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Holding On (Colorado High Country #6) —
The Colorado High Country series returns with Conrad and Kenzie's story.

A hero barely holding on…

Harrison Conrad returned to Scarlet Springs from Nepal, the sole survivor of a freak accident on Mt. Everest. Shattered and grieving for his friends, he vows never to climb again and retreats into a bottle of whiskey—until Kenzie Morgan shows up at his door with a tiny puppy asking for his help. He’s the last person in the world she should ask to foster this little furball. He’s barely capable of managing his own life right now, let alone caring for a helpless, adorable, fluffy puppy. But Conrad has always had a thing for Kenzie with her bright smile and sweet curves. One look into her pleading blue eyes, and he can’t say no.

The woman who won’t let him fall…

Kenzie Morgan’s life went to the dogs years ago. A successful search dog trainer and kennel owner, she gets her fill of adventure volunteering for the Rocky Mountain Search & Rescue Team. The only thing missing from her busy life is love. It’s not easy finding Mr. Right in a small mountain town, especially when she’s unwilling to date climbers. She long ago swore never again to fall for a guy who might one day leave her for a rock. When Conrad returns from a climbing trip haunted by the catastrophe that killed his best friend, Kenzie can see he’s hurting and wants to help. She just might have the perfect way to bring him back to the world of the living. But friendship quickly turns into something more—and now she’s risking her heart to heal his.

In ebook and soon in print!


About Me

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I grew up in Colorado at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, then lived in Denmark and traveled throughout Europe before coming back to Colorado. I have two adult sons, whom I cherish. I started my writing career as a columnist and investigative reporter and eventually became the first woman editor of two different papers. Along the way, my team and I won numerous state and several national awards, including the National Journalism Award for Public Service. In 2011, I was awarded the Keeper of the Flame Lifetime Achievement Award for Journalism. Now I write historical romance and contemporary romantic suspense.

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Seductive Musings

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

What do you do with a tied up Ranger? EXCERPT from UNTAMED




This weekend — after a work week of 12-hour days — I will be sitting down to finish what (I hope) is the last chapter of Untamed. I say "I hope," because sometimes you just can't fit into one chapter what you need to fit into one chapter, and making it any shorter but cutting out scenes makes it feel rushed or choppy. And since I'm already over, pretty much every page means another page might have to be cut somewhere else. So I hope this is the last chapter.

And then there's the epilogue, of course, but that's the part of the story I always love the most. I just love seeing the hero and heroine living their well-earned Happily Ever After. As a reader, I get to savor the happiness of characters I've come to love and watch all the pieces slide into final place for them. As a writer, it's my way of giving every bit of fulfillment to characters whom I cherish — and to my readers.

For me, that often includes proof that the hero and heroine's union is a rich and fruitful one, i.e., babies. I know it sounds corny in this day and age perhaps, but the ultimate outcome of a happy sexual relationship between a man and woman is children. Not tons of children, okay, but children. In historical times, this was also the inevitable outcome of sex. I also like to tie up any loose threads and give the hero and heroine "bonuses," such as Marc getting his old Chevy back.

What do you love/hate about epilogues? Have you ever read a purrfect epilogue?

And what would you do with a tied up Ranger? In one of our previous excerpts, Amalie allowed herself to explore his anatomy, running her hand over his chest and abdomen to feel all those muscles. She thought he was asleep. Well, he wasna. So what's she going to do with a tied-up Ranger today?

Read to find out...

From Untamed

Amalie stepped carefully around mud puddles as she made the long walk to the hospital, so lost in her own thoughts that she scarcely noticed the rain-fresh scent of the morning breeze or the bright blue sky or the soldiers at morning muster. She had hoped to be free of this duty. She had hoped to be free of him. Now that he was out of danger, she’d hoped never to see the Ranger again. She’d asked Bourlamaque to let her return to her customary duties, but he’d refused to release her.

