category: 
tag(s): 
Viscount Overboard
Author: Misty Urban
Series: Ladies Least Likely, #1
Published by: Oliver Heber Books
Publication date: December 5th 2023
Genres: Adult, Historical Romance, Romance
When the war-scarred Viscount Penrydd washes up in 1799 Newport minus his memory, Gwenllian ap Ewyas decides not to tell him he owns, and threatened to sell, the property she’s made a refuge for her and other lost souls.
Gwen found healing from her haunted past by making St. Sefin’s into a sanctuary for the hurt and abandoned, and she’ll do anything to preserve the place—including lie to the English lord who owns it until she can win him to her cause. But making Penrydd her stableboy is a dangerous game, especially when he’s a target for an outside menace moving into Newport. Even more unsettling for Gwen, under the scars and arrogance is a man she can admire and possibly love. But as shadows from both their pasts appear at St. Sefin’s, Gwen risks losing her livelihood, her home, and her heart when Penrydd learns just how far she’s gone to deceive him.
an excerpt
In which Gwen rescues a beaten Penrydd from the beach in Newport and tends him at the priory of St. Sefin’s, then waits for him to wake up.
Dovey brought Gwen’s dinner, steamed cockles and sauteed mallow leaves with laver sauce poured over all, and a large slice of bara brith, their native bread. She handed Gwen her knitting and they kept watch, talking as if it were any given evening and they sat before the fire in the chapter house with the rest of their community gathered. They discussed whether they could buy a side of beef from the butcher. If the Morgans would summer at Tredegar House this year, and host parties where they might invite Gwen to harp. Where next to apprentice Tomos, if anyone would take him, and what to do about Mathry, who wandered about blank-faced and prone to bursts of weeping.
All the while, the sun inched from the east windows to the west and the man on the bed breathed, a looming shadow, an ever-growing threat. Gwen was about to lose her mind and pounce on him, throttling him awake to demand he pronounce their sentence and end the suspense.
When it came, the hoarse whisper from the bed nearly made her shriek and drop her mending.
“Where the devil am I?”
Gwen melted into a puddle of relief. Not dead. She’d been fearing what she must say to Mr. Stanley, Mr. Barlow, that awful sly secretary, if Penrydd died. They’d have every reason to think she’d wanted it.
“This is St. Sefin’s,” Gwen croaked, and then held her breath. Perhaps if he looked about, saw the place through her eyes, his heart would soften toward them.
Dovey sat up and put her knitting aside. She held still as a mouse.
“Who are you?”
His voice was a low rasp. She passed him a wooden cup filled with water from their own well, clear and safe to drink. He tried to raise his right hand, groaned, and let it fall.
“God’s teeth. Every part of me hurts. What happened?”
Her fingertips tingled as she touched him. Odd. She slid her hand behind his neck and urged his head forward, bringing the cup to his lips. He drank, coughed, and without thinking she dabbed the corner of his mouth with her sleeve. The man was weak as a newborn lamb, yet she still felt a thrill of terror course through her.
She presumed it was terror, at least. Any moment now, he’d recognize her.
His eyes were a reddish brown, like hazelnuts. The outer corners slanted upward, giving him a faintly devilish look. His nose was straight, very aristocratic, and his lower lip was full and almost womanly. What obliterated any impression of softness or femininity was the jut of his chin and the straight, bold jaw, creasing as a muscle clenched.
“Who are you?” he breathed.
“Gwenllian ap Ewyas.” Her voice scratched from her dry throat, barely audible. It stung that he couldn’t recall her from mere days ago, but she mustn’t appear weak or simpering. She had to keep the upper hand.
“And who am I?” he asked.
Misty Urban is a medieval scholar, freelance editor, and college professor who likes to write stories about misbehaving women who find adventure and romance. She holds an MFA and Ph.D. from Cornell University and lives in the Midwest in a little town on a big river.
a giveaway
Leave a Reply