Cerise DeLand's Blog

His Merry Housekeeper 

A novelette in Delightful Doings in Dudley Crescent series

By Cerise DeLand

Word among the fashionable is that in that marvelous London crescent, Dudley to be exact, a new storm brews over the romantic interests of the lords and ladies who live there.

Lord Bettington in Number 42 is in need of a new housekeeper. It being Christmas and his house full of his three raucous motherless sons, he is in need of someone bold who can tamp down the chaos of his household—and his boys. 

But the earl wants so much more. He has ordered his young chatelaine, Miss Winifred Mathers, up from his country estate to serve as his housekeepr. Could it be true that that particular servant who is the only daughter of a termagant barrister has pierced dashing Lord Bettington’s lonely heart?

He tells himself he wants his new servant to provide order and emotional succor for his poor (savage) little boys. 

But can he control his yearning for his new employee?

And can Winn suppress her desire for the only man she's ever loved?

BUY LINK for MERRY BELLES, a box set by the Bluestocking Belles: https://www.amazon.com/Merry-Belles-Bluestocking-Collection-Friends-ebook/dp/B0FTQVYSKG

Be sure to read the current three novels about those who live in Dudley Crescent: 

Her Beguiling Butler: https://books2read.com/u/bpjNZ6

His Tempting Governess: https://books2read.com/u/4jenz2

His Naughty Maid: https://books2read.com/u/3npn9B

Do you need one hot man, risky adventure, a darn mystery to solve and a villain who wants you in a dungeon or in his bed?
So who opposed you? Ah. Your mother?  Your dad? No? Your ex?
What did you do?
Marry him anyway?
In SCARLETT AFFAIRS, each lady has a choice. She can accept the help her new protector wishes to give her…or go through her challenges alone. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNL3RTP2

Do you need one hot man, risky adventure, a darn mystery to solve and a villain who wants you in a dungeon or in his bed?
So who opposed you? Ah. Your mother?  Your dad? No? Your ex?
What did you do?
Marry him anyway?
In SCARLETT AFFAIRS, each lady has a choice. She can accept the help her new protector wishes to give her…or go through her challenges alone. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNL3RTP2

 ❤️Merry Belles, a Bluestocking Belles Collection with Friends



Just in time for the holidays, seven charming stories of romance from award-winning and best-selling authors:



· A murder brings a lady and her lost love together, just close enough to heal old wounds.



· A young lady must foil a friend’s betrayal to have her Yuletide wish for love come true.



· A widowed lord’s new housekeeper tames his rowdy boys and pierces his lonely heart.



· A lady determined to find her wayward young son finds herself stranded with the persistent earl determined to woo her out of widowhood.



· Will restoring a family manor together help two people acknowledge a secret attraction and claim a future together?



· A soldier’s wife is determined to find her missing husband, even if she must walk the length and breadth of England with her children in a wheelbarrow



· Home from the wars, a soldier is shocked to learn that his fiancée plans to wed someone else. Can he reach her in time to prevent the nuptials?
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Cerise-DeLand/author/B0089DS2N2

 

How heroic are you?
    Would you volunteer to travel thousands of miles from home with others you don’t know to live in tents, wash your hair in your helmet and work 12-24 hours each day?
    In the Great War, thousands of women did.
    For nurse Gwen Spencer, fighting battles is nothing new. An orphan sent to live with a vengeful aunt, Gwen picked coal and scrubbed floors to earn a living. But when she decides to become a nurse, she steps outside the boundaries of her aunt’s demands…and into a world of her own making.
    Leaving her hometown for France, she helps doctors mend thousands of brutally injured Doughboys under primitive conditions. Amid the chaos, she volunteers to go ever forward to the front lines. Braving bombings and the madness of men crazed by the hell of war, she is stunned to discover one man she can love. A man she can share her life with.
    But in the insanity and bloodshed she learns the measures of her own desires. Dare she attempt to become a woman of accomplishment? Or has looking into the face of war and death given her the courage to live her life to the fullest?

The story of their courage is 99 cents on sale for Veterans day!

