Good Morning and Welcome!
The weather has turned nice here in SW Louisiana as a cold front moved in last night with another to follow this coming Wednesday or Thursday. Other than a few showers to usher them in, we're expecting sunny days, lower humidity and cooler temps. Guess Fall has finally arrived ~ praise God! You know I'm a Summer person but 90-100 degrees with 100% humidity is just too hot, especially the older I get LOL!
But enough about me!
Our guest today has visited twice before, so please give a huge W-E-L-C-O-M-E to Izzy James as she shares her newest release with us, The Dollmaker's Daughter. Take it away, Izzy....
Forgetful scientist Simon Morgan lost his chance with Amity Archer ten years ago. He knows there is no hope...until a sea captain trades a meal for an ancient stone reputed to have the power to give him his heart's desire. Immediately after pocketing the stone, Simon runs into Amity. Did the ancient artifact cause this chance encounter or was it mere coincidence?
Like her favorite travel writer Mrs. Peabody, Amity Archer yearns for adventure, but she's horrified when her father asks Simon Morgan to escort her on her first real adventure.
With Amity's Aunt Clementine as a buffer between them, will Simon be able to prove that his love for Amity is real? Can Amity show Simon that her love for him has nothing to do with a so-called magical rock?
Excerpt:
The smell of Norfolk burning stained the inside of Simon’s nose. Throughout the wet ride toward Williamsburg, he couldn’t escape the acrid fumes as the last of the buildings were sacrificed in the name of independence. It was the right thing to do, but he couldn’t help wondering what would happen to the people and the businesses they’d forged, some nearly a hundred years old.
Every part of his world swirled in turmoil. Hester insisted on staying with their aunt and uncle in Kemp’s Landing instead of coming home with him to Maple Bridge where she would be safer. He couldn’t find a way to like it, but Hester was a grown woman with a mind of her own. He couldn’t control her any more than he could control Woodford and Howe’s efforts to protect Norfolk.
Drizzle drowned the glow of twilight from the window where Simon stared at the steam rising from his cup of chocolate in Miller’s Ordinary. The innkeeper’s daughter placed a candle on the table next to his open book. The girl took the time to smile at him while she brought flame to wick. Simon nodded his thanks and looked down at the open page. He’d been on the same page for three days. Images of his friend’s wedding played across his mind. A jubilant Field couldn’t keep his gaze off his new wife, Delany, resplendent in a silver gown. Field had been jubilant. And seeing Field always reminded Simon of Amity. Their features were similar, the same brown hair that glowed red in the sun, but Amity’s eyes were the color of a storm on the bay. Would Amity be jubilant on her wedding day? Sharing secret smiles with her husband she thought no one else would see? He hoped he’d never see it.
“Mind if I join ye?” A full tankard sloshed on to the table. Simon snatched his book from the running puddle. Above him stood a barrel-chested man. Blue eyes glowed from a weather-wrinkled face.
“Captain John McCabe.” The man reached a dirty hand across the table.
A welcome diversion for thoughts sliding in the wrong direction, Simon shook the man’s hand warmly. The next hour passed quickly as Simon listened to the story of Captain McCabe’s latest voyage across the Atlantic.
“Our Tom was a sorry lad. Coming home after his education,” The captain leaned in, “he told me how he’d found how to get anything he ever wanted, so he was coming home.”
“Everything he ever wanted?” Simon hoped his smile didn’t drip with the cynicism he felt, the memory of soft storm-colored eyes twinkled at him.
“Sure. That’s what he told me and then he showed me this.” The Captain pulled from his pocket a medallion of clear green stone. It spun like a coin and came to rest across from Simon. Could this be a gemstone? It was the largest he’d ever seen, spanning nearly three of his fingers. The room was too dim to make out the carving in the center. The candlelight reflected off its polished surface like dark window glass.
A little arc of excitement sparked to life in a remote memory of Simon’s brain and shivered down his spine. “Is this what I think it is? May I?”
McCabe shrugged.
Simon reached for the stone. Cool and smooth to the touch, the hatch-like carvings were barely perceptible under his thumb though they did not appear worn.
“What do you think it is?”
“I’m not sure, but there are legends about ancient stones.”
“This couldn’t be one of them stones. My cousin Tom didn’t travel in them kinda circles. It’s nothing but a piece of junk he picked up somewhere,” he laughed, “but Tom’d believe just about anything you told him. Some scoundrel told him a fanciful tale, and he believed it. Gave all his money, poor sod.”
A cool disappointment breezed through Simon. “You’re probably right, I mean what are the odds that a regular person would come across something like that when people have been looking for it for centuries?” Even as he said it the possibility niggled. Excitement deepened.
The captain took a long swig from his cup. “And regular he was and no mistake. And all the money he had would have been a couple of pounds. Now I’ve got to take his things to his mother. It’s a visit I would avoid if it were possible. You have family?”
“My mother and father passed away a few years ago.”
“No wife?”
“I have a sister.” The captain grimaced. “Maybe I should give you this stone. Our Tom believed it would do him some good, maybe it will do for ye.”
Simon reluctantly laid the stone back in the center of the table. “You should keep it or give it to his mother. Perhaps it will bring you all you ever wanted.”
“I’ve got what I want, lad.” A knowing smile wrinkled his face. “My wife is waiting for me at home with four boys. And what Tom’s mother will want no rock can do.”
Simon nodded his agreement. No stone would give him what he wanted either. Although if it were the right stone it could add significantly to his knowledge of electricity. There was nothing to be lost in giving it a try. “I’ll buy your dinner in exchange for the stone.”
McCabe smiled, “Ye, too?”
“I don’t think it will get me everything I want, but I do think it would make an interesting scientific experiment.”
“Whatever ye say, me lad.” McCabe stood on unsteady legs and tossed the stone to Simon. “I’ll be on me way.”
Simon nodded to the Captain. Smooth and cool to the touch, the stone slipped into his pocket without a catch. He closed his book, turned toward the stairwell and his room. From his right, in a corner of the room a shout of “huzzah” and the clink of raised goblets grabbed his notice. Near the bar, a young man knocked sideways through the thinning crowd as he pushed his way out of the Ordinary. When Simon looked forward again, he found a pair of stormy eyes. “What are you doing here?” He put his hand in his pocket. Was the stone warm? No, it wasn’t possible. Was it?
Elizabeth Chevalier Hull, writing as Izzy James, is the award-winning author of The Christmas Gift, The Christmas Plainsong, and Finding Boaz. Izzy writes contemporary and historical romance. She grew up on the Chesapeake Bay in coastal Virginia. She still lives there still with her fabulous husband in a house brimming with books.
Check out Izzy's previous Spotlights
HERE and
HERE.
Sounds like you've written yourself another wonderful book, Izzy! Thanks for sharing it with us today. We certainly wish you the best of luck and God's blessings with it.
Hope you enjoyed Izzy's visit as much as I have, friends and that you'll check back each week for another edition of Wednesday Words with Friends and Saturday Spotlight.
Until next time take care and God bless.
PamT
