Here’s a tiny advance peek!
For an additional excerpt, see my “Ripping the Bodice” blog post:

She’d just finished checking her bootlaces when the door banged open.

Again, she startled, pressing a hand to her chest. “Dash. I thought you’d gone.”

“You truly believe I’m capable of such villainy? Abandoning you alone in a snowstorm to fend for yourself?”

“Well. You did leave me without a word once before.”

He made a gruff noise. “I thought your little pamphlet wasn’t about me.”

Nora didn’t reply.

“Don’t worry, you needn’t count this as chivalry on my part,” he said. “I could say I’m acting out of long-held esteem for your family. But mostly, I’ll be damned if I’ll leave you here to scribble the sequel: Lord Ashwood* Left Me for Dead.” He thrust a big, gloved hand in her direction and made an impatient motion. “Come along.”

She regarded him, wary. “Where are we going?”

“There’s a cottage some distance off the road. I believe it’s some sort of gamekeeper’s shelter.”

“A cottage?”

“Perhaps you’d call it a hut.”

“A hut.”

“It seems to be uninhabited at the moment. Probably barren inside.”

“Well, that’s lucky,” she said, taking his hand. “One wouldn’t want for this abandoned hut to be too comfortable. We might be tempted to stay for a holiday.”

He grasped her by the wrist and yanked her to him. Their bodies collided as she stumbled into the snow.

Despite the chill, parts of Nora melted. Oh. Those muscles again.

“It’s a structure,” he said. “One with walls and a roof, and it will keep us alive until the coachman returns in the morning.” He looked down and gave her a cold, strange smile. “Assuming we don’t kill each other first.”

*I promise this isn’t a typo, even though it says Ashwood, not Dashwood. All will be explained!