I could say I never guessed that readers would love Anthony and Letty together as much as they do.
But that might sound stupid, since from the beginning, the first four books of the Lords and Undefeated Ladies were planned as a set, beginning with Letty’s love story and ending with Anthony’s. And if I love Anthony and Letty – and I do – why wouldn’t my readers?
Obviously, sticking with people as their stories progress is a theme in my books. Cass Cullen for instance, the mysterious inventor who built Michael’s assistive devices, was mentioned in book 1, had her own book in book 2, and had a maid who turned into a duchess in book 3; many of my characters have arcs like that. Clearly, I plan ahead, and Anthony was always going to have a book of his own. (And how restrained I have been, not pointing that out to people until it was his turn!)
Anthony has been making serious moves, from nearly homeless and desperately poor when Not Like a Lady began to the reputed brother of a baronet’s wife living in London and befriending that duchess in What a Duchess Does.
I did expect that readers might not know what was in store when Mr. Castle accompanied Anthony to help Cass (or Oliver – or both) in The Countess Invention. But I knew. And hopefully my readers, who are loving What a Duchess Does, will be interested to learn much more about the cheerful and obliging Mr. Castle.
So maybe it’s that I’m surprised about how much my readers want more of Anthony and Letty, and love their relationship the way I do: not a romance, but a kind of best friends forever that really is family.
I’m so tickled that so many of my readers dashed off to pick up their free gift of the novella The Winter’s Night Princess, about Anthony and Letty’s childhood together, after I announced it in my newsletter last week. (Feel free to sign up and get these kinds of insider bonuses yourself!) I, of course, desperately love both Letty and Anthony, but I’m so glad you like them too!
So glad that I thought I’d share a little scene from Anthony’s own upcoming book. It’s his love story, but what propels him, as always, is helping someone else; in this case (as is first and foremost), Letty.
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Scene from The Crown of Hearts, available for preorder now, coming 2021.
As usual, Anthony found Letty in the basement kitchen of the Grantleys’ townhouse. This time, he frowned.
“Who helped you down the stairs?”
Letty just flopped the bread dough in her hands down on to the table, hard, sending up puffs of flour. “There are railings.”
“You are incredibly large.”
“Oh Anthony, don’t.”
And she burst into tears.
Time and Letty’s impending child had inoculated Anthony a little to Letty’s tears, through sheer repetition and exposure.
He pushed a chair closer to her. “Sit.”
The little woman dabbed at the corner of her eyes with the edge of her apron. She left dustings of flour across her cheek and into the wisps of pale blonde, curly hair that escaped her hairpins.
Anthony pulled a second chair closer, so he could sit with his shoulder next to hers, as they had done when they were younger.
Her head tipped over on to his shoulder.
Anthony said as gently as he could, “Princess, I know Sir Michael didn’t help you down those stairs.” Her husband, who had lost a leg in the wars, used a rolling cart to get around; he needed crutches to maneuver on the stairs.
“He can do it.”
“But he didn’t, did he?”
“I’m so tired all the time, Anthony, I couldn’t get up as I used to do to make the bread on time, and there was no bread for breakfast, and I’m so tired.”
“Of course you are, princess. You are having a baby.” Anthony regarded the round distended shape of her belly, very visible beneath her blue gown. “Possibly any minute.”
“It is not any minute. The midwife said weeks.”
Anthony put faith in the midwife because their friend Dr. Burke put faith in the midwife. She was the best he could recommend, the physician had said, for safe childbirth.
He did not, however, put faith in her time estimations.
Or perhaps he simply wasn’t used to seeing Letty look like a freckled pumpkin.
She sighed. “Remember when we were little and we used to sit this way?”
“Yes.” He did. Often, they’d been cold, and they’d both sat wrapped in their one quilt. On chairs because the floor had been colder.
Her father had left them alone in a house from which he had sold nearly everything, and they had survived on crusts. Together. The master’s daughter, and the house’s last servant. “It seems very long ago, and just yesterday too.”
“Anthony. If this baby never gets to meet me, what will I be leaving her?”
Anthony put his arm around her shoulders. “You will be leaving her with a dashing, shouting father who adores her, all the staff at Roseford to wait on her hand and foot, and me. She will always have me.” He squeezed. “But she will get to meet you, princess. And you will meet her.”
Letty didn’t seem to hear the last part. “What about your life, Anthony? What if you marry and have children? Where will you be?”
He wasn’t going to marry and have children.
He’d met his darling, daring Letty as a child, and most of her education had come from him, and he’d never shared that he was not going to marry and have children.
It was odd, he mused, that they knew so much about each other but he’d never shared this.
Even as it had been at the core of his reason for leaving home.
“Letty, I am always going to be right where you need me.”
“But I want you to be happy too. I’m so happy.” And Letty burst into tears again.
“I see that.”
She elbowed him, hard, and mopped at the corners of her eyes again. It was amazing, Anthony thought, that her eyeballs were not simply coated with flour.
“Are you going to look for news of my mother? Can you go?”
Anthony took a breath, clenching himself tight so that she would not see that the breath was shaky. “Princess, if I go to find out what happened to your mother, how will that benefit you? If she abandoned you, you will be no happier knowing that. And if she is gone –”
“If she’s dead, I’d like to know,” Letty said in that firm, no-nonsense way she had.
“If you’re sure.” She seemed so strong, but her childhood had just been a few minutes ago, Anthony was sure of it.
“I am so very sure. Anthony, you will go, won’t you? You are running out of time to go and come back.”
“I know. I know.” He squeezed her shoulders again. “Tomorrow. The next day at the latest, perhaps.”
“Yes.” She sighed with relief, her head falling against his shoulder again. “Please. And then come back.”
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