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The Devil's Heart
Reckless tomboy when she defied her father, gentle lady when she cared for the weak or helpless, young Lady Agatha Grey had never felt the passion of a woman...but the masked abductor who made her his bride had no use for a child. He wooed her with tender kindness and fierce desire, and finally she learned to love.
As her father scoured the countryside to bring her back into his power, she began to catch glimpses of a terrifying new side to the mysterious man she had married. He was somehow involved in a ring of evil that not even the Queen's Dragoons could stop, and to destroy it would take all her courage, possibly cost her life...and certainly shatter her heart.
Here, set amid the aristocratic elegance of eighteenth-century England, is a novel of smoldering dark secrets, breathtaking adventure, and tender erotic love -- the second of Signet's new Scarlet Ribbons historical romances.
As her father scoured the countryside to bring her back into his power, she began to catch glimpses of a terrifying new side to the mysterious man she had married. He was somehow involved in a ring of evil that not even the Queen's Dragoons could stop, and to destroy it would take all her courage, possibly cost her life...and certainly shatter her heart.
Here, set amid the aristocratic elegance of eighteenth-century England, is a novel of smoldering dark secrets, breathtaking adventure, and tender erotic love -- the second of Signet's new Scarlet Ribbons historical romances.
349 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 1983
17 people want to read
About the author
Kathleen Maxwell
10 booksaka Les Simons, Kathryn Atwood, Anne Mayfield, Kathryn Ptacek, Kathryn Grant
Kathryn Anne Ptacek was born on 12 September 1952 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA, but was raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She received her B. A. in Journalism, with a minor in history, from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, where she was graduated with distinction in 1974. While attending the university, she was a student of award-winning mystery writer Tony Hillerman and well-known YA writer Lois Duncan. Afterward, she worked briefly for a political party best left unnamed, was a telephone solicitor for the New Mexico Assn. of Retarded People, and spent two years as an advertising lay-out artist for a regional grocery warehouse co-op, and then worked for the University of New Mexico first as a secretary in the Dept. of Speech and Hearing, then for the University's Computing Center as their only technical writer and editor.
After the sale of her first novel, an historical romance, in July 1979, she quit to become a full-time novelist. As Les Simons, Kathryn Atwood, Anne Mayfield, Kathleen Maxwell, Kathryn Ptacek, and Kathryn Grant, she has written an historical fantasy series, numerous historical romances, and five horror novels. Her dark fantasy have won the Silver Medal and Gold Medal awards given by the West Coast Review of Books. She has also edited three anthologies, the critically acclaimed Women of Darkness and its companion Women of Darkness II (both Tor), and Women of the West (Doubleday). Editions of her books have appeared in England, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Germany. Her short stories have appeared in Greystone Bay, Doom City (Greystone Bay II), Fantasy Tales, the Post Mortem anthology, Pulphouse 5, The Horror Show, Freak Show (HWA anthology), A Confederacy of Horrors, Into The Fog, The Ultimate Witch, and Phobias. She is a member of Horror Writers Association, Mystery Writers of America, the International Women Writers Guild, and the Police Writers Club. She also prepares a market report for Hellnotes, is the editor of the Horror Writers Association's monthly newsletter, and publishes a market newsletter, The Gila Queen's Guide to Markets, which goes to writers and artists around the world.
On 1982, she married to dark fantasy novelist Charles L. Grant, who died in 2006. She shares a 116-year-old Victorian clapboard house with five cats in Newton, New Jersey. Her hobbies include gardening, jewelry making, and various needlework. She also has a large collection of gila monster memorabilia, and collects unusual teapots and cat whiskers.
Kathryn Anne Ptacek was born on 12 September 1952 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA, but was raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She received her B. A. in Journalism, with a minor in history, from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, where she was graduated with distinction in 1974. While attending the university, she was a student of award-winning mystery writer Tony Hillerman and well-known YA writer Lois Duncan. Afterward, she worked briefly for a political party best left unnamed, was a telephone solicitor for the New Mexico Assn. of Retarded People, and spent two years as an advertising lay-out artist for a regional grocery warehouse co-op, and then worked for the University of New Mexico first as a secretary in the Dept. of Speech and Hearing, then for the University's Computing Center as their only technical writer and editor.
