Like Charles Dickens, I have a thing for waifs and strays:  Bobby, the student who could never quite make it to one of my ninth-grade classes; Squeaky, the baby mouse my daughter and I rescued from the jaws of a neighborhood cat; and most recently “kitty cat,” a long-haired black cat who began the process of adopting us about a year ago, and who has finally moved in and taken over all the warm, comfy corners of our house. [Yes, we advertised for her owner, checked for a chip, and had our Vet administer necessary care.]

Naturally, strays populate my stories. I love telling the tale of the self-sufficient outsider who is drawn into a family’s circle of warmth and love. In the third book of The Duke’s Men series, The Lady and the Secret Lord, I couldn’t resist telling that sort of story again, this time about Robin Jones, the last of the Lost Boys for whom the Duke of Wenlocke has been finding families. Robin stubbornly resists the truth about his own past until he meets another pair of waifs. One of them, Aggie, was inspired by Dickens’ wonderful tough girl, Nancy, from Oliver Twist. Two actresses who have played Nancy in film versions of the novel are Sophie Okonedo and Bethany Muir. I wanted Aggie, secondary character that she is, to act with Nancy’s wonderful combo of toughness and sweetness that those actresses convey. I hope I’ve succeeded.

Look for Aggie and her friend in The Lady and the Secret Lord, out today. 

Cheers and happy reading,

Kate

About the Author.

Kate Moore taught English Literature to generations of high school students, who are now her Facebook friends, while she not-so-secretly penned Romances. In Kate’s stories an undeniable mutual attraction brings honorable, edgy loners and warm, practical women into a circle of love in Regency England or contemporary California. A Golden Heart, Golden Crown, and Book Buyers Best award winner and three-time RITA finalist, Kate lives north of San Francisco with her surfer husband, their yellow Lab, toys for visiting grandkids, and miles of crowded bookshelves.