“Monsieur Lambert tells me Major MacKinnon asked about you yesterday evening. He believes MacKinnon has warmed to you. You might yet be of some use to us in the infirmary.”

“But he is healing and no longer needs—”

Bourlamaque had cut her off. “Continue to tend him, as you have done so well. But now that he is awake, be attentive. Listen to him, and then report back to me all that he says.”

“You wish me to… to spy on him, monsieur?” The idea had seemed so absurd to Amalie that she could scarce speak it.

Bourlamaque had chuckled. “Non, sweet Amalie. It is not in your nature to deceive. I wish only for you to be exactly what you are—young and beautiful and innocent. He is a man who has seen much war, a man who knows he has come to his end. In his despair, he will seek solace in your gentleness. He will trust you and tell you things that he would never tell me. All you need do is inform me each day of all that was said. Can you do this?”

Ashamed of her own reluctance after all Bourlamaque and the men at Fort Carillon had done for her, she’d nodded. “Oui.”

Oh, how she wished Bourlamaque had not asked this of her! How could she explain to him that caring for the Ranger had already left her feeling beset by blame? Must she now compound her guilt by spying upon him? For that’s what it was no matter how delicately Bourlamaque had tried to paint it. She was to soothe his desperation with kindness in order to win his trust, then report all he told her to her guardian.

But why should the Ranger tell her anything? In her experience, most men deemed women unworthy of purposeful conversation, let alone confidences.

She opened the hospital door and stepped inside, giving her eyes a moment to adjust. A small fire burned in the hearth, chasing away the early morning damp. Two of Monsieur Lambert’s young attendants bustled about, one cleaning chamber pots, the other gathering soiled linens for the laundresses. Six soldiers lay on their little beds, some sleeping, all but one of them still recovering from the Ranger attack.

And this was what she needed to remember. Major MacKinnon had commanded the Rangers who’d harmed these men. He’d attacked this fort, and not for the first time. He had French blood on his hands—perhaps even her father’s blood.

One of the attendants turned toward her. “Bonjour, mademoiselle.”

“Bonjour.” She walked between the beds to the supply cupboard and took out two rolls of fresh linen, refusing to notice the beating of butterfly wings in her belly.

You have no reason to fear him, Amalie.

All she had to do was tend his simplest needs—food and drink—and listen considerately while he spoke. It was a uncomplicated task, not difficult at all. So why did she feel like running away?

She walked to the back room, found the door slightly ajar, and heard a man’s voice coming from within.

“If you think this is painful, major, wait until the Abenaki—”

Amalie pushed open the door to find Lieutenant Rillieux bent over the Ranger, the heel of his boot pressed cruelly against the wound in the Ranger’s thigh. Jaw clenched in obvious pain, the Ranger glared at him with undisguised hatred, but didn’t make a sound.

Aghast, she rushed in. “Monsieur! Que faites-vous?”

What are you doing?

Startled, the lieutenant jerked his leg away and turned toward her. A slow smile spread on his face. “I am just giving him the merest taste of what is to come, mademoiselle. It is better he be prepared, non?”

He spoke in English, his gaze shifting to the Ranger, who glared up at him, sweat beaded on his brow, a dark bruise spreading on his right cheek.

The Ranger’s voice was a growl. “Do your worst, you neach dìolain!”

Outraged, Amalie answered Lieutenant Rillieux in French. “You go too far! Did you not understand Monsieur Lambert’s orders that the prisoner was not to be abused?”

Lieutenant Rillieux took a step toward her, his smile gone. “You forget your place, mademoiselle. I do not answer to Monsieur Lambert, nor do I answer to you.”

But Amalie refused to let him intimidate her, no matter that the look on his face frightened her. “In the hospital, lieutenant, Monsieur Lambert’s word is to be obeyed. It is cruel and cowardly to strike an injured—”

The lieutenant cut her off. “You are in a fort in the midst of war, little Amalie, not in your convent! Here, military concerns prevail, not the frail sentiments of women.”

