Kisses, She Wrote: Author’s Note
Late one night as I was putting the finishing touches on I Married the Duke to turn it in the following day, I was thinking about the duke’s cousin, rascally rakish Camlann Westfall, the Earl of Bedwyr, and the awful crime he had perpetrated on his cousin, Luc, not to mention the teasing he doled out to Luc’s beloved, Arabella. And I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I had two more books to write in the series: the stories of Arabella’s sisters, and a prince to find too. I didn’t have time to be thinking about Cam. Yet as I stared at the screen he wouldn’t leave my mind alone.
You see, the problem was, I liked him. A lot. Despite the duel he instigated with Luc. Despite the untruths he allowed Arabella to believe. Rather — God forgive me! — because of them.
Because he’d done it all in love. Honest to goodness love for his cousin.
So, half asleep there at the computer in the middle of the night I mumbled, “Can a rake ever really be reformed?”
As if that weren’t enough to startle my dog out of sleep, I added a little louder, “Can a bad boy actually be… good?”
That night I barely slept. My head rested on the pillow but my thoughts were dancing around that castle in France, then in London too. A love story was growing, taking shape, a romance that would answer my questions and another one, as well, I hoped: “Can the magic of Christmas truly mend a broken heart?”
I wrote Cam‘s book. And I got my answers — better answers than I ever imagined. The best answer: people aren’t always what they seem to be on the outside.
I’m usually an organized person, a planner, with To Do lists and that sort of thing. But I’ve come to accept that there’s always a good reason a character won’t leave me alone. And I’m so grateful the magic works that way.
xo
Katharine
