Thanks for dropping by my First Kiss Friday blog! It’s always lovely to have you here. Today’s guest is my dear friend Jude Knight! Jude has an excerpt from her novella Moonlight Becomes You in the Bluestocking Belles’ upcoming release Moonlight Madness. We hope you enjoy this excerpt. Happy reading and take it away, Jude.
My hero in Moonlight Madness is a ghost for much of the story, and so I can’t give you a first kiss scene. The kisses came later and are not on the page. But I can give you the scene where they first met, and where Barney first thought about kissing Hester.
Excerpt:
She cast a quick glance around the library and then focused on him again. At least, he thought she was looking at him, and in the next moment, she confirmed it. “Are you a ghost?” she asked. “Why are you here? Can I help you?”
No scream. No fluster. Three sensible questions. Why didn’t Barney meet ladies like that when he was alive? Clever and composed, as well as pretty.
“I think I must be,” he told her. “I don’t know why I am here or why no one else can see or hear me. Could you tell my parents and my sister? I’ve tried to talk to them, but you are the first person I’ve met that I’ve been able to talk to.”
Miss Williamson shook her head. “I am sorry,” she said. “I can see that you are talking, but I cannot hear a word you say.”
Barney was, as he could confirm by looking down at his own arms and legs, composed of something that resembled mist, but apparently that mist included a heart and guts, or the ghost equivalent, for his heart fell and his guts churned. Now what?
It transpired that Miss Williamson was equal to the challenge.
“I shall ask you some questions, sir, if you wish. Nod for ‘yes’ and shake your head for ‘no’.”
Excellent thinking. Barney nodded like a mad marionette, exaggerating his movements so there would be no possibility of confusion.
She had a rather adorable crease between her eyebrows when she was thinking, and a way of pursing her lips that set Barney thinking about kissing. Which reminded him he was dead, and presumably wouldn’t be kissing anyone ever again.
Unless he met a nice lady ghost. He supposed a single day, however long it seemed, was not evidence there were no other people stuck in spirit form wandering around the world.
“Have you been dead for long?” Miss Williamson asked.
Barney shook his head. His family and his friend looked no older than they had been when he last saw them, and they were at the house party where he was meant to meet them. A couple of days might have passed since his last living memory, but not more than that, surely?
“Did you die in Farrington Grange?” asked his pretty questioner.
He started to shake his head again, but had to pause. Though he thought he had been thrown from his horse, he wasn’t certain the fall had killed him. If he had died recently, and in this house, his parents would know and would be in mourning. Certainly, his mother would not be sitting in her finery calmly playing piquet with her friends.
On the other hand, he had no idea how much time had passed. Perhaps he had been dead for a year, and his family had already put off mourning? He put his hands out to the sides, holding them up and open, and gave an exaggerated shrug of his shoulders.
“You don’t know?” Miss Williamson was, he assumed, checking that she understood him. He nodded.
She bit her lower lip as she thought about her next question. Apparently, his ability to react to such a gesture with naughty thoughts about what he could bite and under which conditions had also survived death, even if the physical reaction was annoyingly ephemeral.
If this existence was a punishment for his sins, he must have been much much worse than he thought.
Moonlight Becomes You in Moonlight Madness
Hester Williamson doesn’t want to be at this house party. She barely knows anybody, and now, she is seeing things. A man. The ghost of a man, for he appears in rooms without the bother of opening doors, she can see furniture and walls through him, and no one else can see him.
Barnabus Radcliffe seems to be a ghost, though he doesn’t remember dying. Still, why else would he be inaudible, unable to grasp or lift objects, and invisible to everyone except Miss Williamson. And why does he is he certain he is alive somewhere, and that time is running out?
Moonlight Madness is available for Preorder and releases October 15th!
Learn more on our website at: https://bluestockingbelles.net/belles-joint-projects/moonlight-madness/
Meet Jude
Jude always wanted to be a novelist. She started in her teens, but life kept getting in the way. Years passed, and with them dozens of unfinished manuscripts. The fear grew. What if she tried, failed, and lost the dream forever? The years since 2014 have brought 17 novels, 16 novella, 6 volumes of short stories, a number of awards, and hundreds of positive reviews. The dream is alive.
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