm 06 - A Touch of Love
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Authors: Regina Jeffers
Regina Jeffers
White Soup Press
Copyright © 2013 by Regina Jeffers All rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced or transmitted in any manner (electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system) whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
A Touch of Love (Book 6 of the Realm Series) ISBN-13: 9780615893594
ISBN-10: 0615893597
White Soup Press
Introducing Book 7 of the Realm Series
H
e caught the bowl she carried and set it on a small table. Her defiance enflamed him as no woman ever had, and Carter was not certain if his heated blood came from his ire or his desire. Either way, he was lost to her closeness. She was not the sort of woman to whom he was normally attracted. With the golden highlights framing her face and the changing color of her eyes, she reminded him of a pixie set upon mischief. The thought brought a wry smile to his lips, but he swallowed his thoughts when a flash of irritation crossed her countenance.
He watched with interest as the lady pushed a stray curl behind her ear. Carter murmured, “Perhaps we should start again.” He gently brushed her hand away before catching the loose strand between his fingers. Slowly, he wrapped the hair about his finger. “There is no need for us to be ill friends.” He leaned closer, where his lips might graze her temple. His was a primal need. A slow, easy smile tugged at his lips’ corners when he heard the delay in her breathing. It was satisfying to know his presence disturbed her as much as hers did his.
“I should go,” she said on a rasp, but rather than reaching for the door’s handle, the palm of her hand slid up the front of his jacket. He wondered whether she planned to push him away, but she fingered the thread of his badly worn costume.
Carter turned his head to slide his lips along her cheek. “Must you?” he said huskily. “You have yet to forgive me.”
Her eyes closed in anticipation. “Forgive?” she whispered, as if she held no knowledge of the word.
Carter used his fingertips to raise her chin. “You are so beautiful.” Her eyes blinked several times in an unknowing response, and he used the moment to claim her mouth. Gently. Encouragingly. Testing. A soft sigh of expectation. When she leaned toward him, Carter slid his arms about the lady’s waist. The taste of her lips brought the blood to his erection. Although she was tentative, Carter recognized the signs of her desire.
James Daniel Kerrington, Viscount Worthing
(Future Earl of Linworth) – the group’s “unofficial” leader; resides at Linton Park in Derbyshire
Lady Eleanor Agatha (Fowler) Kerrington, Viscountess Worthing
– Kerrington’s wife; Brantley Fowler’s sister
Brantley William Fowler
,
the Duke of Thornhill
– resides at Thorn Hall in Kent
Velvet Elaine (Aldridge) Fowler
,
the Duchess of Thornhill
– Brantley’s wife and distant cousin
Marcus Alexander Wellston, the Earl of Berwick
– resides at Berwick Hall in Northumberland
Cashémere Adele (Aldridge) Wellston, the Countess of Berwick
– Velvet Fowler’s younger sister; twin to Miss Satiné Aldridge
Gabriel Luis Crowden, the Marquis of Godown
- resides at Gossling Hill in Staffordshire
Grace Anne (Nelson) Crowden
,
the Marquise of Godown –
former governess for Samuel Aldridge, the Aldridge girls’ paternal uncle and guardian for Cashémere Aldridge
Aidan Colin Kimbolt, Viscount Lexford
– resides at Lexington Arms in Cheshire
Mercy Elizabeth (Nelson) Kimbolt
– the Viscountess Lexford; Grace Crowden’s younger sister
John Isaiah Swenton, Baron Swenton
– resides at Marwood Manor in York (occasionally uses the courtesy title of Lord Shannon)
Sir Carter Stephan Lowery
, a baronet; resides in London, as well as at Huntingborne Abbey in Kent
Lucinda Isabella Rightnour Warren
– a war widow; attended the Come Out balls of Eleanor Fowler and Velvet Aldridge as the Duke of Thornhill’s guest
Aristotle Pennington
– the Realm’s leader; the group refers to him as “Shepherd”
Murhad Jamot
– a Baloch warrior who has been sent to England by the tribal leader, Shaheed Mir, to recover a missing emerald
Rhamut Talpur
– Jamot’s former partner; was killed by James Kerrington during a kidnapping plot against Brantley Fowler
Sonali Fowler
– Brantley Fowler’s daughter by his first wife, Ashmita
Captain Matthew Warren
– Lucinda’s late husband; died during the Napoleonic Wars
Simon Warren
– the five-year-old child of Matthew Warren by his first wife
Gideon and Ruth Warren
– Matthew Warren’s parents; resides in Devon
Colonel Roderick Rightnour
– Lucinda’s father; passed at the Battle of Waterloo; second son of the Earl of Charleton; resided at Merritt Hall in Devon
Sophia Carrington Rightnour –
Lucinda’s mother; died of consumption some 5 months after Lucinda married Matthew Warren; was the fourth daughter of Viscount Ross
Lord Gerhard Rightnour –
Lu
ci
nda’s uncle; resides at Charles Place in Lancashire; the current Earl of Charleton
Lawrence and Arabella Lowery
,
Lord and Lady Hellsman
– Carter’s brother and sister-in-law; future Baron Blakehell; resides at the Dowager House at Blake’s Run in Derbyshire; married in “His American Heartsong” from
His: Two Regency Novellas
Ernest and Louisa Hutton, the Earl and Countess McLauren
– Carter’s oldest sister and brother-in-law; resides at Maryborne Park in Lincolnshire
Campbell and Maria Laroche, Viscount and Viscountess Sheffield
– Carter’s middle sister and brother-in-law; resides at Field Hall in Staffordshire
Stewart and Delia Roxbury, Viscount and Viscountess Duff
– Carter’s youngest sister and brother-in-law; resides at Roxbury Manor in Warwickshire
Niall and Fernalia Lowery, Baron and Baroness Blakehell
– Carter’s parents; resides at Blake’s Run in Derbyshire
Mr. Dylan Monroe
– Carter Lowery’s assistant with the Realm
Charles Morton, Baron Ashton
– resides at Chesterfield Manor, near Manchester; is the maternal uncle for the Aldridge sisters; former Realm member
Miss Satiné Aldridge
– the twin sister of Cashémere Wellston; traveled to the Continent to escape an earlier scandal; was raised by Baron Ashton after her parents’ deaths
Hugh Dymond, Viscount Ransing
– son of the Earl of Holderman and Lawrence Lowery’s long-time enemy