*****

Excerpt: Copyright, Jo-Ann Power, 2013. All rights reserved.
When she did return to the tent, she had Colonel Scott in tow. She’d told him nothing except their German was now awake, aware and spoke English. She thought it best to let the officer discern the veracity of the man.
“Nurse Spencer tells me you speak our language. Might I ask you where you learned it?”
“At my mother’s knee, Colonel. I am Captain Adam Fairleigh, His Majesty’s Forces. Forgive me, sir, I would greet you appropriately but our erstwhile nurse has strapped me to the bed.”
“Then you must need restraining,” Scott replied. “What the hell is this that you say you’re with the Brits?”
“I am, sir. I am attached to General Pershing’s staff, Chaumont.”
“As what? How do you speak Hun so well and why in God’s name are you in one of their uniforms?”
Fairleigh arched both brows, looking at the short American down his very elegant straight nose. “Liaison to the American Commander, sir. Since December. I speak excellent German because my maternal grandmother came from Saxe-Coburg, the same principality as our late Prince Albert. I speak German, sir, as well as I do English. Before the war, that was no crime, but an asset.”
“I see. And how do you come by this uniform?”
Their patient was no longer so quick or cocky. “I took it off a dead man.”
Gwen swallowed hard at the savage image of this man removing clothing from a corpse.
“I had managed to crawl across a zone where they were not shelling. I thought if I could reach one of their forward trench lines, then I—”
“Preposterous. How did you get that far in your own uniform?”
“I went in peasants’ rags. Our lines abut an old village where only a few huts still stand.”
“Why discard your rags for a German captain’s uniform?”
“Well, sir, he was not only dead but conveniently my size.”
That shut the man up.
Gwen could only marvel at this creature in the bed.
“When I came upon their trench, I could hear their conversation below. Luck was with me. That bunker was a communications center. If I could get in there, I might learn quite enough to make my mission worthwhile. Of course, I couldn’t do that, couldn’t speak German to them and have them believe I was one of them if I wore French farmer’s culottes, could I? So I crept around…among their dead whose bodies they had not retrieved.” He stared at the American with blank eyes. “I happened upon the captain who seemed my height. Then I waited until night fell and—”
He halted, regarding Gwen once more. “I buried my rags and crawled into their trench. They accepted my story. I was privy to their orders that were to move their gun emplacements. Then, as you can expect, I was stuck with them, considered one of them. I had to run with them. I had no opportunity to escape until two nights later when the French opened a barrage in our sector.”
He lifted a hand, let it drop to the sheets. “I managed to hang back when they retreated with their line. I set out to No Man’s Land and prayed to Christ I’d find my way across to French lines. This took me…I’m not clear. A night. Two?” He shrugged. “Here I am.”
“Who is your American liaison in Pershing’s staff?”
“Colonel Samuel Rustings.”
Scott nodded, a hint of a smile curling his lips. “I see.”
“I gather you know him.”
“Same class at West Point.”
“Well, then. If you telegraph him, he will verify who I am and my mission. He knew I went out, you see.”
“A man from headquarters is already on his way here.”
“Splendid.”
“We thought we had ourselves a Heinie.”
The man’s mouth quirked in bitterness. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
“Oh, you’ll do, sir. What did you say your name was?”
Gwen noticed that Scott had not addressed him by his rank.
“Fairleigh.”
“We’ll see what our man from Chaumont has to say about you. In the meantime, my private is outside the tent.”
Fairleigh inclined his head in acknowledgement of his warder.
“Nurse. Finish up here. Untie him. ”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“Good day, then.”
When Scott had departed, Fairleigh regarded her with appraising eyes. “What is your name?”
“Spencer.”
“Nice name. Spencer.”
“Thank you.” She pulled her cart closer to his bed. No matter who he was, he was to be made whole as efficiently as she could.
“I am sorry, Spencer, for being an ass.”
She saw on his face honest contrition. Unaccustomed to apologies from those who insulted her, she had no reason to trust the value of his. Yet she gave him credit for the courtesy of it. He had done such a brave act. What kind of man would do as he had done? A fool. An opportunist. A man who saw this was work which he and he alone was best suited for? Was that hubris? Cunning? Or duty? If indeed, he had done it. If he hadn’t lied.
“Spencer, I am grateful for your help. Please do patch me up. I’d hate to lose my hands because I lacked good manners.”
He was making conversation to heal their rift. She picked through her gauze looking for the needle she had misplaced when she had left him. Brusqueness served her where experience did not. “Lie back then and be good.”
“Chilly. Do you they teach you to be frosty like that in America?”
“Yes.”
He feigned a shiver.
She fought a smile. “Put that spoon between your teeth. This needle will hurt.”
“I wager it will hurt less than your German. You should have warned me that it was so bad.”
“Careful.” Fingering her needle, she began to thread the eye. “You need me to be gentle as I sew. Besides,”—she could taunt him now that he was rational and at her mercy—“I doubt I’ll ever sing with you again.”
“I will endeavor to ensure you do.”
His attempt to charm her flattered her. She would do well to ignore it. “This is war, sir. Neither of us has the time.”
“Then sing to me instead.”
“When I put my needle in your skin, I will hear you sing and off key, too.” She threatened him, hiding all the humor his compliment inspired. “The spoon, sir. Now!”

HEROIC MEASURES BUY links:  https://books2read.com/u/bzgaKn

 I am soon to begin a series of short videos on a subject dear to my heart. History. The real stuff. The unhappy bits. The necessary turn of events that no one saw coming which make a mark in the human story.

