LOVE AND LAVENDER:
A MAYFIELD FAMILY ROMANCE (Book 4)
VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR MEDIA KIT
About the Book
Hazel Stillman is a woman of rare independence and limited opportunities. Born with a clubbed foot, she was sent away as a child and, knowing her disability means a marriage is unlikely, she devoted herself to scholarship and education.
Now
working as a teacher in an elite private girls' school, she is content with the
way her story has unfolded. When her uncle Elliott Mayfield presents her with
the prospect of a substantial inheritance if she marries, Hazel is offended.
What kind of decent man would marry for her money? Besides, she loves her
freedom as a professional, respected woman. When she hears rumors of the school
possibly being sold, however, she knows she must consider all her options.
Duncan
Penhale has a brilliant mind and thrives on order and process. He does not
expect to marry because he likes his solitary life, shared only with his
beloved cat. When Elliott Mayfield, his guardian's brother, presents him with
an inheritance if he marries a woman of social standing, Duncan finds it
intrusive. However, with the inheritance, he could purchase the building in
which he works and run his own firm. It would take an impressive and
intellectual woman to understand and love him, quirks and all.
Hazel and Duncan believe they have found a solution to both of their problems: marry one another, receive their inheritances, and then part ways to enjoy their individual paths. But when Uncle Mayfield stipulates that they must live together as husband and wife for one year before receiving their inheritances, Hazel and Duncan reluctantly agree. Over time, their marriage of convenience becomes much more appealing than they had anticipated. At the end of the full year, will they go their separate ways or could an unlikely marriage have found unsuspecting love?
Advance Praise
“What a lovely romance. The historical details, the depth of the
authentic characters, and the realistic dialogue all contribute to an immersive
story. [A] beautiful and inspirational story about loving people just as they
are.”— Katie Jackson, Regency Proofreading
“Phenomenal. This book was phenomenal. The very best in the series.”— Lyssa
Armstrong, For Where Your Treasure Is
“This love story was unique and such an uncommon take on a marriage of
convenience! [S]weet and well worth the wait!”— Ashley Johnson, Bringing
Up Books
“Beautifully written, sensitive, poignant addition to the Mayfield Family
series.”— Susan K., The Flipped Page
Purchase Links
“So, you sign your
letters casually, and he continues to sign his more formally. Do you use
‘Sincerely’ as well?”
Hazel put her tea saucer
on the table with a thump. “I do not want to debate salutations or
valedictions; I want to discuss him coming all this way to talk to me.”
Sophie blinked at her,
then cocked her head and looked her up and down as though assessing a bolt of
cloth. “I think you should wear the striped dress. What better opportunity will
you have to show off the fine cut? I have always thought purple your best
color, and so the striped dress is the perfect choice, I think.”
“Enough,” Hazel said,
reaching for her cane and using it to push herself up from the chair. This was
why she did not dis-cuss her personal life—not that she had much of a personal
life. Duncan’s letter had been so surprising, however, that she’d obsessed over
it for a full day before deciding to ask Sophie’s help making sense of it.
“Don’t leave. I am sorry
for taking fun in your letter,” Sophie said, rising to her feet with a single
movement that seemed to defy gravity. She gestured to Hazel’s empty chair. “Sit
down, and let us discuss it in actuality.”
Hazel hesitated, shifting
her weight to her bad foot to relieve the increasing pain in her left hip. She
could limp out of the teacher’s parlor with her nose in the air and leave
Sophie to her regrets, but then she would have no help making sense of the
letter.
She sat.
Sophie gave her a
grateful and apologetic smile. “What do you think of Mr. D. Penhale? Do you
like him?”
“I like Duncan well
enough. He is . . . unique.”
Sophie raised her
eyebrows but said nothing as she added enough milk and sugar to bring the tea
to the rim of her cup.
Hazel shifted to her
side; the pain in her left hip made sitting as uncomfortable as standing
sometimes. “I have enjoyed his letters. He is very intelligent and . . .
thorough.”
“‘Thorough’?” Sophie
repeated, her tone flat. “Is that a compliment or a complaint?”
“Compliment,” Hazel said,
but she frowned. “I think.”
Sophie smiled, then
tapped her spoon on the side of the cup before placing it on the saucer. “He is
a financial clerk in Ipswich? You have said very little about him to me.”
Hazel wished now that
she’d been more forthcoming, but she hadn’t known exactly how to explain
Duncan, and so she . . . hadn’t. She looked toward the pink curtains framing
the window. A black horse pulled a black carriage with large yellow wheels past
the window, and she wondered how Duncan planned to travel the sixty-five miles
from Ipswich to King’s Lynn. Mail coach? She did not imagine he could afford to
hire a private carriage. She hoped the trip would not be too uncomfortable for
him.
“Nothing in those paltry
details explains why you would be anxious about his visit,” Sophie said.
Hazel looked back at her.
“I am not anxious.”
“Yes, you are, dear.” She
took another sip. “Perhaps if I had a better understanding of how you and
Duncan interacted that day in Norfolk I could better know how we should proceed
with this conversation.”
Hazel looked at the
fraying brocade on the arm of her chair and picked at the fibers with her
fingernail as she centered her thoughts. She took a breath and explained
Duncan, as best she could. “He is personable, good with numbers, attentive,
honest, odd.”
“What do you mean by
‘odd’?”
“Well, on the day we
met—the only day we’ve ever spent in one another’s company—he needed me to
justify our addressing each other as cousins. He also does not look me in the
eye when we speak.” The memory made her smile, but she tried to suppress it so
as not to give the wrong impression. “He became so excited about the ham served
at breakfast that he brought me a slice to try for myself. He mentioned my foot
. . . out loud.”
“He did?” Sophie said,
eyebrows raised again. “What exactly did he say?”
Hazel felt her cheeks
warm at the memory. “I had said I had no prospects for marriage, and he said,
‘Is that because of your . . . deformed foot?’ Only he did not pause as I did
just now. He said it as easily as he might have commented on the weather.”
Sophie choked on her tea.
She put down her cup and lifted a napkin to her mouth. Her eyes were watering
as she lowered the napkin. “Gracious. You were discussing marital ambitions
over breakfast the first day you met? And he called your foot—”
Hazel understood why her
friend could not say the word. However, she suddenly realized she hadn’t
explained the marriage campaign to Sophie. Hazel had not wanted to admit that
her uncle wished to buy a husband for her, which was perhaps why she’d said so
little about Duncan—he was tied to that entire experience at Howard House. And
now she had to explain everything, a year and a half later, with Duncan’s
upcoming visit making every detail more uncomfortable.
“Hazel?”
Hazel opened her eyes and
looked across the table at Sophie who appeared genuinely concerned. “What is
it? Is there some-thing you haven’t told me that I need to know to make sense
of this?”
Hazel remembered
one of the
Latin phrases Sophie
had taught her over the years: Audentes
fortuna juvat—fortune favors the bold. Hazel pulled together whatever
boldness she possessed. “Well,” she said, focusing on her friend and trying to
be the person Sophie believed her to be. “My uncle had given both of us a . . .
.proposition.”
(Chapter 5,
Pages 53-56)
Josi S. Kilpack has written more than thirty novels, a cookbook, and several novellas. She is a four-time Whitney award winner, including Best Novel 2015 for "Lord Fenton's Folly, and has been a Utah Best of State winner for Fiction. Josi loves to bake, sleep, eat, read, travel, and watch TV--none of which she gets to do as much as she would like. She writes contemporary fiction under the pen name Jessica Pack. Josi has four children and lives in Northern Utah.
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