A Spicy Romance and Intrigue in "The Earl's Treasure" by Nancy Lee Badger
Please make welcome the lovely and talented Nancy Lee Badger to the Tavern! We're celebrating her new book release, The Earl's Treasure! The champagne is flowing, so grab a glass and let's hear what Nancy has to say...
Message from Nancy Lee Badger
This week is the official release of my long-awaited book The Earl’s Treasure. Long-awaited because it took me many years to write, edit, and re-edit through travels, sickness, work, and (surprise) a pandemic. I kept adding to the story until I felt it was just right. After all, writing a novel set in the Regency time period is new to me. That my hero is an English lord adds to the nuance of attempting to write a book as good as the historical novels I love to read.
This is my 30th romance and having it set partially in Scotland is due to my love of that country. I have volunteered at the New Hampshire Highlands Games for over 25 years with family, but only recently discovered I am partially of Scottish descent. (Thanks, Ancestry.com/DNA) Ever since I wrote a book called Dragon’s Curse, I found the urge to write other Scottish historical paranormal novels. This book is not a paranormal. Instead, it is a spicy romance based upon a mysterious treasure.
After Stone is wounded and thrust into an earldom, and Adele is widowed by an abusive husband, these star-crossed childhood friends meet at an English country ball, escape a kidnapper searching for a mysterious treasure, and depart for Scotland ahead of those intent on killing anyone in their way.
In the year since Adele Maxwell’s husband drowned while searching for treasure in far-off lands, leaving her with little but the dilapidated Maxwell estate, the Scottish baroness has kept her home barely running. While attending a ball for the first time in years, in a borrowed gown, her evening is ruined by a coarsely-dressed ruffian intent on forcing her to take him to a hidden treasure. That she has no idea what he wants makes no difference to him.
After returning from Waterloo for his brother’s funeral, Stone soon becomes the Earl of Larchmont upon the death of his father. Wounded in body and spirit, he despises crowds, balls, and his mother’s Scottish lineage, yet arrives at the country ball just to please his godmother. Saving Adele, a woman he kissed ten years earlier, catapults the couple into a wild and dangerous treasure hunt from the English countryside to a snow-covered Scottish castle.
Available from these online retailers:
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What’s Next?
I hope to write several other books that feature secondary characters from this book. I have recently released a tie-in novella titled Love, Hamish. (Find out how to get this book FREE on my blog sidebar HERE)
Sneak preview from The Earl's Treasure
“It’s up to me now,” Stone said to the horses. Their ears flicked back, as if listening. When Adele’s beauty shimmered in his head, the thought of making babies with her rose to a fever pitch, then fell just as fast. In order to beget the next earl he needed a nubile young innocent, not a barren, beautiful widow of twenty-six.
He sighed, then spied the peaked roofs of Gretna. Squeezing his fists until his knuckles hurt, he cursed. “Dear Lord! I am back in Scotland!”
Snow glistened on the thatched roofs, the village blacksmith’s hammer clanged, and the acrid scent of smoke made him cough. He steered the horses to an inn where they would stop for their comfort, then head to an area just north of town to eat the luncheon Sadie had packed for them. After he pulled on the reins to command the horses to stop he bounded to the ground, jarring his knees. Straightening, he rolled his aching shoulders. The one wounded in battle burned, as if the bullet remained deep in his flesh. A young lad appeared and gathered up the reins of their horses.
“Water them, but leave them hitched. We are not staying long.”
“Aye, my lord. Yer not getting’ hitched?” He chuckled at his own use of the slang word for being married over the anvil.
“No, lad.” He had tied his stallion to the back of the coach. “Don’t forget this one, lad, but be wary of his teeth.”
He opened the coach door and handed Adele down, with her eyes red-rimmed, and her steps unsteady. They entered the inn and she headed to the lady’s retiring room. The innkeeper recognized Stone which surprise him since he hadn’t been around since before he left for Eton.
“Sure as the day is half-past I recognize our Cora’s little lad,” the man said.
Stone pursed his lips, holding back the urge to tell the man what he could do with his statement. He never thought he looked anything like his Scottish mother, which seemed a blessing. Now, he wanted to have a drink, empty his bladder, and get back on the road.
“Yes, you have the right of it. Been ages since I visited Castle Bradan.”
“I’m sure ye had yer reasons, but the laird will love seeing ye.” The innkeeper poured whisky into a glass and set it in front of Stone.
Gingerly moving his foot, assured the gem rested between the leather and his wool stockings, he gulped the wee dram of aged Scottish whisky and awaited Adele. When she returned, he ordered her a tankard of spiced cider.
“Dear Lord!” the innkeeper said, “Is this little Adele Hartwell from the Glen House?”
“Aye, ’twas my name when a girl at da’s home. He passed away years ago, after I moved to Longtown.”
“Over yon border? Aye, I believe I heard telling of a baron winning yer hand.”
Stone marched away and took care of his personal needs while Adele stayed safe inside the inn with people she knew.
Let them reminisce about a life I no longer cherish.
Meet the Author
Nancy Lee Badger grew up in Huntington on New York’s Long Island. After attending Plymouth State, in New Hampshire, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree and met and married her college sweetheart. They raised two handsome sons in Rumney, New Hampshire while dreaming of being a writer. When the children had left the nest, and shoveling snow became a chore, she retired from her satisfying job as a 911 Emergency Medical Dispatcher and moved to North Carolina, where she writes full-time.
Nancy is a member of Romance Writers of America, Heart of Carolina Romance Writers, Fantasy-Futuristic & Paranormal Romance Writers, and the Triangle Association of Freelancers. She finds story ideas in the most unusual places.
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