Читать книгу The Rake to Redeem Her - Julia Justiss - Страница 5

Sometimes a minor character grabs your imagination and won’t let go, intriguing you so much that you know you will have to uncover the rest of her story. Such was the case with the mysterious Madame Lefevre, the woman who lured Max Ransleigh into friendship at the Congress of Vienna in order to set up an assassination attempt on Lord Wellington in the first book of The Ransleigh Rogues mini-series, THE RAKE TO RUIN HER.

Where had she come from? What drove her to participate in the plot? What happened to her afterwards? As I explored the answers to those questions I discovered a unique and intriguing woman—a French emigrée whose family was destroyed by the Revolution, a survivor dragged along by the turbulent historical forces that catapulted France in one generation from monarchy to republic to empire and back. Taught by remorseless circumstance to depend only on herself, Elodie trusts no one and expects nothing.

Who could I pair with such a resourceful and determined heroine? Though I’d originally intended a different story for him, only one man could match her: Will Ransleigh, Max’s illegitimate cousin. Cast into the London slums on the death of his mother, a clergyman’s daughter seduced and abandoned by Max’s uncle, Will survived by his wits on the streets for six years before Max’s father plucked him from Seven Dials and sent him to his country estate, instructing Max and his cousins to make a proper Ransleigh out of this gutter rat.

I hope you will enjoy Will and Elodie’s story.

I love to hear from readers! Find me at my website,

www.juliajustiss.com, for excerpts, updates

and background bits about my books,

on Facebook at www.facebook.com/juliajustiss

and on Twitter @juliajustiss