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At the end of his Grand Tour, somewhere between Athens and Constantinople, Christian Selwyn, the young Earl of Hazelmere, vanished - seemingly without a trace.
Time passes. In London, his uncle and cousin move into his home … while his unofficial fiancée, Sophia, is left desolate and in limbo. Finally, his friends – loyal and close as brothers – set out to search in person.
Christian’s startling re-appearance at a grand ball takes society by storm and fuels endless speculation. Where has he been during these three missing years? What happened to him?
And more
importantly, how did it happen?
Only one thing is clear. The earl who left England five years ago, has returned a changed man. A man with secrets.
.•*´¨)✯ ¸.•*¨) ✮ ( ¸.•´✶
EXCERPT
London;
Kit’s mental turmoil in the wake of his reappearance
That hour – the first Christian had spent in his own home for five years – had exhausted him. The effort required to say no more than was necessary and to control the wolf that howled inside him had left him physically and mentally drained.
Or
perhaps, he thought, it wasn’t just that. Perhaps it was a combination
of tonight and everything that had gone before it. The gradual growth of despair during those
three years; the almost unbearable resurgence of hope when one of the gardeners
whispered that two Englishmen, accompanied by a Consulate official were asking
about him in the city; and then the terror that nothing would come of it – that
whoever was out there would go away without finding him and that he’d be
trapped here forever.
Then
had come the days he’d been confined to his rooms and no one would tell him
what was happening. His nerves at full
stretch, he’d swung between a very frail thread of hope he was afraid to trust
and absolute dread. If these Englishmen
had traced him to the palace but were thereafter convinced that they were
mistaken and persuaded to leave, Christian suspected that his immediate future
wasn’t going to be pleasant.
But
they hadn’t given up. They and
the Consulate official had persisted with their questions, between dire threats
of what the English government would do should it learn that an English
aristocrat was being held against his will by a Turkish citizen. And so, eventually, Christian had been
summoned to the Divan with no idea what awaited him there.
When
he’d seen Daniel and Anthony, relief had sent him to his knees … and when
they’d drawn him to his feet and into their arms, he’d cried.
Winner of four gold medals for historical romance (Readers' Favourite in 2019, Book Excellence Awards in 2020, Global Book Awards in 2022 and Book Excellence Award in 2023) and fifteen B.R.A.G. Medallions, Stella Riley lives in the beautiful medieval town of Sandwich in Kent.
She is fascinated by the English Civil Wars and has written six books set in that period. These, like the 7 book Rockliffe series (recommended in The Times newspaper!) and the Brandon Brothers trilogy, are all available in audio, narrated by Alex Wyndham.
Stella enjoys travel, reading, theatre, Baroque music and playing the harpsichord. She also has a fondness for men with long hair - hence her 17th and 18th century heroes.
Social Media Links:
Website:
https://stellarileybooks.co.uk
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Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/search?search=Stella%20Riley
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stella-Riley/e/B0034PB7UU
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/171405852-the-shadow-earl
Thanks so much for hosting Stella Riley today!
ReplyDeleteCathie xoxo
The Coffee Pot Book Club
My pleasure.
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