I just love a good ghost story, don't you? I love stories set in an old castle, with creepy goings on, with a brave hero, a little romance, and a lot of paranormal activity.
My newest release has all those elements. Here is a taste for those brave enough to encounter the paranormal, at least in their reading choices. Bright Scoundrel is a Historical Romance, a Gothic Romance, a romance with strong paranormal elements. And better yet, the romantic hero is a sorceror! Anyone for trip to old Ireland this weekend?
Excerpt from
Bright Scoundrel by Lily Silver, Book Two in the
Reluctant Heroes Series:
Kieran O’Flaherty has just arrived at his
ancestral home in Ireland after living in exile for over twenty years. He is
troubled by the unseen residents that have accumulated there during its long
vacancy.
Kieran walked slowly down the long
hall toward his old room at the end, the room where the ghostly boys had
emerged just moments ago. The echo of solitary footsteps followed, reminding
him of his lonely state. The castle wasn’t barren. There were spirits here and
elementals. Some good and many that were not. It was a lonely place, devoid of
human inhabitants, and yet it was full to the brim with unwanted guests that
needed to be sent packing.
He spent over an hour perusing the
opened rooms on the second floor, taking slow inventory of the place and
getting a feeling for what needed to be accomplished to revive the old
fortress. When at last Kieran reached the tower room, the master bedchamber, a
sick feeling of revulsion came over him. He entered the room, and just as
quickly backed out, holding his nose. The smell of sulfur was overpowering. He
thought he might retch. As he backed away his eyes stung and watered.
“Lord Grey?” A young maid called
from down the hall, near the stairs. “Are you ill, sir?”
“No.” Kieran answered with
difficulty, as he tried to not breathe through his nose. “No, I’m just a little
tired.”
“Where would you like your trunks
set up? In the turret room, sir?”
“No.” He said quickly, a moment of
panic seizing him, and he was not one to panic. “No, I want this room closed up.
Tell Aine to lock it and to give me the key.”
The maid, a young woman of not more
than eighteen years, gave him a curious look. She started down the hall toward
him at a quick pace, a frown marring her brow. “Why, who is that with you, Lord
Grey? Did you bring a child with you from England, sir?”
“No . . .” Kieran said sternly. He
held up his hand, signaling for the woman to not advance further. “Go
downstairs, now. Find Aine. Tell her to bring me the key to this room. Go--now!”
He pushed her back with all of his willpower. He held out his hand and
pushed mentally against her determination to come near, lest she, too, be put
in danger.
The girl paused for a moment, as if
sensing she’d reached an invisible barrier and could go no further. She tilted
her head, still looking at him with concern. Her face suddenly changed from
wonder to outright panic. She turned and ran down the long corridor to the
stairs in the center of the castle. She hurried down them without giving him or
the creature beside him a second glance.
The panic was real. He felt it,
too, when he first encountered the elemental. Panic was the human’s primal
reaction to something so inherently evil.
“What do you want here?” He
demanded now well past any panic as anger consumed him. This was his home. The
being had no right to be here, but someone summoned it, or invited it in. And
once an ancient fetch was allowed inside a place, it was not easy to get them
to leave.
The thing had no eyes. There were
dark holes where the eyes should be. The face of the creature was like rotting
flesh, hence the awful stench. It was about three feet tall and covered with
rangy, oily, putrid smelling hair. It merely stood there, looking up at him,
silently brooding.
It may have been surprised that he
could see it. Most people only noticed a dark shadow when they encountered a
fetch, along with the horrid smell and the strong sense of panic the being
evoked.
“I said who brought you here?
Answer me? What is your purpose? I’ll have none of your games. This is my house
now, you must leave.”
The creature attacked. Kieran was
not surprised, yet he wasn’t prepared for it either. Before he knew what was
happening, he was on the floor, on his back, as a searing pain slammed him in
the chest. It had jumped up and pushed him backwards. He heard the shuffling
noise it made as it hurried back into its cavern, the master chamber, and the
door slammed hard.
He lay gasping, holding his shoulder when the
maid returned with Aine at her heels.
“My lord . . . what happened, sir?”
“I tripped.” Kieran groaned as he
sat up holding his left shoulder. It ached and burned, just as if he’d been
shot again in the same place as he had years ago. “I tripped and fell, that’s
all.”
“O’Neill, here, says you were
acting peculiar, like ye was ill, sir. She said you asked for me.”
“I’m fine.” Kieran rubbed his
collarbone. He could swear there was a bullet lodged there. It felt just as
real as when Captain Fletcher shot him. He looked at the young woman who Aine
had called O’Neill. “Surely, lass, you have a name besides O’Neill? A pretty
girl should not go on being called by such a name?”
“Mary Grace, sir.” The young woman
blushed. She looked down at her apron, as if embarrassed to have caught the
attention of the master. “O’Neill is my family name.”
“A very pretty name, for a very
pretty girl.” Kieran forced a smile as he focused his attention on charming
her. “I’m more relaxed than my English peers, Mary Grace. I don’t hold with
strict formality, nor do I refer to my household servants by their surnames.
Call it a flaw of mine. I prefer your first name, if it does not offend you.”
“Oh, no sir, not at all.” The pink
cheeks bloomed into a deeper rose hue, yet still, the girl did not look at him.
“Now then, Mary-Grace, I thank you
for bringing Aine to me. Would you please leave us and attend to your duties. I
must speak with our stalwart housekeeper alone.”
The girl rose and hurried down the
stone corridor again.
“Ach, and weren’t you born with the
gift of glamoury, my lord.” Aine said, giving him a canny look.
“A little flirtation goes a long
way to make a lass smile and forget ugliness.”
Aine helped Kieran to his feet. He
was still stinging from the crushing blow the thing had given him.
“And what was so ugly here that you
fear O’Neill must forget seeing, Lord Grey?”
Kieran straightened. He was loath
to confess the truth to her and yet, if she was half the woman he sensed she
was when he hired her she would not run away shrieking. “Remember what I said
when I hired you? I specified that someone with uncommon courage was needed at
Roisin Dubh Castle to help me reclaim my ancestral home.”
“Aye, sir. You implied t’was from
ghosts and spirits when you said it. I remember it clearly. And I told you, I’m
not one to be chased off by shadows and slamming doors. I hold to that,
sir.” Aine’s honest face and those
somber, deep set brown eyes looked up at him without flinching.
Kieran wasn’t one to touch people
if he could help it. Touching people made him see things he didn’t like. This
time he couldn’t refrain from grasping Aine’s arm. “We have more than ghosts
here, Aine. Mark me, there are ghosts infesting the castle, but there’s also
something much more dangerous.”
Excerpt of Bright Scoundrel, Copyright Lily Silver, 2013
To find out more about how Kieran will vanquish this evil being, download a copy of Bright Scoundrel to your e-reader. It is available on all platforms and is a 100k plus historical romance novel, that's 400 pages of romance, adventure, ghosts, spirits, mystery and magic.
Buy links:
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Leave a comment here regarding what scares you the most in fiction stories. As a reward, you'll find that Bright Scoundrel is discounted 50% off on Amazon for Tuesday May 7th only. If you need a copy from other distributors, please contact me for a coupon code.
Thanks for sharing.
