Excerpt:
Sabrina arrived safely at the casa where she lived. Scrambling out of
the gondola, she rushed into the house through the water gate, the canal-side
entrance. She did not bother to call any of the servants to take her cloak as
she hurried across the rough tiles of the andron, the undecorated water-level
entry hall. She ran up the stairs to the study. The room, lit brightly by the
center wrought iron chandelier, seemed empty. She circled around the massive gum
wood desk and went directly to the small table which held several decanters and
glasses. Her hand trembled as she poured herself two fingers of brandy. She
gulped it down, but even its burn did not stop her shivers. She turned to the
fire and its warmth.
“Sabrina.”
She jumped. Harold Dunfield, the uncle of her late husband, stared at
her in shock from his chair before the blaze. His cool blue eyes pinned her. He
was dressed to go out for an evening’s entertainment, impeccable in his
burgundy velvet coat and yellow silk waistcoat, his silvery hair perfectly tied
back with a black satin ribbon. He had obviously been waiting for her. She had
not seen him sitting there.
“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded, indicating the empty glass
in her hand.
Guiltily, she placed the glass on the mantle. “Someone just tried to
kill me.” She choked out the words.
His brow furrowed, but he
said nothing.
“You never warned me my life could be in danger.” Her voice shook, and
she took a breath to steady herself.
“Really, Sabrina, I’m sure
you are being overly dramatic.” Dunfield waved away her reproach.
Of course he would show no
sympathy for her ordeal.
“A stiletto missed me by inches,” she said.
“You must have been mistaken for someone else. There’s no reason why
anyone should wish you dead. I’m only selling artwork.” Dunfield took a casual
sip of his own brandy.
Frustration at his callous reaction to her fright brought tears to her
eyes. She blinked them away and tried to make him see the problem—again. “They
are Italian masterpieces, and you are selling them to our English king. If the
Venetians discover their art is leaving the city—”
“They won’t.” His gaze sharpened. “Did you get the message?”
Sabrina swallowed. She did not want to confess what had occurred in the
chapel. She would never reveal to this man that a shadow had saved her life. He
would think she had gone mad. Perhaps she had, and the apparition in the chapel
had merely been a hallucination. Except she still felt the bruise where she had
landed on the hard marble floor. How could she explain something she did not
understand herself?
“I lost it.” Her admission came out small and quiet.
Anger turned his eyes to ice. “So you thought to cover up your
incompetence with some fantasy about an attempt on your life?”
“No! I—”
“Stop.” Dunfield gave her a hard stare. “If you cannot perform a simple
chore for me, like retrieving a message, then you are of little use. I am
disinclined to support a destitute widow with a son if you are unable to give
me some recompense.”
Blurb:
Lady Sabrina Dunfield is desperate. Widowed and destitute, she must rely
on the dubious benevolence of her secretive uncle, an art collector living in
Venice. Determined to make her way and provide for her young son, Sabrina is
forced to take on clandestine and dangerous errands for her tyrannical
relative. But when a mysterious shadow man saves her from an assassin’s blade,
she knows she must do everything in her power to keep her son safe.
Alessandro
D’Este, Prince of Auriano, is cursed. Doomed to live a life half in shadow, he
is determined to free himself and his family from the evil that stalks them.
When Alessandro saves the English woman’s life, he is captivated by her beauty
and shocked at her ability to touch him in his shadowy form.
When
Sabrina meets Alessandro in his human form, heady attraction sparks between
them. She has no idea he is her shadowy savior, and she wonders what her life
might be like with this charismatic man. Alessandro has never met a woman who
affects him this way. Although life has taught him to trust only family,
Sabrina might be the key that could deliver him from the diabolical darkness.
Buy Link:
Lachesis Publishing: http://lachesispublishing.com/?product=moon-dark
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Patricia Barletta always wanted
to be a writer. That was right after she realized that becoming a fairy
ballerina or a princess wasn’t going to happen. But being a writer meant she
could go places in her head and be other people as much as she wanted. She
could even be a fairy ballerina or a princess!
As a native of the Boston area,
Patricia has been inspired by its history, which influenced her stories, and
probably had an impact on her decision to become a high school British
Literature teacher so she could pay the bills. She received a Master of Fine
Arts in Creative Writing degree at the fabulous Stonecoast program in Maine.
And now she’s an author writing about dark heroes, feisty heroines, magic, and
other fantastical things.
Find out more about Patricia
Barletta and her books on her website: www.patriciabarletta.com.
Connect with Patricia Barletta on
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patricia.barletta.3?ref=br_rs
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