Monday October 4, 2021
Welcome to HERE BE NEWS, where each monday we bring you all the latest from the fantasy romance authors at Here Be Magic:
Tuesday September 28, 2021: Linda Mooney shares an additional scene from 4-Point Star, a Sensuous Sci-Fi Romance
Wednesday September 29, 2021: WIP-it Wednesday post. PG Forte shares an excerpt from one of her works in progress.
Steampunk
104 pages
$1.99
Eight years ago, Ophelia Leonides's husband cast her off when he discovered she was not the woman he thought she was. Now destitute after the death of her father, Ophelia is forced to turn to Dario for help raising the child she never told him about.
Dario is furious that Ophelia has returned, and refuses to believe Arthur is his son—after all, he thought his wife was barren. But to avoid gossip, he agrees to let them spend the holidays at his villa. While he cannot resist the desire he still feels for Ophelia, Dario despises himself for being hopelessly in love with a woman who can never love him back.
But Dario is wrong: Ophelia's emotions are all too human, and she was brokenhearted when he rejected her. Unsure if she can trust the man she desperately loves, she fears for her life, her freedom and her son if anyone else learns of her true nature...
December, 1870 At a border checkpoint just outside Santa Fe, capital of the Republic of New Texacali
The battered airship creaked in feeble protest as the mooring lines were winched tighter, tethering it to the landing dock. As the ship was forced lower, the grumbling of the overworked engines sent a faint shudder rippling through the entire structure, too mild for most people to feel. Ophelia Winter, however, was not most people. Her grasp on the brass handrail that circled the passenger lounge tightened imperceptibly as an answering vibration rattled the steel in her bones. She wished she’d had the funds necessary to travel aboard a newer ship, or at least one that had been better maintained, but she’d already stretched her meager finances as far as they would go. If things did not work out as she hoped, she wasn’t sure what her next step should be. She prayed she need never find out.
Metal scraped wood and the ship lurched slightly as it finally touched down upon the planks, this time with enough force to jostle the passengers gathered in the lounge. A rumble of displeasure circulated through the room but Ophelia paid it no mind. Such discomfort was to be expected when traveling, especially when one’s circumstances were so greatly reduced.
While a few of her fellow passengers were travelers from the still-wealthy Louisiana territories, Ophelia knew most of those on board were not. The majority were emigrants from the newly defeated Union. People who’d lost their homes or their livelihood in the chaos that had followed hard on the heels of the Confederate victory and who were now hoping for a fresh start in this burgeoning new country.
People who, in that respect at least, were not so different from herself.
She stared out one of the ship’s round portholes at the surrounding countryside. The pale earth was dusted with snow, but was otherwise rocky and bare except for the few twisted trees that clung to the craggy hills. Unlike many of the others, Ophelia knew this place well. She knew how hard and unyielding, how frustratingly difficult, it could be at times. Quite like many of its inhabitants, in fact. Still, as she also remembered, and all too well, it was surprisingly easy to overlook its flaws in moments such as these, when the light of the setting sun had spread itself like a blanket over the harsh winter landscape, warming it, softening the sharp edges, turning everything a gentle shade of pink.
All things considered, it appeared this part of New Texacali had changed very little in the years since she was here last. Ophelia wasn’t quite sure how she felt about the lack of progress—either comforted, or desperately and depressingly nostalgic.
“What sort of trees are those, Mama?” a small voice piped at her side. “I don’t believe I recognize them.”
Ophelia smiled fondly down at her son. “There’s no earthly reason you should, Arthur, since they’re a kind of tree you’ve never seen before. Those are piñon. They do not grow back East.”
“Piñon,” Arthur repeated thoughtfully.
Just hearing the word spoken aloud, for the first time in years, called up sense memories. Ophelia remembered the soft sigh of the wind rustling in the branches, the bright crackle of fire on a cold winter’s night, the spicy fragrance of resin, so different from the pine trees she knew back home in the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania.
“Will Papa be here on the dock to meet us?” Arthur asked hopefully, bringing Ophelia’s thoughts back to the present.
“No, love. Your father is unaware of our arrival, as yet. I decided not to write ahead of time to let him know we’d be coming.”
Arthur frowned. His expression, when he looked at her so, reminded Ophelia very forcefully of her estranged husband. In general, people noted the strong resemblance to Ophelia when they met her son. Her own father had often proclaimed him to be the very image of her. Other than his eyes, that is. Arthur’s inquisitive brown orbs owed nothing to his maternal parent. Right now, those eyes were trained upon his mother’s face with an appraising gaze that seemed far too old and serious for his seven years. “Why, Mama? Did you think he would not be pleased to meet me?”
Ophelia forced a smile. “Nothing of the kind. I just thought it might be more...fun if we were to surprise him.” It was not often she chose to tell her only child an outright lie, but in this case, what else could she do? Arthur would be more than a surprise to his father, he’d likely be an absolute shock. And, as Ophelia’s all-too-brief experience of the man had taught her, Dario Leonides did not respond well to shocks.
Influential, aristocratic, overly impulsive and completely impossible to reason with while in a temper, Dario could make it very difficult for her to enter the country if he chose, and if he had the chance to do so. Ophelia would very much rather he not get that chance.
She needed to speak with her husband in person. She needed to appeal to his better nature. She was sure he still had one, even if it had been years since he’d shown it to her. Most of all, she needed to win his cooperation. Even if she could no longer hope to win his love, at least he could give her that.
*****
This Winter Heart was my first ever steampunk release. I fell in love with the Winter family and have been trying for years to bring the rest of their stories to life. So far, I've managed a short story (This Winter Night--set several years before This Winter Heart) a prequel to the entire series (set immediately before This Winter Heart, that I'm calling Winter of Our Discontent) and a sequel novella, Winter World of Love, set one year after the events of This Winter Heart.
This holiday season, I hope to release
This Winter Night and
Winter World of Love together in a collection I'm calling
Winterlude. For more information, please check out the Winter Hearts page on my website at:
https://www.pgforte.com/winter-hearts
