This week, we're welcoming author Susanna Fraser, whose latest novel A DREAM DEFIANT is set in Spain's early 19th century during the period of the Napoleonic Wars. Join us on Sunday, when the author will offer a free copy of A DREAM DEFIANT to a lucky blog visitor. Here's the blurb:
Spain, 1813
Elijah
Cameron, the son of runaway slaves, has spent his whole life in the British
army proving that a black man can be as good a soldier as a white man. After a
victory over the French, Elijah promises one of his dying men that he will
deliver a scavenged ruby necklace to his wife, Rose, a woman Elijah has admired
for years.
Elijah
feels bound to protect her and knows a widow with a fortune in jewels will be a
target. Rose dreams of using the necklace to return to England, but after a
violent attack, she realizes that she needs Elijah's help to make the journey
safely.
Her
appreciation for Elijah's strength and integrity soon turns into love, but he
doubts she could want a life with him, knowing the challenges they'd face. As
their relationship grows, she must convince Elijah that she wants him as more
than a bodyguard. And she must prove that their love can overcome all
obstacles, no matter the color of their skin.
**An Excerpt from A Dream Defiant**
In this excerpt, Elijah
Cameron, A Dream Defiant’s hero, has just witnessed his friend Sam Merrifield
take a mortal wound in a squabble over plunder in the aftermath of the Battle
of Vittoria in Spain in 1813. When Wellington’s Anglo-Portuguese-Spanish force
defeated the French, the French abandoned their baggage train as they fled the
field. Since the baggage train in question was unusually rich, containing among
other things Joseph Bonaparte’s royal treasures, Wellington’s soldiers, being
only human, abandoned their pursuit of their enemies to get in some good looting.
Elijah
turned to Merrifield, who sat bent double in the open carriage, gasping for
breath and clutching at his wound. Blood pulsed out from beneath his fingers,
his face had gone dead white under his sunburn, and his breathing sounded
strained and wet. Elijah reckoned he couldn’t last long. All for the sake of a
little gold and some shiny stones.
“The
necklace,” Merrifield gasped. “Pick it up!”
It
wouldn’t do him any good once he was dead, but Elijah did as he asked. Even
caked with dirt from the road, the thing shone, enormous stones red as fresh
blood, linked in a chain of bright gold.
“They’re
for Rose. Give them to her.” Merrifield’s breath was growing more strained, and
he labored for the words.
What
use would a queen’s ransom in jewels be to a soldier’s wife? Elijah supposed he
shouldn’t think ill of the dying, but for all Merrifield’s goodness, he’d never
had a steady or practical moment in his short life.
“Knew
they were for her,” Merrifield continued. “Red for Rose. So pretty…coins I’d
spend…but this…” He swayed, turning yet paler, then leaned forward with
surprising strength and grabbed Elijah’s hand, the one holding the necklace.
“Give these to her, from me, tonight. She can…be what she wants, now.”
He
nodded assent. For Rose Merrifield’s sake, he would’ve agreed to far more
onerous tasks. But before he could speak, Merrifield’s grip slackened, his eyes
rolled back, and he collapsed into the carriage.
Elijah
shut his eyes for a moment. To lose a man like this, a soldier he’d trained
from a raw recruit, with the battle over… He bent over Merrifield’s body—the
breath and pulse were gone—and laid a hand in benediction on his friend’s
forehead. “I am the resurrection and the
life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall
he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die,” he
murmured. He remembered, but left unspoken, what followed in the burial
service: We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry
nothing out. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name
of the Lord.
“He’s dead?”
Elijah started and turned around. He tried to hide
the necklace, crumpling it in his hand, but it was too big to wholly conceal.
It was Adam Lewis, another private from his
company, staggering under the weight of his own overloaded packs and gaping at
the gory scene.
“Yes,” Elijah said shortly. “A Frog stabbed him.”
“Over that?” Lewis nodded toward the necklace.
“That’s very fine.”
“I promised to give it to Rose.” Of all the people
he would rather not know about the thing, Lewis came near the top of the
list, but it couldn’t be helped now. Elijah quickly glanced about to make sure
no one else was looking, then reached inside his open uniform coat as if to
scratch, tucking the necklace away. It made an uncomfortable lump pressed between
his shirt and trousers, but the coat concealed it. He’d find a better hiding
place for it later. “Don’t tell anyone.”
“Why
not? You are going to give it to her,
aren’t you?”
“Of
course I am. I keep my word. But if everyone knows about it, it won’t do her
any good, don’t you see? There’s men who’ll try to steal it from her, or else
force her into marriage so they can claim it for themselves. It must be a
secret. Don’t you understand?” he asked, for Lewis was staring at him with a
vacant expression.
“I
reckon I do…”
“Promise
you’ll keep it secret then, for Rose’s sake. You like her, I know you do. You
wouldn’t want this thing to be a curse to her instead of a blessing, would
you?”
“No…”
He
hoped Lewis was finally beginning to think.
Elijah would have to warn Rose that Lewis knew, so she’d know better than to
say yes if he attempted to court her. She deserved a better man, one as good
and clever as she was, who’d value her for more than a handful of gold and
sparkling stones. “Swear it, then.”
Lewis
blinked. “Very well. I swear to God I won’t tell anyone.”
“Good.”
Elijah hoped it was enough, and that Lewis would remember even after he got
drunk tonight. If Sam Merrifield had given his life trying to win a treasure
for his Rose, the least Elijah could do was guard it well and pass it to her in
secret. The new widow would have half the company buzzing around her for the
sake of her beauty and her cooking already. He didn’t like to think what sort
of courtship she’d endure if everyone in the regiment knew her husband had, in
an odd sense, left her a fortune.
Five
more soldiers from their company drew near and gaped at Sam’s body.
“Poor
Sam,” Roberts said.
Pritchard,
ever morbid, leaned around Elijah’s side for a better view. “Poor Rose.”
“Wonder
who she’ll marry next?”
That
was Yonge, who had hopes of being the happy bridegroom himself if Elijah didn’t
miss his guess. Surely she wouldn’t pick him, though. She deserved so much
better. But what if she’d never seen Yonge’s cruel streak?
“Show a little decency,” Elijah ground out.
“Can’t you wait till her first husband is cold before you speculate on her
second?”
“But
she’ll have to marry someone, and soon,” Pritchard said.
“I was born and brought up in this regiment. I know the rules,” Elijah said.
Soldier’s widows generally did marry again within days, especially when the
regiment was on campaign. They needed one
man’s protection to save them from falling prey to the many.
Learn
more about author Susanna Fraser:
Website:
http://www.susannafraser.com/
Twitter:
@susannafraser
