{"id":4416,"date":"2010-08-26T00:00:33","date_gmt":"2010-08-26T04:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theseasonforromance.com\/wordpress\/?p=4416"},"modified":"2010-08-26T00:00:33","modified_gmt":"2010-08-26T04:00:33","slug":"excerpt-thursday-hook-me-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/26\/excerpt-thursday-hook-me-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Excerpt Thursday ~ Hook Me!"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE SERGEANT’S LADY <\/strong>ended up being a September Top Pick<\/strong><\/em> long after Susanna received this day to have her excerpt posted. Do after you finish reading the excerpt, you may also want to check out Danielle’s review<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Click to purchase<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Highborn Anna Arrington has been “following the drum,” obeying the wishes of her cold, controlling cavalry officer husband. When he dies, all she wants is to leave life with Wellington’s army in Spain behind her and go home to her family’s castle in Scotland.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sergeant Will Atkins ran away from home to join the army in a fit of boyish enthusiasm. He is a natural born soldier, popular with officers and men alike, uncommonly brave and chivalrous, and educated and well-read despite his common birth.<\/em><\/p>\n

As Anna journeys home with a convoy of wounded soldiers, she forms an unlikely friendship with Will. When the convoy is ambushed and their fellow soldiers captured, they become fugitives\u2014together. The attraction between them is strong\u2014but even if they can escape the threat of death at the hands of the French, is love strong enough to bridge the gap between a viscount’s daughter and an innkeeper’s son?
\n<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~*~*~<\/span><\/p>\n

THE SERGEANT’S LADY <\/strong><\/span>~ Susanna Fraser<\/a>
\nRelease Date:<\/strong> August 23\u00a0 – Carina Press<\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

In this scene from early in The Sergeant\u2019s Lady, the hero, Will Atkins, and the heroine, Anna Arrington, have just begun to get to know each other and are seated in the shadows just beyond the light of an army campfire where Will\u2019s fellow soldiers are singing and telling stories.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fiddle and flute took up a new tune, Scottish, fast and infectious. It reminded Anna of her girlhood at Dunmalcolm, of being sixteen and dancing to the skirling music of bagpipes with her cousins and the neighbors\u2019 sons in the castle ballroom. Her toes tapped of their own accord, and she saw that Sergeant Atkins\u2019s did the same.<\/p>\n

Impulsively she sprang to her feet and extended her hands. \u201cDance with me, Sergeant,\u201d she ordered.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, ma\u2019am. That wouldn\u2019t be fitting.\u201d<\/p>\n

She beckoned again. \u201cNo one can see us here. Pretend we\u2019re at your squire\u2019s harvest dance, if you like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut to a song like this, with a lady such as yourself? Not fitting at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with this song? I\u2019ve never heard one more made for dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the faint moonlight, she could just see his raised eyebrows. \u201cYou haven\u2019t heard the words.\u201d<\/p>\n

She tossed her head. \u201cI don\u2019t care<\/em> what the words are. I must<\/em> dance.\u201d Where was the harm? No one but the two of them would ever know. Anna longed for even a brief release from the tense propriety that had ruled her marriage and reigned over her still in widowhood. \u201cPlease, Sergeant Atkins,\u201d she implored.<\/p>\n

He shook his head again, but rose and took her by the hand. His grip was warm and strong. \u201cDon\u2019t say I didn\u2019t warn you.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Sebastian she\u2019d learned to separate her body from her mind and heart\u2014to touch and be touched without feeling anything. So the jolt of warmth that shot down her spine at the sergeant\u2019s touch stunned her. Perhaps this was<\/em> unwise.<\/p>\n

No. It felt too wonderful. She wanted to laugh with pure joy. It was only a dance. How dangerous could it be?<\/p>\n

At a ball they would have joined a line or square with other couples, barely touched and followed a prescribed set of steps. Outside that framework Anna hardly knew how to follow through on her own mad scheme. Fortunately, once persuaded, her partner took the lead. He caught her about the waist with one hand, clasped her hand with the other and whirled her into a series of quick steps.<\/p>\n

The soldiers by the fire began to sing\u2014something about a trooper lad arriving in town weary with riding on a moonlit night. Oh, this was more like it! Her sergeant was a grand dancer. Even in the dark, on unfamiliar ground, dancing in a close hold, she trusted his surefooted guidance.<\/p>\n

The singers reached the chorus. Bonny lassie, I\u2019ll lie near you, hey bonny lassie, I\u2019ll lie near you.<\/em> Anna flushed, but she had expected a bawdy song from Sergeant Atkins\u2019s warnings.<\/p>\n

The next verses told how the lassie took the horse to the stable and the trooper to her table and fed them each their dinners. Anna looked up. In the moonlight she could see a twinkle in her partner\u2019s eyes, and he grinned at her. Despite his initial reluctance, he was enjoying this too. She let the music carry her along, feeling as if she were flying. Every time he pressed his fingers against her waist to guide her she shivered. She felt the sergeant\u2019s stripes sewn onto the sleeve of his rough wool jacket and beneath it the strong, lean muscles of his arm.<\/p>\n

She went upstairs to make the bed,<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

And she made it soft and easy.<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

She\u2019s pulled her petticoats o\u2019er her head,<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

Crying, soldier, are you ready?<\/em><\/p>\n

Anna gasped.<\/p>\n

Sergeant Atkins laughed. \u201cTold you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou did,\u201d she admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gets worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

How was that possible? This was scandalous\u2014but she had all but forced it upon him. She could not in justice complain.<\/p>\n\n

\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE SERGEANT’S LADY ended up being a September Top Pick long after Susanna received this day to have her excerpt posted. 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