If you like romances with lots of adventure, check out this excerpt from my 17th century, Taking A Chance.
Delphine Lotterby woke to muffled voices and the heavy tread of footsteps on the stairs. “Which door?” a grating voice demanded. She could not make out the frightened answer to the demand, but she did not need to know what was said. Her hand found the horse pistol on the small table beside her bed.
“Mistress …” came her maid’s querulous voice, and Delphine hissed, “Keep low, Tatty.” At the same instant she heard her door latch jiggled, and the grating voice said, “Door is locked.”
A second, deeper voice said, “I will take care of that.”
Delphine raised the pistol, and holding it steady with both hands, pointed it at her door as it burst open with a loud crash. The lantern from the corridor showed her a bear of a man standing in her doorway. When he took a step toward her, she fired. Sparks and smoke belched from the pistol’s mussel and the report roared in her ears. With a yowl, the man smashed back against the door he had busted in, but despite Delphine’s cousin’s training, the kick of the gun knocked her backwards. Two men pushed past the grimacing bear but were met by Delphine’s maid. Though slight of frame and pushing forty, she sprang up from the trundle bed to attack the two men.
One man knocked the maid aside and headed around the bed as Delphine rolled off its far side. Swinging her pistol, she connected with his forehead. He grunted and grabbed at her arm. The second man hopped over the bed, and Delphine found herself trapped between the two assailants. Tatty renewed her attack, tugging from behind at the first man’s straggly hair, but a third man entered, and grasping Tatty, pinioned her arms to her side.
Her heart pounding in her ears, Delphine struggled rigorously though she knew she was no match for her adversaries. The pistol was wrested from her hand and one arm was twisted behind her. The pain caused her to cease her struggles. “Ah, now that is better.” The man’s voice grated in her ear. “You ready to join your new bridegroom?” His comment brought a coarse chuckle from his colleague, but the bear growled, “Damn she-cat! I am bleeding lack a stuck pig, and my shoulder hurts something fierce. Was we not getting paid in hard coin, I would wring her damn neck.”
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