Wordcandy weekly book snippet

Excerpt from:
Devil's Cub, by Georgette Heyer

Why you should buy a copy of your very own:
It's Heyer's hottest romance (although you have to judge these things on the Heyer scale-we're talking about lots of sexual tension, followed by a single kiss at the end of the story).

In this scene...
In a desperate attempt to discourage the Marquis of Vidal's interest in her beautiful, amoral sister, Mary Challoner has just spent the past few chapters pretending to be a scheming floozy. Things get a little difficult when Vidal drunkenly decides that one sister will do just as well as the other. Unfortunately for Mary, her recent behavior has given Vidal some justification for thinking that she's just playing hard to get; unfortunately for Vidal... well, Mary really means it, and she has the pistol to prove it.


""You won't pretend, I hope, that you are fallen in love with me."

"Love?" he said scornfully. "No, madam. I feel no more love for you than I felt for your pretty sister. But you've thrown yourself at my head, and by God I'll take you!" His eyes ran over her. "You've a mighty trim figure, my dear, and from what I can discover, more brain than Sophia. You lack her beauty, but I'm not repining."

She looked up at him gravely. "My lord, if you take me, it will be for revenge, I think. Have I deserved so bitter a punishment?"

"You're not very complimentary, are you?" he mocked.

She rose, holding her pistol behind her. "Let me go now," she said. "You do not want me, and indeed I think you have punished me enough."

"Oh, so that's it, is it?" he said. "Are you piqued that I liked Sophia better? Never heed it, my dear, I've forgotten the wench already."

"My lord," she said desperately, "indeed I am not what you think me!"

He burst into one of his wild laughs, and she realized that in this mood she could make no impression on him.

He was advancing towards her. She brought her right hand from behind her, and leveled the pistol. "Stand right where you are!" she said. "If you come one step nearer I shall shoot you down."

He stopped short. "Where did you get that thing?" he demanded.

"Out of your coach," she answered.

"Is it loaded?"

"I don't know," said Miss Challoner, incurably truthful.

He began to laugh again, and walked forward. "Shoot then," he invited, "and we shall know. For I am coming several steps nearer, my lady."

Miss Challoner saw that he meant it, shut her eyes and resolutely pulled the trigger. There was a deafening report and the Marquis went staggering back. He recovered in a moment. "It was loaded," he said coolly."

(C)Georgette Heyer, 1966