Beauty and the Blacksmith: A Regency Historical Romance Novella with Forbidden Love and Small-Town Intrigue (Spindle Cove Book 1)

“Temptress,” he muttered bitterly.

Who knows what the broadsheets would call you? The Beastly Bride of Bloom Square?” She raised an eyebrow. “Did you have that moniker thought out in advance?” “No,” he said, sounding defensive. “Because it tripped rather easily off your tongue.”

And his love, his beautiful, spinster, wallflower lockpick, she did not cry. Instead she lifted her chin and said, calm as a queen, “You deserve the darkness.” And she left him to it.

Lord Archer looked around at the castle, then at her. His brow arched in amusement. And then he did the most unforgivable of things. He gave her a patronizing pat on the head. “That’s little Izzy Goodnight. You do love an adventure.”