***COMPLETED*** "I need to talk to you." she said in a small voice shutting the door behind her. Her hair fell from her bun in red ringlets around her face; her eyes searched his making his heart race in a very uncharacteristic way. he'd had been with women since his wife died- mostly saloon girls but none of them made him feel as nervous as the one in front of him. "You need to spend less time full as a tick in the saloon and more time with your daughters." She said looking right at him, that wasn't what he'd expected her to say at all "I know what you're going through Mr. Clayton loss is hard but your daughters need you-" "Loss? What do you know of Loss Miss Wade you are merely a child." He snapped not wanting to hear everything he'd done wrong. What gave her the right to talk to him like that anyway? They had just met. She nodded slightly turning to leave as she absently played with a ring on her finger She turned back towards him "I was Engaged to a wonderful man Mr. Clayton His name was Fergus O'Reilly and he was everything to me... he died on the eve of our wedding. Now this ring" she said putting her hand up and gesturing to the emerald ring "Is nothing but a broken promise of the life we were meant to share.... But you, you have Wilhelmina and Lorelei. You have a part of your wife always. You have something I would give anything for. All I have are my memories." The woman had kept her voice calm, but to him it felt as though he had been slapped in the face. No one had ever spoken to him like that before. "Miss Wade I suggest you bite your tongue if you wish to stay on as the governess." "Alright fire me, but who will watch your children? Because you certainly won't!"

HIGHEST RANKING #6 in HISTORICAL FICTION! --- For all her life, Lady Evie Verrick had been regaled of tales of the Highlands from her Highland born and bred mother. She had grown up dreaming of chivalrous knights, sword-fighting, horse back riding. Tales of kin and family, loyalty and the warmth of a home. But being brought up in a traditional English household with a traditional father, her mother was the closest thing to the Highlands she could get. And when her mother died of pneumonia before her coming out, left to her father's care, Evie wants now, more then ever, to see the promised lands that she grew up with. --- Connor Gilroy had served as the first in command to the MacKenzie clan for as long as he could remember. He owed his loyalty to his best friend and brother in arms, Hammond MacKenzie, who had saved him from being skinned alive by English soldiers years ago, before the truce was signed between the two lands. Having no love lost for the country, Hammond would be the only person who could ever convince Connor to step foot back into English lands. His chief had recently received news on the death of the aunt he has never met, but Hammond was a man of his word, and he had promised his father he would care for all kin, regardless of who they were. But Connor never would've imagined that the cousin of his best friend would be a spirit of the flames. The way Evie took on life and all of its problems with a passion that ignited a hearth, would perhaps be the first time someone ever ignited more then just passion and desire within him.

Chosen when a child, Lady Joselyn is trained to be a ruthless killer. She is destined to be the English king's assassin and protector. Only he and the guild master are supposed to know. It's a life and death secret that must be kept. For an assassin survival is precarious. Life is something you simply cannot take for granted because the next day is never granted. Despite her privileged upbringing, Joselyn quickly learned how to survive on her own and to never trust a soul while following the Guild without question. Upon her return to England, a murderous plot against King Cassiush is discovered. Joselyn is shocked when she finds out who the fiend is. She's even more shocked when the King proposes marriage, a lot. An assassin has never married her king before. The last one who fell in love had her tongue ripped out and was burned alive. Letting her emotions cloud her judgment, Joselynfalls for Cassius and agrees to the marriage, jeopardizing not only his life but her own. Disobeying the Guild means death. Now she must figure out how to keep them both alive and not piles of smoldering ash.

Banished for five years, Lady Belinda Carrington returns to Willowfair, claiming to know things one would find impossible to believe. With her tainted reputation, can Belinda make Town Guard McKenzie Haverston help her in her pursuit of the truth? *** After her banishment five years ago, Belinda Carrington returns with secrets and tales too impossible to believe. But something in her lies makes McKenzie Haverston desperate for the truth... When Belinda shows up in McKenzie's home asking for protection in return for important information on a case he's working on, he rejects her. But when he learns where she had been banished after her great scandal five years ago, he finds himself striking a deal with the woman-he protects her, she gives him answers. The question now is: how true is her tale? She was once considered the fairest of them all, but one scandal later, she has become the most reviled. And she is also being hunted. If Belinda wants to stay alive, she has to start trusting McKenzie Haverston, a task she finds to be surprisingly easy to do. However, as the truth of the past begins to resurface, and the secrets of her scandal is revealed, Belinda is confronted by her own demons, causing her to doubt her own reality. Trigger warnings: abuse, violence, mental trauma, sexual assault, mental health illness