IN THE ARMS OF HER ANGEL
A Seekers of the Past novel
by Amy Valentini
COMING SOON!
Expected release date is
planned for December 26, 2018!
Continue the Journey to
Where the Past Meets the Present
and Love Lives Forever.
Emma begins to wonder if
there something is special—something magical—about the journal written by her
doppelganger from the past. She hopes to convince Sam it’s really happening. As
she begins reading again, she finds herself traveling with Daniel Embry and
Ginny Blackwood.
When Daniel encounters a
thief sneaking into his room in the middle of the night, he discovers he is actually a beautiful young woman in need of his
assistance to save her father.
Haunted by her past,
Ginny holds clues to a missing treasure in the form of a riddle—a riddle she is
unable to decipher. The solution lies in the secrets she holds locked in her memories,
but will she ever trust Daniel enough to reveal them? Danger follows them from
Charleston to New Orleans. Will the answers they find lead them to what they
need or be their end? And while both protect their hearts from love, will they
surrender to the desire they crave in each other’s arms?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Excerpt:
Daniel watched her squirm as she kept her eyes
averted from his. When he motioned Ginny to sit, she shook her head slightly
and only moved to stand behind her chair. Her hands gripped the chair back and he
saw her knuckles whiten for a brief moment. It was as clear to him now as it
was to Finn—she had not told him everything.
“I am willing to help you in any way I can,
Ginny,” he remarked as he returned to his seat. He picked at the meat on his
plate and noted the barely touched meal Finn had left behind. “Tell me about
your father. If you do not, I shall simply listen to Finn’s side and something
tells me his rendition will not be very favorable.”
He watched as Ginny gripped the chair again and
rocked back on her heels. Abruptly, she moved away from the chair and began to
pace the room. She folded her arms around her middle as if she were cold or
warding off his questions.
“My father is in the business of finding goods others
need,” she began in a low voice as she moved back and forth. When Ginny stopped
abruptly, turning her head slightly toward him, her face was half-hidden in shadow.
She kept her eyes lowered, which caused the shadow of her long lashes to fan
out over her cheeks. “In truth…he is a black marketer who sometimes does
business with men who can be very dangerous.”
“Like Pierre Laffite,” he suggested continuing
to watch her tense yet supple body. Her new clothing fit her far better than
the ones she wore at their first meeting and left very little to his
imagination as to the true nature of her curves.
“Yes, like Laffite. I believed him when he declared
he no longer did business with men like that after splitting with Jacob—” Ginny
cleared her throat. “Jacob Shaw.”
Daniel noted the way her hands gripped the chair
again after she moved to lean on it again. He was not sure, but he might have
heard the wood creak against the force. Her voice had clutched and wavered when
she spoke that name—Jacob Shaw—even as her knuckles whitened and her nails dug
into the upholstered leather on the chair.
“So when he told me he had refused Laffite’s
offer, I was very proud of him. Only, then he disappeared after meeting with a
real customer. At least I believed it was a real customer because it was what
he had told me before he left. I have no idea about anything anymore.” Ginny
paused and drew the fingers of her right hand along the smooth creamy skin of
her neck to finger the ribbon on which he knew held the charm—a simple charm, which
had started his adventure involving this irresistible beauty.
“As I told you, my father must have got caught
up in his business so now I need to return home alone,” Ginny said lowering her
eyes avoiding his gaze.
“I thought you told me he requested you stay
until he returned to the city. Why then are you going home? He may be
journeying back to Charleston even now.” He had a bad feeling about the change
in her tale.
“I want to go home. He left me with no money. I
was on the streets and alone,” her voice rose in pitch, and she squeezed the
back of the chair once more.
“Darlin’, I cannot assist you if you do not tell
me the truth. If your father left the city and wished you to remain until his
return, why then did he not secure the room for you until he could collect you?”
he asked watching her reaction closely, for he was sure he had caught her in a
lie.
Those who practiced to deceive always had
trouble keeping their story straight when pressed for details. Her eyes flashed
at him, a moment of panic causing her pupils to constrict before she lowered
her lashes over them. There it was—proof of the lie.
“I do not know what has happened to my father. I
do not know where he is or why he has yet to return. I can only believe someone
is holding him against his will.”
Daniel listened quietly as she spoke. He somehow
knew she spoke the truth now as she told him about the message left at the inn,
about why she had not any funds to keep her in the city, and how the riddle might
hold the key to gaining her father’s freedom.
“Tis strangely more comforting to know he has
not returned to me because his life is in danger rather than to think he has
abandoned me for good,” she said wiping her across her eyes with the backs of
her hands.
Daniel stood, his chair creaking under the
release of his large frame. Her eyes lifted at the sound and beneath those smoke
tinted fringes, pools of azure glistened in the flickering light of the lantern
hanging from the ship’s rafters. His heart pained him seeing the tears which
filled her eyes. What kind of father would leave a young daughter alone in a
strange city with no one to protect her? Even if he was unable to return, why
had he not ensured she was safe and paid ahead for the room?
