Today is Bastille Day, a lovely opportunity to salute the French by having a nice glass of wine, a bit of cheese and a baguette. In honor of the day I'm posting a snippet from my WIP, Castaway Dreams. If you've read Sea Change (and if you haven't, get yourself to your favorite bookseller and buy it!), then you know who Alexander Murray is. He's the hero of Castaway Dreams, and the villain is a pirate named Robert St. Armand. St. Armand has designs on the heroine as this conversation between St. Armand and the mate illustrates. So why this snippet on Bastille Day? St. Armand may--or may not--be a Frenchman:
CASTAWAY DREAMS
“‘Daffy Daphne’ was the topic of choice in many a club and drawing room, for you seldom see looks like that combined with money.”
“A lot of money?”
“Oh yes, enough to keep a man happy for many, many years. And what impressionable young woman is not in love with the idea of a bold buccaneer? A voyage across the ocean is just the opportunity I need to sway Miss Farnham to my side instead of Mr. Murray’s.”
St. Armand braced his arms alongside his mirror, looked into the glass and sighed with satisfaction.
“I am so damned pretty, Mr. Fuller. It is no contest at all. The girls at Madame Cornelia’s fight to spend the night with me. The boys at Ganymede’s Cup swoon over my face and form. Miss Farnham is no different and I will soon have her bedazzled. It is inevitable. It is fate. Her money and I were meant to be together.”
He smiled, admiring the teeth that were as white and shiny as ever.
“He says he’s her husband.”
“Murray?” St. Armand looked over his shoulder at his unsmiling mate and snickered at the thought of his competition. If one could even call Mr. Murray competition. Which one would not, because the concept was so ridiculous.
“Then she’ll make a lovely widow in need of comforting, won’t she? A ship at sea is a dangerous place, Mr. Fuller. People slip overboard, are struck by flying tackle, fall down into the hold, even swallow poison by accident. Terribly unsafe. I predict that if Miss Farnham is in fact Mrs. Murray, it will not be an issue by the time we dock.”
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