Fisting a hand in her hair, he ducked down and pressed his lips hard against hers, the contact painful and frightening—and mercifully brief.

Amalie was so shocked that it did not occur to her to push away until after he’d released her and walked out the door. She drew a trembling hand to her mouth and tried to wipe his taste away.

# # #

Morgan watched the poor lass wipe the violence of that bastard’s kiss off her lips and wished to God he had the strength to break iron. There’d be one less Frenchman walking the Earth if he could. “Did he harm you, Miss?”

She whirled about with a gasp, her fingers still pressed against her lips, her eyes wide. For a moment she simply stared at him, and Morgan found himself wondering if he’d slipped and spoken French to her.

Have a care, MacKinnon.

He’d understood every word of their conversation, of course, and it had only served to inflame his rage. The lass was an innocent, raised in a convent, and she’d been trying to protect him—only to suffer ridicule and ill use.

You are in a fort in the midst of war, little Amalie, not in your convent. Here, military concerns prevail, not the frail sentiments of women.

Morgan would liked to have kicked the bastard’s teeth down his throat for touching her, then tossed him on his arse for insulting women. Morgan knew a great many women, and few of them were frail-minded. Had the planning of this war been in the hands of his Muhheconneok grannies, it would likely have been won by now. But he could not let on that he’d understood lest he lose the only advantage he had—listening in on their conversations.

At last Miss Chauvenet shook her head. “He merely startled me.”

Morgan’s blood still boiled. “No man has the right to treat you thus. You should report him to Bourlamaque.”

Spots of pink appeared in her cheeks, and he realized she was ashamed that he had witnessed her humiliation. “Lieutenant Rillieux is a… good officer. I have wounded him. H-he wishes me to be his wife, but I… I have no interest in marriage.”

And then Morgan had to ask. “Are you pledged to the Church?”

She bowed her head. “Were it not for this war, I should most likely have returned to the abbey at Trois Rivières by now.”

At once Morgan felt a both sense of loss that so beautiful a woman should spend her grace on the Church and strange surge of relief to know that no man would ever have her. “I am sorry.”

She raised her head, met his gaze—then frowned. “Let me tend your face.”

“Is it so bad then?”

She did not answer but hurried to the bedside table, poured water from the pitcher into a wooden bowl and dipped a clean cloth into it, a look of concern on her face. “He struck you. You are shackled and injured, and he struck you.”

“Dinnae fret, lass. I wager I’ll suffer worse ere I leave this place.”

Abruptly, she stilled, the sodden cloth in her hands dripping water into the bowl. Then she seemed to catch herself. She squeezed the cloth out, but her motions were wooden, her face giving play to her distress.

So, the thought that he would be beaten upset her.

Morgan would remember that.

Without a word she pressed the cold cloth to his right cheek, the chill bringing relief from the sting of that whoreson’s fist—Rillieux she had called him.

He watched her as she bathed his cheek, his gaze seeking out the details of her form. The dark and delicate sweep of her lashes. The soft curve of her cheek. The fullness of her lips. The slender column of her throat. The gentle swell of her breasts beneath the lace of her bodice. The silken length of her hair. And her scent—fresh linen, lavender and woman.

She is promised to Christ, you lummox.

Aye, she was. And he to Satan.

’Twas then he remembered what he’d planned to say to her. He’d thought through the words all night, shaped them in his mind. ’Twas time to speak them. “’Tis sorry I am about your father, Miss Chauvenet. If I could call back the ball that stole his life, I would.”

She met his gaze, a look on her young face that might have been astonishment—or anger. When she spoke, her voice quavered. “H-how can you speak to me of him?”

“There’s naugh’ I can say to ease your grief. I ken that. But I am deeply sorry that you should suffer, and I ask your forgiveness.”

Unable to breathe, Amalie looked into the Ranger’s blue eyes and saw only sincerity. It was the same earnestness she’d seen in the eyes of wounded soldiers who’d asked her to pray for them—the naked honesty of men who knew they were about to die and sought to make peace with the world.

