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Who Would Have Thought It?

By

On June 21, 2025

In Teatime Tattler

Dear Readers,

I’ve shared this letter of 28 February with you before, but I am happy to tell you there is a sequel that sheds more light on this matter. I have, of course concealed the identity of the letters’ subjects, but you will perhaps recognized them anyway.

Without further ado:

28 February

My dear Harriet,

Is your cold better? You oughtn’t have gone to church in such rain. At our age, the Lord will see us soon enough, and it has caused you to miss the K ball! Such a crush it was. That dreadful Lord H was drug in by his uncle Lord G, all to meet the M girl. A fresh-faced one, she is, but it didn’t go well! Lud, I wish you had seen the rogue slink away.

And your late friend, A’s girl, L! Did you know she’s bringing out Miss M? Far too young for it, but no one asked me before they set her up in that merchant’s household. Yes and she was seen tête-à-tête in the garden with Lord G! What would A have said? Though one might ask her why she’d die and not leave the girl better-settled than to have to seek employment!

I’m sending a potion made up by Cook. Do try it. I don’t believe it will kill you as she doses the maid and the footman with it upon occasion.

As ever,

Gert

 

21 April

Dear Harriet,

You have retired to the country far too soon! You will never guess the news!

Did I not tell you that A’s girl, L was seen having a tête-à-tête in the garden with Lord G? Oh yes, and I must tell you… well, you will see the announcements soon. Not only has our Miss L found a much better match for the merchant’s girl after Lord H had the courtesy to put himself in the way of a cutthroat (you will have read of his demise). No, there is more!

L and Lord G have married. By special license, it is true, but in a most respectable way and even in the company of a marquess. Who would have thought it?

Mark my word, the new Lady G will be much in demand as a matchmaker next Season!

I am glad the worst of your cold has passed. Do have your cook make up the receipt I’ve enclosed. This elixir is a sure cure for your lingering cough.

Your friend as ever,

Gert

Liliana’s Letter

The Matchmaker

A promise to his long-dead sister forces Lord Grigsby back into society to broker the marriage of his disreputable nephew to the heiress whose money can save the earldom.

The Matchbreaker

Liliana Ashford has been hired to help an heiress pass muster with the ton and snare a titled husband. Though, if she had a magic wand, she’d turn her charge’s fiancé back into the toad he truly was.

Scandal and a New Match

But she never plotted murder! As the young Earl’s sordid death evokes the scandal of the season, a shadow from Liliana’s own past appears, threatening her carefully crafted world. Grigsby sets about finding his nephew’s killer…and Liliana’s secrets. Meanwhile she scrambles to make a new match for the girl, because finding a husband of her own is out of the question.

Or is it?

On sale for 99 cents until June 30, 2025

Buy Link: https://books2read.com/LilianasLetter

About the Author

USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author Alina K. Field earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and German literature but prefers the much happier world of romance fiction. Though her roots are in the Midwestern U.S., after six very, very, very cold years in Chicago, she moved to Southern California and hasn’t looked back. She shares a midcentury home with two spunky rescues, a blonde terrier and a people-loving chihuahua.

She is the author of several Regency romances, including the 2014 Book Buyer’s Best winner, Rosalyn’s Ring. She is hard at work on her next series of Regency romances but loves to hear from readers!

Visit her at:

https://alinakfield.com/

https://www.facebook.com/alinakfield

https://twitter.com/AlinaKField

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7173518.Alina_K_Field

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https://www.bookbub.com/authors/alina-k-field

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Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Alina-K.-Field/e/B00DZHWOKY

Salacious, Notorious, and Delicious Rumors

By

On June 18, 2025

In Teatime Tattler

Dear Reader,

I offer you today a most interesting report from the ever-reliable Lady P:

Lady P, with more than the latest on dits—I have a confession to make! There have been a number of strapping young footmen over the years who had my heart fluttering, imagining stolen embraces in the linen closet, the tack room in the stables, the alcove… do forgive me for rambling. But, I simply must call your attention to the sixteen handsome-as-sin Irishmen who have been an even greater source of distraction as of late. Fueling more than one day dream because I do so hate to use the word fantasy.

