Amanda McCabe – A Stranger at Castonbury (страница 1)
Survival of the fittest is fine, so long as you’re the one on top … but the family that has everything is about to lose it all …
The Montagues have found themselves at the centre of the
The mysterious death of the heir to the Dukedom, and the arrival of an unknown woman claiming he fathered her son, is only the tip of the iceberg in a family where scandal upstairs
August 2012
THE WICKED LORD MONTAGUE – Carole Mortimer
September 2012
THE HOUSEMAID’S SCANDALOUS SECRET – Helen Dickson
October 2012
THE LADY WHO BROKE THE RULES – Marguerite Kaye
November 2012
LADY OF SHAME – Ann Lethbridge
December 2012
THE ILLEGITIMATE MONTAGUE – Sarah Mallory
January 2013
UNBEFITTING A LADY – Bronwyn Scott
February 2013
REDEMPTION OF A FALLEN WOMAN – Joanna Fulford
March 2013
A STRANGER AT CASTONBURY – Amanda McCabe
Duke of Rothermere
Castonbury Park
About the Author
AMANDA McCABE wrote her first romance at the age of sixteen—a vast epic, starring all her friends as the characters, written secretly during algebra class. She’s never since used algebra, but her books have been nominated for many awards, including the RITA®,
Previous novels by the same author:
TO CATCH A ROGUE* TO DECEIVE A DUKE* TO KISS A COUNT* A NOTORIOUS WOMAN + A SINFUL ALLIANCE + HIGH SEAS STOWAWAY + THE SHY DUCHESS THE TAMING OF THE ROGUE
And in Mills & Boon® Historical
SHIPWRECKED AND SEDUCED + TO BED A LIBERTINE THE MAID’S LOVER TO COURT, CAPTURE AND CONQUER GIRL IN THE BEADED MASK UNLACING THE LADY IN WAITING ONE WICKED CHRISTMAS
*
AUTHOR Q&A
Apart from your own, which other heroine did you empathise with the most?
That is such a hard question! I was really fascinated by everyone else’s characters and the way they developed—both in their own stories and as characters in the series as a whole. I did really admire Phaedra in
Which Montague do you think Mrs Stratton the housekeeper let get away with the most?
I loved Mrs Stratton! She almost seemed like a second mother to the Montague children, watching them grow up and showing them affection when their own parents could not. I think maybe she had a soft spot for my hero, Jamie—he was the oldest and the most solemn (even when he was a child!), and she might have felt just a bit sorry for him …
Which stately home inspired Castonbury Park and why?
We decided to take Kedleston Hall as our model for Castonbury. It’s a large, grand, built-to-impress house, unusual in many of its architectural features, and has extensive and beautiful grounds (with lots of places for secret romantic meetings!). There is a great deal of information and many images available and also several of the authors had visited, so it seemed like a good spot for our characters. (And in spirit it’s a lot like Downton Abbey, a place that has its own character.)
Where did you get the inspiration for Jamie and Catalina?
I love the idea of wartime romance—a whirlwind, passionate affair surrounded by danger and uncertainty—and when Jamie first came into my mind I could see him as a man who would be surprised to find love at such a time and would be even more passionate for that. I also love the country of Spain, its landscape and turbulent history, so I loved it when a Spanish heroine appeared who was perfect for him.
What are you researching for your forthcoming novel?
I am starting another Regency series, centred around a family at the centre of a small, almost
What would you most like to have been doing in Regency times?
I think I would have loved to be doing just what I do now—writing stories! I have always loved the image of Jane Austen devising her stories in the midst of a busy Regency house, finding inspiration in the people and environment around her. But probably I would be scrubbing pots in the scullery …
AUTHOR NOTE
When I was first asked to take part in this project I was so excited! I loved the one collaborative project I’d done before (The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor with Diane Gaston and Deb Marlowe) and this one was even more extensive and involved. I would get to try a new writing method, as well as work with authors I’ve admired for a long time. Also, I am a huge
I got the job of wrapping up the series with the last book: the tale of Jamie, Marquess of Hatherton, whose reappearance in his home after a mysterious absence of years throws Castonbury into chaos once again. I was worried about doing justice to the other characters, but I loved working with everyone else to bring their characters into my story and making them a part of Jamie’s tale. And I have to admit I
I was very inspired by diaries and letters from the time of the Peninsula campaign, where many British soldiers found romance with Spanish ladies. It was a turbulent, passionate time and Catalina was very much a part of all that. She was also more than a match for Jamie! It was the hardest thing I’ve ever written to tear them apart—but that just made it more fun to bring them back together again at Castonbury …
A Stranger at Castonbury
Amanda McCabe
It was her wedding day. And it was utterly unlike she had ever imagined it.
Catalina Perez Moreno studied her reflection in the small, cracked looking glass as she tried to pin her long, thick dark hair into an elegant twist. The canvas tent was cramped and warm with the dusty evening air outside, filled with a small cot and a trunk, a table littered with nursing supplies. Beyond the dingy white fabric walls she could hear the sounds of a military camp, the shouts and laughter of the men, the rattle of sabres and horses’ tack, boots on the hard, dusty earth, the women singing as they cooked supper over the campfires.
No, this was nothing like her first wedding day, when her mother and aunts had dressed her in lace and silk before her father had walked her down the aisle of the grand cathedral in Seville to meet her bridegroom. A groom twenty years older than herself who she had met only twice before that day.
This day was different in every way. Her first husband was dead now, as were her parents and brother, and the home she had once known in Seville was long gone thanks to the French invasion of her homeland. She had been alone for many months, using her nursing skills to help the armies trying to drive out those hated French. Alone—until she had looked across the camp one day and seen James Montague, Lord Hatherton.
‘Jamie,’ Catalina whispered, and then laughed at herself for the warm glow just saying his name created. She had met so many men in her work, moving from camp to camp, hospital to hospital. Men who were handsome and flirtatious, who made her smile, who danced with her, who told her tales of faraway England. But no one had ever made her feel like Jamie did, from that first moment.