Ginny stepped away from the chair as he
approached her. Her eyes widened and he saw a tremble rush over her. She
responded much as child would who was frightened by the idea of a physical
reprimand. Slowly, he raised a hand as he would if he were to soothe a
frightened foal. Upon reaching her, he stopped in front of her and allowed his
hand to rest gently alongside her upper arm. She trembled under his touch so he
gently stroked her arm as he reached out to pull her forward with his free
hand. He knew Ginny wanted to resist his offer of comfort for she was tense and
stiff as he pulled her against him. Yet when he shifted his hand from her arm
to the back of her head where his fingers slid through silky golden curls, she
stepped into his embrace. He pressed her cheek against his chest and she dipped
her head like a child. Her hands came up to press lightly against his sides
while her cheek rested warm against him. Like a hurt child, Ginny trembled
against him and when he heard a sniffle, he knew she must be crying.
Touching his fingertips to her chin, he forced
her face upward. There, he saw several tears slide down her cheek. With the pad
of his thumb, he wiped them away. Ginny’s eyes were large and round, her lashes
spiked with moisture and her lower lip quivered slightly before she caught it between
her small straight teeth. An uncontrolled tightening in his groin caused his
breath to hitch in his throat as he gazed down into her angelic face. Something
about this mysterious girl made him want to take care of her, but then he also
wanted to sweep her into his arms, carry her to his bed, and ravish her sweet
body until she begged for more. Neither of which he believed she would allow
him to do right now—if ever.
As if to prove his point without him making it,
Ginny pulled away, cleared her throat, and wiped her cheek. “I have more work
to do in the galley,” she croaked, clearing her throat once more. “If you are
finished with your supper, I shall remove those now,” she commented as she made
a move toward the food dishes.
He grabbed her arm, staying her. “Ginny, if you
wish to talk, I am here to listen,” he told her in a low voice not much louder
than a whisper.
“As for those,” he said in normal voice as he
nodded his head in the direction of the plates of food. “I imagine Finn will be
back to give me his sage advice, and perhaps I will eat more as well.”
Ginny nodded. She looked down at her arm where
his hand rested. Now aware he was still holding her in place, Daniel released
her. She quickly turned and walked to the door. His eyes followed her sweet
bottom outlined so seductively in her boy’s britches. He grinned and nearly
laughed while wondering if she had any idea what a delicious temptation she
presented. He doubted the sway of her luscious hips was anything other than
natural.
With her hand on the door handle, Ginny turned
to look at him so he quickly wiped the smile from his face and coughed to cover
his embarrassment at nearly being caught appreciating her irresistible curves.
“Thank you, sir.”
“You are most welcome, Miss Blackwood,” he replied
with a pleased smile. When he noticed a small smile light at the corner of her
cherub mouth, he winked. “I am a very
good listener, poppet.”
With a quick nod, Ginny disappeared through the
door leaving him wishing he could have somehow convinced her to stay. He stood
staring at the open door for long enough that when a thump from above drew his
attention, he realized several minutes had passed but she had not returned,
even as he had wished her to do so.
Running his hands through his hair, Daniel
yanked the leather string, which he used to tie back his queue, from his hair.
Wrapping it around his fingers, he moved to his seat behind the desk and
dropped his large frame into the creaky chair. Twirling and curling the leather
piece, he thought about the strange girl who had literally fallen into his life,
and who continuously seemed to find her way into his arms as well. It had been
four years since any woman had captured his attention the way Ginny Blackwood
had from the first moment he grabbed hold of her as she hurried past carrying
Pete’s coin purse. She was wild, sharp-witted, quick to speak yet full of
secrets, and more endearing than any woman he had ever met including Christina Overton,
the woman to whom he had planned to vow his life before she betrayed him, and then
died.
Daniel opened a drawer in the desk, removed a
small box, and opened it. Inside the box lay the small piece of paper he had
removed from the gold charm Ginny once more was wearing around her neck. He
unrolled the tender paper and pressed it flat with his fingers. The strange
little rhyme was a riddle to him, but surely it must have meant something to her
when she read it. She claimed not to have figured it out but needed it to save
her father. If her father had written it then it surely it must mean something
to him and by connection, her. Staring down at the words written in smeared
ink, he quietly read the rhyme.
Beneath the shadows of
the moon,
Where my angel no longer
resides,
A great worth awaits a
happy tune.
He scrubbed at the growing stubble on his chin
with the palm of his hand. He repeated the words louder this time as if hearing
them aloud in the quiet room might give him an answer. The second line, where my angel no longer resides, could
easily lead anyone to think her father possibly meant her home on Saint Kitts. But
then again, perhaps Evan Blackwood meant it to mislead.
He chuckled thinking how his sister, Angeline,
would love to get her hands on this and solve the riddle. Folding the paper, he
suddenly wished he had his sister’s patience and talent for solving puzzles so
he could unravel the mystery of Ginny Blackwood, and her missing father.
—In the
Arms of Her Angel, book 3 in the Seekers of the Past series by Amy Valentini
Happy Reading Everyone!