Of whom am I speaking? You must have been banished to the Highlands if you have not espied at least one of the tall, broad shouldered, broad chested men in the Duke of Wyndmere’s private guard. Dearest they have been seen in London, Sussex, the Lake District, Cornwall, and even the Borderlands!

As with any supremely handsome man, there are bound to be salacious, notorious, and dare I say it, delicious, rumors regarding these men. Brothers and cousins and every one more handsome than the last.

Heavens, a glance at the head of the Duke’s Guard had me reaching for my hartshorn! Having seen the broad shouldered, deep chested, green-eyed blond giant, standing beside his equally tall and broad, dark-haired, dark-eyed cousin on one side, and his auburn-haired, blue-eyed giant of a cousin on the other, had my head spinning and my heart pounding. Botheration! Where was I? Those terribly handsome men in the Duke’s Guard have gotten me off track when what I wanted to share was the latest tidbit that I overheard.

Viscount C. all but told S.F. that his injured wife’s condition was less important than reporting in after his patrol. Now I am all for the separation of classes and knowing one’s place in Society, but even I would have to wonder what difference a scant quarter of an hour to see for himself that his wife was indeed on the mend was not too much to ask for.

There are times it pains me to repeat such, but it is for the greater good. For where would the duke and his extended family be without those sixteen men who, it is rumored, have been battered and have bled for those they protect?

Did I fail to mention that the duke’s London man-of-affairs and a certain inspector from Bow Street had to step in and mediate between the viscount and S.F.? How Their Graces will be able to move past this serious threat to the very foundation of His Grace’s private guard is beyond me.

My equilibrium has been knocked out of balance just passing on what I have heard. But fear not, dear reader, for I shall sally forth and uncover the resolution—for certainly there had to have been one—or my name isn’t Lady P! Rest assured, I shall share further news on this subject with the editor of this unimpeachable daily source of information.

 

The Duke’s Champion (The Duke’s Guard, Book 13)

©C.H. Admirand Feb. 2025

Excerpt: 

If he hadn’t lost so much time recovering from wound fever, he might have confessed his small mindedness sooner. His thoughts drifted to a fiery-haired lass and wondered why Mary Kate had not come to see him after he’d been shot. He’d been courting the woman, and by all counts she was besotted with him.

Flaherty closed his eyes and swore, the lass had a perverse way of showing it. “I need to get back to work.” He needed to forget the faithless lass with the bewitching eyes. Concentrate on his duties. “’Tis what I signed on for.” He thought of his cousins’ wives and marveled that every one of them had been unafraid to go toe-to-toe with the men they married whenever they thought they were right. What a sight that had been!

“The lot of them are beautiful and stubborn to the bone.” His thoughts immediately went to the woman he hadn’t seen hide nor hair of while recovering. The fever held him in its grip longer than he anticipated. Bloody hell! He’d even dreamed Mary Kate had been beside him, but it must have been the fever overheating his brainbox. Flaherty had been weak as a babe those first few days after his fever broke. Well he was hale and hearty now, and had made up his mind to confront her. He decided it was past time to ask Sean for the time away from his duties to pay her a visit. She’d taunted him in his delirium—and in his sleep. It gutted him that his woman always claimed James Garahan was the man who’d saved her life. When would Mary Kate remember the far more dramatic rescue the day Flaherty had pulled Mary Kate and Lady Calliope, Viscountess Chattsworth, from the duke’s carriage? It had slid on ice, and tipped over onto its side, just a half a mile from Chattsworth Manor.

Mary Kate was a winsome lass, with blue-violet eyes, a sunshine smile, and lips as red as a rose. Soft and supple, just ripe for kissing. But women were fickle creatures at best. “Bloody hell.” Why had she deserted him in his time of need if she loved him? A devastating thought occurred… The lass was still in love with Garahan! Had she ever loved me?

