Claire Hadleigh

PROLOGUE Paris, November, 1816 Standing in the drawing room of Lady Felicity Drummond’s Paris apartments, Chandler Rhys felt a wave of dizziness swirl through his aching head, the result of having been dragged around the city by one of the more affluent diplomats attached to the British Consulate. Celebrating the end of his two-week lecture series at the Sorbonne, Rhys, Lord Ardsley and others he couldn’t even remember had downed champagne, twenty-year old scotch and vintage brandy. But not necessarily in that order. And how many bottles?   He’d lost count after an even dozen. Now he was seeing two of everything and felt incredibly hot.   He twitched at his cravat and hoped he could escape to his hotel before Felicity spotted him. It was bad enough that her very presence – there was so much of that delectable ‘presence’ -- rattled him badly.   After three months of slogging across the mountains of Norway in search of rare alpine plants for the Royal Hortic

In "Captive for Christmas" (just released last week; see Books above), I wrote a brief scene between Felicity Drummond and Chandler Rhys in which she shows him a one-hundred year old scrapbook that her grandmothers and mother kept of the orphans who came to live at the family estate over the years. This is based on true fact, and that is what I love about historical fiction -- using facts and events to create a world more rich for the reader.   archives, Foundling Hospital Museum sample fragment left with a female child The Founding Hospital was founded by Thomas Coram who wanted to give abandoned children a decent life. The hospital opened its doors in 1741, and children were accepted anonymously so women were not publicly shamed into abandoning their babies elsewhere.  The mothers were encouraged to leave a small token, which was then added to the admission books with the details of the child. The tokens include ribbons, fabric scraps and baby clothes. Th

Felicity Drummond had fallen in love with Chandler Rhys the moment she'd laid eyes on him the previous summer in Brighton. But that didn't mean she'd make a fool of herself, especially after he'd ridden off on another expedition, leaving her with just a kiss, a note and a bouquet of wildflowers. Chandler Rhys suspected that his feelings for the beautiful widow went deeper than just a passing fancy. But she was so intimidating with her sensuous beauty and wealth, often leaving him to feel like a fool. What man would succumb to that? But life has a way of turning things on its head, and a freak accident leaves the two reluctant lovers captive for the Christmas holidays, surrounded by crazy relatives, a passel of waifs and strays, not to mention two voracious wolfhounds! click here to order Captive for Christmas (a Regency novella ebook) Cheers!