As upset by the Ranger’s unexpected apology as she was by Lieutenant Rillieux’s loathsome kiss, she turned away, at a loss for words. She dipped the cloth back into the water, only vaguely aware of what she was doing.

How dare either of them! How dare Lieutenant Rillieux kiss her, knowing full well that she did not wish to marry him! And how dare the Ranger ask her forgiveness! He hadn’t trodden upon her foot, after all! He and his men had slain her father, stealing the joy from her life, filling her nights with grief and loneliness.

“What kind of man are you, Major MacKinnon?”

“Just a man.”

His humble answer shamed her. In God’s eyes he was just a man, oui, but here on Earth he was a British officer, a Ranger, a legend among both his people and hers. But now he was in her care, a wounded man and condemned to die. And he had asked as respectfully and gravely as any man might for her forgiveness.

How could she deny him and yet call herself Catholic?

Without forgiveness, Amalie, there can be no peace.

The Mère Supérieure’s stern voice echoed through her mind.

Amalie slowly turned to face him, the damp cloth in hand. He was watching her, his gaze gentle, a strange contrast to the fierceness of his appearance—bruised cheek, shackles, beard, warrior marks. “I… I loved him very much. He was my only real family. He was killed last summer in the first attack while I was here in the hospital helping the wounded. I thought for a time that he had survived, but—”

“Sweet Mary, you were here during the battle?” He stared at her, his blue eyes filled with what could only be dismay.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded, looking down at her hands, trying not to remember that terrible day.

“Och, lass, ’tis sorry I am that you should have seen it. War is bloody and cruel. It makes monsters of men. ’Tis no place for a woman.”

“It was awful.”

“Aye, that it was.”

Something in the tone of his voice made her look up, and she knew by the lines on his face that he had his own terrible memories. “You lost someone, too.”

“Aye, many. Good men and true. They died for nothin’, pawns in a war not of their makin’.” The last words were spoken with a measure of bitterness.

She understood bitterness. “I have hated the Rangers since that day.”

He grinned — a sad, lopsided grin. “And do you hate me?”

“I have tried to hate you, monsieur.” She lifted her chin, fighting to ignore the way his smile touched her. “But I fear I have not succeeded as I should have liked.”

He chuckled, a warm, deep sound. “Dinnae judge yourself too harshly. I’d wager there is little hatred in you, and ’tis hard to loathe an enemy you have helped to heal.”

She looked into his eyes and wondered how he saw through her so clearly. “Oui, Major MacKinnon, I forgive you. May God rest my father’s soul.”

And a weight she hadn’t known she was carrying lifted off her shoulders.

13 comments:

Christi said...

Pamela, it is a very moving scene. Is this the begining of their relationship? I sense Amalie's internal struggle with herself of her Christian Duty and wanting to hate this Ranger for the death of her father. It's really good. (btw- how do you pronounce Bourlamaque?--My brain automatically says it in Spanish, lol). Christi

Tracy said...

I love Epilogues for the same reasons you mentioned. I like seeing a little further into their "Happily Ever After". I love seeing the pieces fall into place (like you said!).

The kind of Epilogues you write are the very ones I love so much~keep on writing them! :o)

Debbie H said...

I, too, love epilogues. I want to know, did they have children, did they get what they wished for as far as the future goes, etc.

Thank you for this excerpt. It only adds to the agony of the wait. J/K :)

Anonymous said...

thank you for the excerpt

kh

Anonymous said...

Love it lovvvvvve it! I agree with the others I personally love the Epilogues for all the reasons you mention. Life so often can be unhappy and it's the time that we get to see the characters happy and with a bright future ahead of them! That always makes one feel good. And I think we can all use a lot more of that now a days! :)

Hi, Christi — I'm glad you enjoyed it. Yes, this is the beginning of the good part of their relationship. Amalie is very torn between what she knows she's supposed to feel for him and what she's inclined to feel for him in her heart. Bourlamaque — which will be Monsieur de Bourlamque when I finish my edits — is pronounced burl-a-MACK. Very different than it would be in Spanish — BO-URRR-LA-MA-KAY. LOL!