Knowing many wish to see, for example,
the issue of slavery in this country as a more positive series of events and choices than many can agree upon, I will take a look at various points in American and western hemisphere thinking in which a look on the bright side occurred and many disputed its value.

Understanding too that history contains so many movable parts (human impressions, popularity, resources old and new, and more, I will discuss what serves as sound historical factual background now as opposed to fifty years ago or even twenty.

Times have changed. Resources are constantly being 'unearthed' or made more accessible. People change, too. So does education. So even do the reading levels of general populations.

What do people read if they find they enjoy a simpler sentence structure rather than one composed of compound sentences? What do they choose to read if they crave quick action, bold plotting and mysteries or fantastical worlds?

This and more in short videos soon to come! 

 

 

 

🍒A highwayman to steal your heart! One box set, one plot, one highwayman stealing all sorts of things...money, hearts, time...and leaving ladies in the dust!The Bluestocking Belles have done it again and created a fun romp through the English countryside! Many 5 STAR reviews for this adventure in Regency romance!
https://www.theromancestudio.com/loves-perilous-road-featuring-rue-allyn-and-cerise-deland/

Front entrance to FontainebleauTravel is a wonderful way to do historical research for novels. Time-consuming, it is an intriguing way to put drama into your day...as you eat and drink you way around your chosen paths!

   My biggest kicks come from standing in the very spots that others infinitely more interesting than I have stood. Reflecting on how they must have felt at certain points in their lives—or seeing what has become of those places long after they have passed sends ripples of ennui down my spine.

Napoleon abdicating in Fontainebleau

The room where he took poison the night before he abdicated!

The Golden Courtyard where Napoleon's troops would have heard his farewell in April 1814
before he departed for Elba. Here you have the view Napoleon had as he addressed his troops.

My  picture.

Greeting many of his generals and troops who were gathered in the courtyard below, he bid them farewell from the main steps. He boarded a coach, escorted by a small French retinue and a few Englishmen to assure his departure, and left for Elba. He arrived there May 30, 1814.

To read a fast-paced romance about two lovers who must escape Napoleon’s return, do read BECAUSE OF YOU and my SCARLETT AFFAIRS series!

BECAUSE OF YOU, Book 2, Matrimony! 

BUY LINK: https://books2read.com/BecauseofYou

SCARLETT AFFAIRS series.

BUY LINK: https://amzn.to/4clTGvi

Book 4 Releases 10.24.25Spies!

THIS ENTIRE SERIES STARS SPIES! Women. Men. Disappearing. Returning. 

And falling in love.

PLUS, each story is rich in historical accuracy.

How?

1802: British go to Paris because of the truce. A great time to establish a spy network!

1803: Tensions between French and British rise! Bonaparte is getting ambitious and argues with the British envoy!

1804: Bony abducts the heir to the Bourbon throne. Yeah. The Last heir.

1805: Bony puts 200,000 soldiers on coast to invade southern England.

How do you get romances about of those headlines????

1802: You send a team of spies to Paris. One must help a lady whose friend has fled because…yeah, Bony thinks she’s a spy!

1803: One agent’s job is to find that lady who went missing in Book #1. Guess what? They fall in love and she cannot stay with him. Why?

Ah.

Book 6 Coming soon!

1803-4: An agent is dumbfounded when he sees a lady he loved impersonating another. Go away, she says. She has a mystery to solve!

1804: Bony absorbs other countries! A Crown Princess must save her family and flee!

BUY LINK: https://amzn.to/4clTGvi

Do you truly rest on Sundays?

I do give it a go. I cook. I sit and stare into space, usually on my patio when the sun is shining. But often, I get my best rest in the shower!

My life is driven by research and writing with deadlines ever present in my thinking. So my shower is an intriguing break from it all.

But my characters follow me in there.

You see, I have my next novel to plan so love is on my mind.

Who are these people? What is the heroine's challenge? His? How do they intersect to become a functioning unit for ever and ever? (And there they are—in my shower! I am naked. They are not yet fully formed so it is rather okay.)

My current series, SCARLETT AFFAIRS, addresses the conflict between France from the peace of Amiens in 1802 when Napoleon was one of three Consuls to the Second Restoration in 1816, after he had lost, gone to St. Helena, and the Allies occupied France.

I do take one issue, one tidbit of history and build around it the attempts of France to rule the world—and British and Allied attempts to defeat that.

But ideas come slowly...and when light bulbs go off, the result is a Happy Camper. Me!

Rest ensures I come up with good stuff. But REST is tough to find when you are driven to have that plot right now, please!

REST is a wonderful book which has been my friend for years after hubbie gave it to me for Christmas. Full of stories of writers, inventors and government officials and more who took time to allow their brains to think of nothing. And yet, what they discovered were the answers to their challenges!