Читать книгу Taken By The Highwayman - Amelia Casey - Страница 3

As soon as I saw Mills & Boon Historical’s “Undone” line announced, I knew that we would have a passionate relationship. Since I was a little girl I’ve loved to think about past times and far-off places, and my favorite books helped to provide visuals and memorable characters for my daydreams: brave, beautiful women and handsomely heroic men courted in castles and on battlements and by moonlight. What could be better than Mills & Boon’s “Undone,” set up to transport grown-up girls to distant lands on a sensual adventure?

I have studied English and history for many years, and my shelves are packed full of well-loved novels and esoteric reference tomes. Yet the first spark for Taken by the Highwayman came from art instead of literature. The lovely painting by Victorian artist William Powell Frith, “Claude Duval,” depicts a scene out of old British folklore—infamous highwayman Duval poised to ask a lady to dance after holding up her carriage, so struck was he by her beauty.

I have long been drawn to folklore, mythology and tales with an eclectic bent, favoring ghosts, pirates, fairies, and of course rogues, knaves, and desperately attractive villains. Outlaws allow us to go places we cannot go otherwise. Taken by the Highwayman is the story of what happens after dancing with a dangerous thief at night.

I was excited to write about a sexy highwayman, a legend that appeals to the Robin Hood in us all. My heroine, trapped in a loveless engagement, longs to declare her independence in a strict Victorian era where she is valued only for her marriageability and seeming innocence. Her meeting with a figure out of legend—a masked, accented, and mysterious robber—will lead her down a very different path.

I am thrilled to be joining the “Undone” community and hope that readers will enjoy their encounter with a gallant highwayman on the dark, fog-bound roads outside of London…