Description:
The only way to save her life is to resurrect the dead...
Julian Darke was only a newborn when he was abandoned on the doorstep of a gentleman doctor. Though raised with love, he is driven to discover his true origins.
Convinced Sir Thaddeus Ormond knows something, Julian shadows him one night and is shocked to see a young woman thrown from Ormond s carriage and accosted by a thug. Julian manages to save her life, but not her face and hands from horrific injuries.
Nellie Barchester doesn t recognize the scarred, disfigured stranger in the mirror. Though the gifted doctor and engineer has done his best to repair the damage, scars ravage her body, and chill her soul with the realization that her own husband may have plotted her death.
Julian s tenderness is a balm to her soul, and Nellie is drawn to the edge of passion by a man not repelled by her deformities. But as their pursuit of the truth draws them into London s underbelly, they cross the path of a ruthless enemy who will stop at nothing to fulfill his schemes.
Warning: Can a brilliant but troubled doctor find happiness with a woman scarred both inside and out? A hint of the supernatural plus a night of passion spice up this Uncanny Chronicle.
EXCERPT:
Copyright
© 2013 by Coleen Kwan
“What
have we here?” Elijah lifted the stained cloak covering the woman. He froze.
“God in heaven! Her face—”
Julian
nodded grimly. He had seen her face earlier on and, after a cursory
examination, had instinctively hidden it with her cloak.
“Well?”
Julian asked.
His
father grunted. “See for yourself.”
For
some reason, instead of staring rudely at her exposed face, he found himself
reaching for the hood of the cloak and smoothing it back from the woman’s head.
A handful of brown curls tumbled out, incongruously bright and clean and fresh
against the oozing mess staining everything else. The tang of spilt blood hit
the back of his throat, like the taste of pennies. He swallowed hard, aware of
his roiling innards. Why was the smell of blood unmanning him like this? Since
he was old enough to walk, he’d assisted his father. He had lanced boils,
drained suppurating wounds, stitched up gaping cuts, all with nary a wince. And
he was a qualified doctor too. He’d dissected corpses, amputated arms and legs,
trepanned a number of patients. In all these years he’d never suffered a queasy
turn, and yet now his stomach threatened to unman him. Why now? Why did this
woman affect him so?
She
was a stranger to him; he’d never laid eyes on her before this evening. It must
simply be his body protesting, sapped of energy after the tribulations he’d
faced tonight. He willed his nerves to steady as he took a proper look at the
woman.
Under
the harsh, hissing light, the white of her face was crisscrossed with deep
gashes, like a peach haphazardly sliced open. Mercifully both eyes appeared
intact and unharmed. Congealing blood spattered the front of her dress, the
pattern of the faded cotton submerged beneath the sticky mess. A swelling
contusion on her right temple indicated the heavy blow which had rendered her
insensate.
Elijah
lifted up one of the woman’s hands. “What happened here?” His voice was rough
with disbelief.
Julian
could only shake his head at the bloodied stumps, all that was left of the
middle and ring fingers. He had bound his handkerchief as best he could around
the hand, but there had been considerable loss of blood, and the fingers had
been crudely removed, leaving behind a messy lump of flesh.
“Can
we save her hand?” he asked.
“We
shall do our best.”
Using
a sharp pair of scissors, Elijah began to cut off the woman’s dress in order to
complete his examination. As the shears tore through the thin material, the
woman moaned. It was no more than a murmur, but it seemed the most
blood-curdling sound Julian had ever heard. She squirmed, her flailing arms
almost knocking the scissors from Elijah’s hand.
“Hold
her down, son,” Elijah barked.
Julian
obeyed, but the instant he pressed down on the woman’s shoulders, her eyelids
flew open. Two green eyes stared up at him, frozen in a moment of sheer terror.
With the glaring lights overhead, he must appear like a dark silhouette looming
over her, Julian surmised. And then every thought fled from him as she started
to shriek and thrash her limbs, struggling with all her might to free herself.
Elijah
exclaimed as the scissors were knocked flying from his grasp.
“Hush
now, hush. You’re safe—” Julian tried to comfort the woman, but she only fought
harder, her strength surprising him.
She thinks I am her attacker, that monster assaulting
her with his knife. The realisation was enough to make him lift his
hands away from her. She tried to sit up, but before she could move Elijah
darted in and covered her nose and mouth with his chloroform pad. Her muffled
screams continued, her eyes above the pad bulging with horror, but moments
later her eyelids drooped, and she collapsed back on the table.
Goodreads ** Samhain ** Amazon ** Barnes&Noble ** iTunes
About the author:
About the author:
Coleen Kwan has been a bookworm all her life. At school English was her favorite subject, but for some reason she decided on a career in IT. After many years of programming, she wondered what else there was in life — and discovered writing. She loves writing contemporary romance and steampunk romance.
Coleen lives in Sydney, Australia with her partner and two children. When she isn’t writing she enjoys avoiding housework, eating chocolate, and watching The Office.
No comments:
Post a Comment