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F9QY519S

Author Bio:

If we have not met yet, I’m delighted to meet you. Here’s a little bit about me…

I have been writing romance novels for almost half my life—well, at least for the last thirty years. I’m a die-hard romantic and have to confess the broad shoulders and wicked glint in the brilliant green eyes of a stranger had my breath snagging in my breast, my heart beating madly, and my future flashing before my eyes. At the age of seventeen, I’d met the man I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life with.

I write Historical & Contemporary Romance featuring characters that I know so well: hardheaded heroes and feisty heroines! They rarely listen to me and in fact, I think they enjoy messing with my plans for them. Over the years I have learned to listen to them. I have always used family names in my books and love adding bits and pieces of my ancestors and ancestry in them, too! Visit my website to learn more about my books.

C.H.’s Social Media Links:

Website:

https://www.chadmirand.com

Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/C.-H.-Admirand/author/B001JPBUMC

BookBub:

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/c-h-admirand

Facebook Author Page:

https://www.facebook.com/CHAdmirandAuthor

GoodReads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/212657.C_H_Admirand

Dragonblade Publishing:

https://www.dragonbladepublishing.com/team/c-h-admirand/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/c.h.admirand/

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRSXBeqEY52VV3mHdtg5fXw

 

Lowlife Preys on High Society

By

On June 7, 2025

In Jude Knight, Teatime Tattler

Blackmail is a disgusting business, yet that, dear reader, was the business of T.C., as disclosed in the recent advertisement that has been at the centre of gossip in London’s ballrooms this week. For any who missed the advertisement, it read, in part:

To anyone who has been the victim of blackmail by T.C., a villain of the darkest sort and a disgrace to his class. He no longer holds your letters, drawings, or other materials, and can do you no harm. All items have been burned to ashes.

We have to assume that many people with skeletons hidden in their wardrobes are breathing more easily this week. As for T.C., a certain baronet with those initials has been clapped up in debtors’ prison. So may all miscreants receive their just desserts!

As to the story behind the advertisement, dear reader, The Teatime Tattler continues to seek who retrieved and destroyed the blackmail materials, and who placed the notice in the newspapers.

Watch this space.

***

With a Valet in a Wardrobe at Midnight

By Judy Knight, for Dukes All Night Long

Gareth Lord Versey comes in disguise to Congleton Hall, home of the Earl of Congleton and his six daughters. Garry wants freedom to observe Lady Jenna, the second daughter, before he goes through with the marriage arranged by his grandfather, the Duke of Dellborough.

Lady Jenna Eliot has been informed of her betrothal, but she has more important things on her mind. Her sister is about to be ruined, unless Jenna can stop it.

On one moonlit night, Garry and Jenna managed to change the trajectory of several lives, as well as deciding their own future.

Preorder for August 17th

***

Excerpt

Oops. Garry’s masquerade was about to come to a premature end unless he quickly thought of something. “Parsons! Lady Jenna, meet Parsons, a friend of mine from London. Parsons, um, taught me everything I know about being a valet.”

Parsons, who had been valet to Garry’s Uncle Lance until he had to leave to look after a sick mother, proved he’d lost none of his intelligence in the past three years. “It’s good to see you again, lad, but what are you and the lady doing here?”

“Your master has been blackmailing her ladyship’s sister, and we are searching for the evidence he has against her,” Garry said.

“Mr. Garry!” Jenna protested.

“Sir Thomas is a villain, my lady, and no mistake,” Parsons said. “You need not fear I shall tell him anything about seeing you here. What are we looking for? Letters? I know what is in most of Sir Thomas’s drawers and boxes, but there are a couple of boxes on high shelves in the dressing room I have been told not to touch.”

“Then let’s check those,” Garry said. “Parsons, how is your mother?”

“Poorly, Mr. Garry, thank you for asking,” the valet answered. “I am looking for a position by the sea. The doctor says she might recover more quickly if she can breathe sea air, but I am her only son, sir, and I must have her close enough to visit.”

