It’s Tuesday so it must be Erotica For All. Yay! Lovely to here, to stop awhile and contemplate how, when people fall in love, or, okay in lust, differences in age, height, class, race and gender needn’t matter. Without involving religious considerations, people nowadays fall in love with people who live in not just a different county but often on a different continent.

In this high-tech world of ours, Internet dating services are a serious option for people seeking a partner. One of my relations, back in the dark days of World War 2, wrote letters to a young soldier she befriended after he advertised for a pen pal in the then Overseas Daily Mail. Newspaper personal columns have decades helped provide introductions to people who maybe despair of meeting Mr or Ms Right.

My latest heroine, Adelaide Beauchamp was born in 1872 so she’s a Victorian. When we meet her it’s the year 1900 and she’s wilting a little, on the shelf to quote that horrible expression. I won’t go into the reasons here as to why she’s never gone down the debutante path to enjoy balls, parties and theatre trips with ‘suitable’ young men. Let’s just say she’s had an unusual start to her love life.

When Adelaide does marry, it’s to a man who doesn’t fit the description most of us apply to a romantic hero. This is a marriage of convenience! If you read her story and I hope you will, you’ll no doubt wonder whose convenience this union exists for. To say it’s complicated is an understatement.

Back in that era, there were still plenty of people employed as servants. The First World War would put paid to a lot of things and ordinary middle-class folk would never again be able to find sufficient staff of suitable quality.Adelaide’s household employs a young man of mixed race. Let me introduce you to Jimmy Burrage, the odd jobs man who Adelaide describes as bursting into their lives like a fireball. She’s just been discussing him with her maid, Daisy, who plays a hugely important part in the story.

When I got out of bed, I peered round the edge of the curtain. A young man knelt beside the gravelled drive, prising out his uncle’s dandelion foe. His mop of glossy coal-black curls glistened in the morning sunlight and his skin made me think of a cup of rich coffee. He flung another yellow weed into a pail and rose to move further along the border. I caught my breath. In spite of trousers he’d outgrown and knobbly wrist bones revealed by rolled up shirt sleeves, Jimmy Burrage might have stepped straight from one of Pa’s oil paintings. Daisy had neglected to mention this young man’s beauty.

Jimmy fits in well. Too well, some might say, but I’ll leave that to you to decide. I found this character surprisingly easy to create. In fact, I loved writing this era and I’m told there’s a good flavour of that time. There’s so much more I’d like to tell you about –Adelaide’s very unexpected Christmas gift being only one of them. This is a complicated young woman, aching to find the right direction and sadly tending to ‘love the one she’s with.’

It’s been such a pleasure to drop by. I hope you’ll visit my website soon.

*****

Demure Adelaide hides a passionate nature beneath her elegant gowns. After hiring a delicious new maid, Daisy, she can’t wait to initiate her into the delights of the orchid house. Though resenting paternal pressure to marry businessman Thomas, Adelaide finds excitement in his touch and his erotic whisperings. Yet, when he reveals his sinister side, she seeks solace elsewhere. Christmas brings snowflakes, also a vivid reminder of a heart-wrenching past. Intrigue and obsession rock this Victorian household as Adelaide’s poignant search for love leads her into storms. Will she ever bask in the sunshine?

Orchid Pink is available from Amazon UK, Amazon US and All Romance eBooks, as well as other good eBook retailers.

*****

Toni Sands lives near the Black Mountains in Wales. Many of her ideas arrive while she’s walking by the river or travelling by train and she also finds inspiration when visiting London. This is where she enjoys roaming galleries and gazing at colourful window displays. She drinks too much coffee and often talks to strangers. Her erotic romances feature in collections by Virgin Black Lace and Accent Xcite, both paperbacks and e-books. She writes to entertain, sometimes finding, as in the case of her new heroine, a character will pop into her head, demanding to have her story told. Toni enjoys networking and belongs to the Romantic Novelists’ Association. She’d like to keep on writing as long as her readers keep on reading.

Website: http://www.tonisands.co.uk

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tonisands

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