Kaki Warner by Miracle in New Hope

Author:Miracle in New Hope
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Read on for a special excerpt from Kaki Warner’s next historical romance

BEHIND HIS BLUE EYES

Available August 2013 from Berkley Sensation

Chapter 1

February 1871, Baltimore

“Another letter came today.”

Audra looked up, her mind still caught on whether to use further or farther—she always confused the two no matter how many times she consulted Butler’s English Usage Manual. “From whom?”

“That place in Colorado Territory.” Winnie set a travel-worn envelope beside the stack of scribbled pages on Audra’s desk, her disdain apparent in the pinch of her full lips. “Sounds like a right dismal place, you ask me.”

Audra checked that the letter had, indeed, come from Heartbreak Creek then dropped the missive, unopened, into the overflowing waste bin beside her desk. “Has Father eaten?”

Winnie nodded, the white cap pinned atop her tight black curls bobbing with the motion. “Had a good lunch. Hardly spilled a drop.”

Motion drew Audra’s eye and she looked out the front window to see a black closed carriage stop before the rented house she shared with her father, Winnie and Winnie’s husband, Curtis. Four figures stepped out. Men.

“Oh, God.” She jumped to her feet. Did they know? Had they found out what she had done? Frantically, she gathered the notes piled on the desk and shoved them into the desk drawer.

“What’s wrong?” Winnie asked.

“It’s Father’s colleagues. Help me hide all this.” Racing to the bookcase, she stuffed books and notepads into the lower cabinet, while Winnie crammed down the wads of paper in the waste bin and shoved it under the desk.

“What do they want?”

“Maybe they found out about Father.” Audra slammed the cabinet door and looked breathlessly around. Her heart pounded so hard she thought she might faint. “Where are Father and Curtis?”

“Last I saw, headed to the stable to pet the cats.”

“Make sure they stay there.”

They both flinched when the knocker on the front door sounded. With trembling fingers, Audra tucked a loose strand of brown hair into her bun and made a final inspection of the room for loose papers and reference books. Everything appeared in order.

She faced the stout, dark skinned woman who was old enough to be her mother, and since Audra’s sixth birthday, had served as such. In the twenty years since, Winnie had added housekeeper, cook, nurse, and benevolent tyrant to her duties, ruling the household with sharp criticisms and gentle hugs. Audra was terrified of what might become of her and Curtis and Father if she went to jail. “How do I look?”

“Best remove those.” Winnie waggled a finger at the cloth shields tied around the cuffs of Audra’s sensible at-home dress.

Quickly stripping off the protectors, Audra stuffed them into the cabinet with the papers and slammed the door shut again. “Anything else?”

“Spectacles.”

Audra slipped those into her skirt pocket then smoothed her hair again with trembling hands. “Better?”

“You might at least try to look pleased. Not every day you get callers.”

“Especially ones who have come to accuse me of fraud.”

“Smile anyway. Wouldn’t kill you and might fool them.”

Audra pasted on a stiff smile. “How’s that?”

“Make an undertaker proud.

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