Hi, Tracy — Thanks! I'm glad to know I'm on the right wave length. I'll do my best to keep writing them. :-)

Hi, Debbie — I owe you an e-mail! Sorry I'm behind. It appears that I'm back to my torture technique again, doesn't it? LOL!

Hi, Kim — You're welcome. :-)

Hi, Jenn — I owe you a couple of emails. And I agree, we could all use more happiness these days. Big time!

So I hope to be writing Amalie and Morgan's HEA this weekend. If I'm a sobbing mess, that means I succeed. If I'm screaming in frustration, that means... not so much.

Cheryle said...

Loved this scene Pamela. Forgiveness is a beautiful thing!

I love epilogues. I need to know that they went on and had kids and are blissfully happy.

Frances said...

Be still my heart. Pamela, that excerpt is fabulous.

Anonymous said...

I've just found all I want in an epilogue...Yes I've just finished Surrender and the epilogue left me with misty eyes and a stupid grin plastered on my face....It was perfect...Iain and Annie with their baby, Iain being released, and the part when they arrive at the farm to find all the Rangers there working to put it all back together...*sigh* just perfect...

It might seem a bit mean but I hope you'll be a sobbing mess by the end of the weekend... ;-P

stef

Lori said...

I can't wait for this one - I loved Surrender. This looks to be fabulous as well. Thanks for the excerpt!

I'm kind of touchy about epilogues. I know my H/H are going to have a HEA, so for me, I want to see some point to the epilogue, not just a scene to show me they had a HEA. Strange girl, I know *g*.

Anonymous said...

read unlawfu contact. love it very much. great writing and i jsut went through the first day, hard ot put down, so very sexy. thansk

kim h

Anonymous said...

I love epilogues and think you write some of the best, PC. You put so much emotion into the characters through the life of the book that at the end, it's like that last little end off that finally lets you let go of the story. I love epilogues because it lets you see the characters interact after they've weathered the storm together. Nothing better than that, IMHO.

I loved this excerpt! Beautifully written and it was just so magically to read Amalie forgive. And Morgan is such a charmer. I couldn't help but smile when I read his lines.

Christie

Hi, Cheryle -- Thanks! I'm so glad you enjoyed the excerpt. And I agree about epilogues. I need to see the h/h enjoying their happiness together.

Aw, thanks, Aunt Frannie! Are you enjoying your blog? I need to put a link to it from this page.

Bonjour, Stef! I'm so happy that you enjoyed Iain and Annie's story!!! YAY! And I'm glad you enjoyed the epilogue. It made me cry when I wrote it. When we get a chance I'll tell you the part that choked me up most and had me truly sobbing. Or maybe you all can guess... Can't wait to have you back online.

Hi, Lori — Thanks so much. I think I understand what you mean. For me, I need to feel that an epilogue took the story to a new place emotionally. If the ending is purrrfect and there's no place to go from there but down, then an epilogue detracts from the energy of the story, I think. It should raise the story higher. That's how I think of it.

Hey, Kim! I'm so glad you enjoyed UNLAWFUL. *sniff* I miss Marc and Sophie. I'll be seeing them in about a month when I start NAKED EDGE.

Hi, Christie — Thanks so much for your sweet words. I do try to get that emotion in there and make the characters real. It helps me let go of the story, too, though usually by that point I'm a weeping mess. I'm glad you enjoyed the excerpt. I love Morgan. He is a charmer. He thinks his life is over and he's thinking of her. I love that in a guy. Every time a man who thinks he's going to die does something selfless for me, I fall in love. Oh, wait... Hmmm. Maybe that's only happened in my books. LOL!

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"I am an artist. I am here to live out loud."
—Emile Zola

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