After the sale of her first novel, an historical romance, in July 1979, she quit to become a full-time novelist. As Les Simons, Kathryn Atwood, Anne Mayfield, Kathleen Maxwell, Kathryn Ptacek, and Kathryn Grant, she has written an historical fantasy series, numerous historical romances, and five horror novels. Her dark fantasy have won the Silver Medal and Gold Medal awards given by the West Coast Review of Books. She has also edited three anthologies, the critically acclaimed Women of Darkness and its companion Women of Darkness II (both Tor), and Women of the West (Doubleday). Editions of her books have appeared in England, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Germany. Her short stories have appeared in Greystone Bay, Doom City (Greystone Bay II), Fantasy Tales, the Post Mortem anthology, Pulphouse 5, The Horror Show, Freak Show (HWA anthology), A Confederacy of Horrors, Into The Fog, The Ultimate Witch, and Phobias. She is a member of Horror Writers Association, Mystery Writers of America, the International Women Writers Guild, and the Police Writers Club. She also prepares a market report for Hellnotes, is the editor of the Horror Writers Association's monthly newsletter, and publishes a market newsletter, The Gila Queen's Guide to Markets, which goes to writers and artists around the world.
On 1982, she married to dark fantasy novelist Charles L. Grant, who died in 2006. She shares a 116-year-old Victorian clapboard house with five cats in Newton, New Jersey. Her hobbies include gardening, jewelry making, and various needlework. She also has a large collection of gila monster memorabilia, and collects unusual teapots and cat whiskers.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 24, 2022
I had never heard of this book or the author before, but it sounded intriguing, so I checked it out. It's not a bad story, in fact it was pretty good, but I couldn't bring myself to give it another star, as all the secrecy wasn't really necessary and caused too much unnecessary suspicion, hurt, anger and mistrust.
Set in the early 18thc,the book starts off with Agatha Grey being forced into an engagement with the unscrupulous Lord Alford, by her cruel, uncaring widower father, who has never forgiven her for not being a son. An encounter in the garden with a masked stranger on the eve of her wedding makes her aware of how much she wants a marriage based on love and not the travesty hers will be. When she's kidnapped the next day on the way to the nuptials, she discovers her abductor to be the very masked man she was so drawn to, who when unmasked, turns out to be Viscount Richard Drummond, the scarred man of mystery who was one of the men invited by her father to celebrate her engagement. The next thing you know, she's the news Viscountess, a wife as well as a prisoner!
Her anger and desire to escape soon turns to passion and love, until she discovers some disturbing secrets, like the locked wing of the mansion, the the room with the young woman's portrait, her husband's unexplained absences, the ruined abbey that's become a meeting place for the infamous Hellfire Club. She determines to solve these mysteries, which results in all kinds of trouble.
Trouble that didn't have to happen if both Agatha and Richard had been less hesitant to admit their true feelings (they spent more time making love than in really talking to each other), if they had been willing to trust and give each other the benefit of the doubt, (though in Agatha's case you couldn't blame her too much, circumstances looked pretty dire for a while) they wouldn't have had to go through all that they did. Of course, it made for a good story, but still kept me from adding that extra star.
Set in the early 18thc,the book starts off with Agatha Grey being forced into an engagement with the unscrupulous Lord Alford, by her cruel, uncaring widower father, who has never forgiven her for not being a son. An encounter in the garden with a masked stranger on the eve of her wedding makes her aware of how much she wants a marriage based on love and not the travesty hers will be. When she's kidnapped the next day on the way to the nuptials, she discovers her abductor to be the very masked man she was so drawn to, who when unmasked, turns out to be Viscount Richard Drummond, the scarred man of mystery who was one of the men invited by her father to celebrate her engagement. The next thing you know, she's the news Viscountess, a wife as well as a prisoner!
Her anger and desire to escape soon turns to passion and love, until she discovers some disturbing secrets, like the locked wing of the mansion, the the room with the young woman's portrait, her husband's unexplained absences, the ruined abbey that's become a meeting place for the infamous Hellfire Club. She determines to solve these mysteries, which results in all kinds of trouble.
Trouble that didn't have to happen if both Agatha and Richard had been less hesitant to admit their true feelings (they spent more time making love than in really talking to each other), if they had been willing to trust and give each other the benefit of the doubt, (though in Agatha's case you couldn't blame her too much, circumstances looked pretty dire for a while) they wouldn't have had to go through all that they did. Of course, it made for a good story, but still kept me from adding that extra star.
Displaying 1 of 1 review