Chequerboard

by Angela Lain

Archaeology professor Jordan Priestly, was faced with a dilemma. How to open up? To admit to the past he had virtually abandoned? He wasn’t Jack the Ripper, his past life wasn’t in any way bad, to be part of a rock band was a life that many would view with envy, but it wasn’t the life he wanted. The final missing piece to his existence had appeared before him in the form of his new assistant the delicious Miss Hardwick, and he’d made a mistake, he had failed to tell her the whole truth. Now he was scared. What if that omission proved more than she would accept?
Fennella had fallen in love, for nine whole months they worked together and she despaired of ever getting past those very private barriers he had erected. Fate finally threw them together in a way they would never have expected, and Fenn was on cloud nine. Then Jordan’s old life, and his twin brother, crashed back into focus and things began to unravel.

180 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 22, 2016

About the author

My name is Angela and I live in the countryside in Norfolk, UK, with my husband (who is an engineer and always busy) and my horse. My two children have left home, but I help my daughter with her horses and her whippets. I tend both house and garden rather reluctantly and I write and read. For years I had woven stories in my head, when travelling and watching the world go by, when lying in bed trying to sleep, or just when I was transported by a place or an event. I finally started to put the stories on paper while I sat through several endless nights when my young daughter was ill. The result was several handwritten manuscripts, hard labour over a typewriter and eventually a single romance novel accepted and published back in 1990. Then I gave up, too much family life and a business to run. Finally both children have left home and I am less busy, and now the revolution has happened. Computers. The internet. Self-publishing. I felt able to inflict my creations on the world once again. I write both historical and contemporary romance, although I personally prefer the historical; I enjoy the research. The stories are not erotica, but they are (as one of my lovely reviewers said) a little bit naughty. I don’t leave at the bedroom door. My stories are plot driven, they might get it on, but sex is part of the characters’ lives, not the main purpose. I like a bit of adventure, excitement and danger. My characters have been involved on the Oregon trail, in Indian raids in the west, and in the Crimean war. They have been variously stranded in snow storms, caught in tornadoes and kidnapped by ruffians (one of the young ladies, that is, the heroes are too tough). One thing they always get is their happy ending. I don’t like a book without a happy ending, so I really cannot write one.