For the next several weeks I’ll be sharing snippets from my upcoming Regency What a Widow Wants, Book 3 of The Widows’ Club series that will release on December 18.

At the beginning of the book, Lady Fanny Tarkington has emerged from her widow’s weeds to attend a masquerade ball dressed as the goddess Aphrodite. She’d spreading her wings, happy to be out in society again and free to flirt and frolic with gentlemen.  She meets two gentlemen dressed as Roman gods who ask her to dance. This snippet begins where the previous one ends.

(Creative punctuation utilized to conform to WWW rules and snippet may therefore be slightly different from published version.)

“I am Pollux, Aphrodite,” the gentleman holding her hand said, giving it a squeeze that sent sudden tingles all along her arm. “My brother is Castor”—the other man bowed—“though friend, rather than brother, in earnest.”

His rich baritone voice tugged at her memory, as did the deep blue eyes behind the mask; the warmth of his hand, however, addled her brain, turning it to mush. Grasping the obvious, she managed to ask, “How . . . how do you propose to both dance with me in a single set, unless one of you secures another partner?”

“An apt question, from an astute goddess; I have already captured such a lady for my dancing delight so we four shall make up a set.”

“Who is your partner?”

“That very pretty shepherdess over there in pink,” he said and pointed to a young girl in a modest costume, laughing with a group of other young ladies. Well, she’d not have much competition in keeping the twins’ attention.

“I should be delighted to make up your set, however”—she turned her attention back to Pollux—“the second set has not yet begun.” Fluttering her eyelashes up at the handsome man, she squeezed his hand and said, “How are we to pass the time until our dance?”

BLURB:

Widowed by the Battle of Waterloo, the ladies of Lyttlefield Park are returning to London society—with their futures in their own hands . . .
 
The widowed Lady Stephen Tarkington, Fanny to her friends, has finished mourning her cad of a husband and is ready to enjoy her freedom. The kind of freedom neither a gently bred miss nor a close-watched wife is permitted: dressing up as Aphrodite for a masquerade, drawing gentlemen away from the party, and hinting at late-night assignations with her dance partners. All is going pleasurably according to plan—until the Roman god Fanny kisses during a masquerade turns out to be Matthew, Lord Lathbury, whose proposal she refused years ago . . .

Lathbury is charming, passionate, inventive, everything Fanny wants in a lover—but unfortunately, he’s on the hunt for a wife. He’s more than willing to use all his wicked skills to persuade her back to the altar, but he can’t wait forever. And now Fanny’s position is more precarious than she once thought. If the tongues of the ton set to wagging, it’s possible no offer in the world will save her from ruin. But does she want to be saved? . .

The Widows’ Club series by Jenna Jaxon