He climbed up a set of steps he had pulled from a niche in the dressing room, and retrieved two large hat boxes, passing them down to Garry, who gave one to Jenna and carried the other to the table under the window in the bedchamber.

“I might be able to find something,” he said to Parsons. “I know some people with homes near the sea. I can ask for you.” Grandfather had promised him several properties as a sweetener to the proposed marriage, including a townhouse in Brighton. If he installed Parsons there to look after the house, the man could train someone younger, who didn’t mind travelling, as Garry’s valet. It was about time he had one, instead of depending on any available footman.

Parsons was touchingly grateful. “Would you do that for me?”

“Why not? I know you to be a fine valet.” Garry had the top off his box and was going through the contents, while Jenna did the same with the other box.

“Mr. Garry, these are all bundles of letters. In different writing. Do you suppose…?”

“That the cad is blackmailing other people, too?” Garry asked. “Yes, I do suppose. This hat box is the same. Sir Thomas has been a busy man. Parsons, do you have something we can put these in? Lady Jenna and I will take them back to Congleton Abbey and burn them.”

Come closer my friends. I’ve got a scandal to share.

By

On May 28, 2025

In Teatime Tattler

Dear Readers,
In this report we shall indulge in a bit of time travel with an intriguing report from an American correspondent:

Have you heard? There’s a woman—a girl really, no more than nineteen and born in the backwoods of Wisconsin, haunting the halls of Congress. She carries flowers from her garden and boxes of sweets and wears a winsome smile, but we all know what she’s really doing, twisting those congressmen around her little finger. That prairie upstart dares think that those august men will give a little nobody like her a fortune to make a sculpture of our dear assassinated president Abraham Lincoln.

And that audacious little humbug just might do it. Why Horace Greely says she’s a phenomenon of successful impudence such as no country, but America, ever did or could produce.

She’s already wheedled herself a sculpture studio in the basement of the Capitol. Men who should know better are totally bewitched by that little coquette. Even that curmudgeon, Thadeus Stevens, has taken her under his wing. It’s all that hair of hers. Though I’ve heard that most of it is fake.

But who’s to know? Maybe she shares other charms with them as well. After all, her artwork is nothing special. Why, if she wins that government commission, she’ll prove our dear Mark Twain right. She’ll be the smartest politician of them all, he says, and he’s put her in his new book The Gilded Age, which you really ought to read.

Her name, you ask? Vinnie Ream.

Prairie Cinderella

SHE IS GOING TO BE THE GREATEST SCULPTRESS Of THE GILDED AGE

Spirited Vinnie Ream might have been driven from her prairie home to the political hotbed of Washington City by the outbreak of the Civil War. But despite her plainspoken ways and western twang, she’s a survivor, and nothing will stop her from pursuing her art in a world dominated by men.

UNTIL DISASTER STRIKES

But on the cusp of success, all her dreams come tumbling down. With her family destitute and her sister threatened, she does the unthinkable. Can she claw her way back to the top or will she go down in history as a failure?

A biographical historical novel about the power of family ties, the pursuit of fame, and the pain of unrequited love, based on the life of 19th century American sculptor, Vinnie Ream.

Awarded first place in the 2025 Bookfest for biographical historical fiction. All proceeds donated to the Freedom to Read Foundation.

 

Available from

AMAZON https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DT7K7NXN

APPLE https://books.apple.com/us/book/prairie-cinderella/id6740748987

BARNES&NOBLE https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/prairie-cinderella-joan-koster/1146855813

BOOKSHOP.org  https://bookshop.org/p/books/prairie-cinderella-vinnie-ream-and-the-gilded-age/

KOBO  https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/prairie-cinderella

About the Author

When she is not writing in her studio by the sea, Joan Koster lives in an 1860s farmhouse stacked to the ceiling with books. In a life full of adventures, she has scaled mountains, chased sheep, and been abandoned on an island for longer than she wants to remember.

