In the Arms of the Marquess

posted by Nancy
Katherine Ashe's latest debut, Swept Away by a Kiss, was a Romantic Times Top Pick and a nominee for Best First Historical Romance in the Reviewers Choice Best Book Awards. In the Arms of A Marquess, her latest release, received 4.5 stars from Romantic Times along with a K.I.S.S. award for its hero, Lord Ben Dorée.

Welcome back, Katharine!

The description of In the Arms of a Marquess on your website implies Ben and Octavia, the hero and heroine, have a past. Please tell us about it.

Ben and Octavia do indeed have a past together — a past in which their young, passionate, and forbidden love ended in heartbreak. I can’t say much more without giving spoilers, but most assuredly neither of them forgot that love affair… or ever truly believed it was over.

What's the biggest obstacle for each of them when they're reunited?

Both of them play roles now that don’t suit their souls. Lord Ben Doreé, a marquess but also lord of an empire of sorts — a secret organization that spreads its net far beyond England — holds enormous responsibility over many people. His duties to this empire rule him, though all he wishes is to escape it in the company of the girl he once loved.

Miss Octavia Pierce is a naturally adventuresome lady with a frank, honest approach to society. But since her heartbreak years earlier she has learned to withhold her emotions and not to fully trust. The greatest obstacles they face in reuniting are their own wounded hearts. Their fierce desire for one another, not to mention villains plotting against them, makes healing those hearts a tumultuous matter indeed.

The book is partially set in India. Do you think more exotic settings are coming back to the romance genre?

The book takes place in England, although there are a few scenes — memories from the past — set in India where Ben and Octavia first met.

I don’t know about the romance genre as a whole embracing more unusual settings these days. Perhaps, and I hope! (I’m particularly excited about Anna Randol’s upcoming debut set in Constantinople.) But I certainly like to take advantage of Britain’s vast, rich and exciting empire in writing my books. I adore throwing my heroes and heroines into each other’s arms in London ballrooms as much as locking them in embraces aboard ship decks and beneath palm trees.

It’s such fun contrasting the rules and regulations of propriety in Regency society with the vital danger and adventure of the rest of the world that society depended upon for its wealth. And honestly, I just can’t get enough of a hero who is a highly cultured gentleman in one role and a man of action in his other role. The Scarlett Pimpernel will remain one of my favorite heroes of all time. I love heroes with secret identities, and the complexity and richness of the British Empire during this era just begs me to write them.

Did you have to do a lot of research?

I’ve been researching sea travel, piracy, smuggling and mercantile business in the Georgian through Victorian eras for over a decade. I’ve long adored the history of India in particular, especially under British rule. For this book I began with what I already knew as a starting point to develop the plot broadly, then I interviewed my university colleagues who are scholars of India and British India as to the best direction for my research, then after I researched and wrote the book I checked the details with them. I loved every bit of the reading I did for this story, and I’m very fortunate to have experts in the field amongst my family and friends.

Would you like to share an excerpt?

This is a bit of a scene that happens shortly after Ben and Octavia meet again in England after seven years apart.

Ben pushed to his feet in the gin-soaked pub. His clogged head spun.

Styles laid a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll take you to Hauterive’s. Why you came in here when the company there would welcome you, I haven’t the slightest.”

“No. I’m for home.” He started toward the door.

“You disappeared from Lady Ashford’s party so swiftly I hadn’t an idea of it until you were gone. If I’d have known you were heading here I would have dissuaded you.”

“Couldn’t have.” Ben pushed through the lollers at the tavern’s entry and headed toward the mews down the alley with bleary eyes but hound-like precision. If he hadn’t trekked this path hundreds of times in his university days, he would be lost now. Lost in London’s hells and lost in confounded memories, neither of which locations he particularly wished to be.

“Who was that girl you were dancing with, the one that looked like an Irish Athena, all sublime figure and eyes of soft steel?”

Ben blinked to shut out the image of Octavia’s body wrapped in the shimmering gown, her soft lips, pinkened cheeks, and the sensation of her trembling fingers within his. But behind his lids the image was even stronger, and his hand still felt hot where hers had lain.

“Good God, Walker,” he grunted, “you and Constance would make a perfect pair, both of you curious as a couple of magpies.”

“Lady Constance asked about the girl too? Is she jealous?”

“Only of your paramours.”

“Then the lady at Ashford’s is a paramour?”

Ben shook his head, his stomach rolling. “Not mine.” Not any longer.

He moved across the street in unsteady strides.

But why not? No one controlled his destiny now. His life was his own. Why not seduce a beautiful, deceitful woman, a woman whose flavor yet remained upon his tongue? Why not take pleasure where he wished?

Because he could not then and still could not believe in her deceit, although he had tried to convince himself of it again and again. To absolve himself of guilt.

He stumbled into the stable and pressed his face into his horse’s satiny neck. Taking to the bottle tonight had been a mistake. He needed clarity. A pitcher of icy water over his head would do it, just as her smile had earlier, so brief it seemed she didn’t even know she smiled, washing his vision clear for an instant as it always had…

An enticing peek, thanks!

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To learn more about Katharine and her work, check out her website or visit her at The Ballroom Blog.

Who are your favorite couple reunited after a painful past encounter? Who's your favorite unconventional heroine? What's your favorite setting for a romance?