The Dangers to Hearts

Do broken hearts destroy all dreams?

Or will murder destroy the dreams?

 

Years ago, Agatha Helmes’ lover abandoned her.  When her baby died at birth, she thought all her hopes for the future had ended.

She poured herself into her family’s farm, but in the last year, mismanagement by three different stewards has the farm losing more money than she can pour into it.

Jess Carter occasionally crewed for a known smuggler to bring a little extra into his home.  He fell for a maid working at the Hawthorn Inn.  Then the smuggling ring was arrested.  The woman he thought he loved married another man.  With a bruised heart for company, he packed up all his possessions and left his home.

Not knowing where to go, Jess consulted the smugglers’ fence Richard Helmes who directed him to Helmes Farm to assist the current steward.  His cousin Agatha Helmes, he says, will hire anyone he sends to her.

When Jess arrives, the current steward is assaulting Agatha.  He routs the old steward and finds himself in a job he doesn’t understand, taking advice and orders from a woman.

Agatha knows only one thing about her new steward:  he doesn’t lie.  Jess admits what he knows and doesn’t know about farming.  He admits that he is avoiding arrest for smuggling.  That is more than she can say about her former stewards and her former fiancé.

Trust between Agatha and Jess grows from a seed to a mighty oak.  Attraction entwines them with compatibility and grows the first tendrils of love.

Then the steward’s cottage is set on fire, and Jess barely escapes.

The burned house reveals an old murder as the bones of Agatha’s former lover are discovered—with a bullet hole in the skull.

And the deed to Helmes Farm and other documents go missing.

With Agatha’s cousin trying to steal her farm, can Jess reveal her cousin hired him to watch out for his interests?

Will the constable investigating the new arson and the old murder think Agatha guilty of murdering her lover when he wouldn’t marry her?

And will their new love survive the questions and confusion?

The Dangers to Hearts is a sweet romantic suspense of approximately 50,000 words.  While the novel is the sixth in the Hazards to Hearts series, it is complete and contains no cliffhangers.  The character of Jess Carter was introduced in the first Hearts in Hazard book, A Game of Secrets.  Reading that novel will enrich your experience, but it is not necessary.

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The Dark Lord 

bk 1 in the series Miss Beale Writes ~ a touch of mystery, a touch of gothic

Everyone knows there’s no such thing as ghosts.
Tell that to the two ghosts haunting Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Fortescue comes to Feldstone Grange seeking the position of housekeeper. She expects the Baron Harcourt to claim she’s too young

and pretty for the position, even though she’s qualified and has excellent references.

Yet the baron is desperate to hire someone, having lost five housekeepers over the past six months. He doesn’t know what drove them away.

On her first night at the Grange, Elizabeth encounters two ghosts. One is the well-known Silent Lady; none of the servants know anything

cover by Deranged Doctor Design

about the other ghost.

Over the next week, her connection with Lord Harcourt becomes more than servant to employer. She likes her position and her employer. He also appears to like her, wanting to meet with her daily.

One ghost, though, persists in its haunting of her, enticing her to follow it.

Is it a real ghost? Is a fellow servant attempting to terrify her? Or does someone have a wicked reason to haunt the new housekeeper?

Elizabeth doesn’t know the answer—but she has more incentive to stay than leave.

Will she remain at the Grange? Or will the second ghost’s increasing hauntings drive her away?

Or lead her into death?

The Dark Lord is the first in a series of paranormal novellas from M.A. Lee, who writes historical mysteries and suspense with a dash of romance.

This novella is first in the Miss Beale Writes series. They are best described as vintage gothics.

Like M.A. Lee’s Hearts in Hazard 12-book series, set in Regency England, the novellas will be loosely interconnected, but each is a stand-alone story.

The Dark Lord is a 35,000+ word novella with two ghosts, a determined young housekeeper, and a scared dark lord. Exactly what you want to read this spring!

1st in the series, 1st entry into a slightly paranormal world~~Only 99 cents!

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