An ethnographer, educator, and award-winning author who loves mentoring writers, Joan blends her love of history and romance into eye-opening historical novels about women who shouldn’t be forgotten and into romantic thrillers under the pen name, Zara West. She is the author of the award-winning romantic suspense series, The Skin Quartet and the top-selling Write for Success series.

Prairie Cinderella is book 3 in the Forgotten Women series. Book 1 That Dickinson Girl was a 2023 Chanticleer finalist, and book 2 Censored Angel was 2024 First Place winner of the Book Fest in biographical historical fiction.

Joan blogs about women who should be remembered at JoanKoster.com, about everyday life during the Civil War at American Civil War Voice, about romance at Zara West Romance, about writing at Zara West’s Journal and teaches numerous online writing courses.

 

Academia  https://independent.academia.edu/JoanKoster

Amazon author page https://amazon.com/author/joankoster

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Whispers of Scandal and Suspense

By

On May 7, 2025

In Teatime Tattler

Dearest readers,

Sharpen your fan edges and pour the tea strong, for last evening’s events at Lady A’s illustrious Mayfair residence have left tongues wagging and reputations teetering!

The occasion, purportedly held in honor of none other than Her Royal Highness, Princess T von H-S, promised a night of elegance and refinement. But where Lady A entertains, drama and readers often overshadow refinement, and she does not disappoint.

The arrival of the honoured guests was enough to set hearts fluttering and monocles dropping. Prince S, with his usual flair for excess, made a royal fuss of his entrance in a gilded coat that blinded every poor soul within ten feet. He was flanked by his dashing brother, Prince A, and the ethereal Princess T, who could induce envy simply by breathing. A trio worthy of every gossip in the room, to be sure.

Now, one might expect Princess T to charm her way across the ballroom floor with every eligible lord and viscount in the Ton. But no, dear readers, our princess had other plans. To the great shock (and likely despair) of many titled mothers and their hopeful progeny, she danced exclusively with a certain Dr. A F. Yes, you heard that correctly, a doctor from Italy, whose sole claim to fame thus far seems to be his deft hand in orthopedics. If his skill in the ballroom is half as precise as his scalpel, I daresay he’ll have a future flock of patients from the Ton on his hands.

As if the sight of a princess monopolizing a mere physician were not enough to keep tongues wagging, pray brace yourselves for the truly scandalous tidbit of the night. There was, of all things, a poisoning at the ball! It was all kept very secret but I shall, dear readers, not rest until I find out who the victim was.

Ah, Lady A. How could one fail to notice that this so-called celebration of Princess T had all the grace of a well-aimed dagger. Our hostess, known for her sharp intellect and even sharper sense of family, was using the occasion to stake her newfound alliances with prominent personages. Not only has she aligned herself with Prince S and Princess T, but also with the mysterious and reputable doctors of Harley Street. One cannot help but wonder if alliances forged in secret will soon cast shadows over the Ton. Her revenge upon society may not yet be written in ink, but readers, the quill is poised.

Still, the night concluded with an announcement of great importance, though its details remain shrouded. Dearest readers, I shall find out. Until then, hold tightly to your secrets—for it seems Mayfair’s glittering exteriors hide venomous hearts aplenty.

Yours Indiscreetly,
An Anonymous Observer

 

To find out more about the events at Lady Ashford’s ball and her alliances to the Doctors on Harley Street, check out Sara Adrien’s series “Miracles on Harley Street” which will soon bring a third book with events intersecting at that event.

 

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D72FXRFK?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tkin

 

Sara Adrien

Bestselling author Sara Adrien writes hot and heart-melting Regency romance with a Jewish twist. As a law professor-turned-author, she writes about clandestine identities, whims of fate, and sizzling seduction. If you like unique and intelligent characters, deliciously sexy scenes, and the nostalgia of afternoon tea, then you’ll adore Sara Adrien’s tender tear-jerkers.

For more information and exclusive sneak peeks, new releases, and more, sign up for Sara Adrien’s newsletter at www.SaraAdrien.com

social media links:

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