How a Lady Weds a Rogue: Author’s Note
What is an author to do with a gentleman who appears on the page of another hero’s book and captivates her from his first teasing smile?
What is that same author to do with a girl who peeks through the cracked open doors of another heroine’s book, speaks entirely without irony, and seems to have nothing whatsoever in common with that gentleman mentioned above?
Well, I’ll tell you: that author hurls them together on a harrowing road trip and lets them discover where the road will take them — together.
I fell in love with Wyn Yale the moment he opened his mouth in When a Scot Loves a Lady (my novel featuring his best friend, Leam Blackwood). Some heroes are like that. They appear before me fully realized, in all their integrity of character and agony of spirit, their heartbreaking disillusionment and aching self-deception and knee-jerk nobility. Diantha Lucas came to me in the same way: as a girl so scarred by the mother who tormented and then abandoned her that her entire reality is bound up in finding that mother again and making things right.
I also absolutely adore road trip romances. Road trips throw two people together in the most extraordinary circumstances, force them to make allies out of passersby and homes out of hovels, and impel them to depend upon each other for everything–companionship, safety, and even happiness.
To write Diantha and Wyn’s love story I traveled the roads that they travel from England to Wales, wending my way down narrow country lanes bordered by woods or high stone walls thick with ivy or fields of fluffy white sheep. I poked my nose into ancient farmhouses and tiptoed through the shadowed chambers of old abbeys, floors creaking beneath my reverent steps as I drew in the scents of beeswax candles and wood polish and baking bread. I walked through the rain on emerald Welsh hillsides pillowed in shimmering fog, soaking my shoes, finding refuge finally in cozy pubs and tea houses whose cakes were the best I’ve ever tasted. And all though this journey of mine, Wyn and Diantha’s story unfurled for me, from their opposing goals that force them apart to the dangers—dangers from both without and within—that draw them together… closer and closer together… until without realizing it they reach the destination neither had dared to dream: love.
I think all authors must have a few books they especially loved writing. For me, Wyn and Diantha’s romance is one of those. I hope you love it too.
xo
Katharine
