Grace Burrowes | When Our Hero Is Feeling Sheepish

TREMAINE'S TRUE LOVE is the first in my True Gentlemen series of Regency romances, and it’s the series were animals figure most prominently. Tremaine St. Michael is a wealthy, half-Scottish, half-French wool merchant who sees an opportunity to buy some particularly fine sheep from Lady Nita Haddonfield’s brother.

The merino sheep was first brought to England when the King of Spain gifted King George III with a herd. At the time, exporting these wooly beasts from Spain was illegal, and yet they were highly prized for their dense, soft wool. As royal debts mounted, the herd was sold off, and thus savvy Englishmen with enough coin to spare could upgrade the quality of their herds.

Tremaine is quite savvy—when it comes to sheep. He works hard, he enjoys commerce, but when he bumps into Lady Nita Haddonfield, he realizes there might be more to life than tending his figurative flocks. For her part, Lady Nita has followed in the footsteps of her mother, who was a noted healer. Nita has looked after her brother’s household and taken care of the ailing and infirm in the neighborhood.

She saves lives, in fact, and can’t justify giving up a medical vocation for the dubious pleasures of matrimony, when marriage means she’d become some man’s chattel.

Throughout the book, the sheep are discussed as valuable, helpless, precious, beautiful, stupid, clever, and under-appreciated. Tremaine, who spent long seasons among the shepherds as a boy, points out that sheep stick together when there’s trouble, endure all manner of difficult weather with ease, and thrive in pastures other animals can barely subsist on.

As Tremaine says, the very man who claims sheep are dumb animals will have to chase down his entire herd when some old ewe finds the only gap in acres of fencing.

The sheep become a metaphor, for women in Regency society, for family, for abilities that Lady Nita’s social status prohibit her from easily developing… though she finds ways to hone her knowledge, nonetheless. She finds the one gap in the wall, she subsists on sparse rations, she thinks of others when trouble comes calling, all the while caring for those who fail to appreciate her.

Tremaine—the conscientious shepherd—sees what Nita’s family misses, about her value, and about her vulnerability.

I hadn’t intended that a herd of wooly sheep become the unifying symbol of the book, but sheep by and large do as they please. In the second book in the series, DANIEL'S TRUE DESIRE, frogs and little boys carry the symbolic burden, and in the third book, WILL'S TRUE WISH, man’s best friend—the noble hound—has much to add to the story.

Using animals as secondary characters made these books great fun to write, added some metaphoric depth and subtly to the stories, and showed me aspects of my characters I couldn’t have otherwise revealed. I hope you enjoy reading these books as much as I enjoyed writing them!

About Grace Burrowes

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Grace Burrowes's bestsellers include THE HEIR, THE SOLDIER, LADY MAGGIE'S SECRET SCANDAL, LADY SOPHIE'S CHRISTMAS WISH and LADY EVE'S INDISCRETION. THE HEIR was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2010, The Soldier was a PW Best Spring Romance of 2011, LADY SOPHIE'S CHRISTMAS WISH won Best Historical Romance of the Year in 2011 from RT Reviewers' Choice Awards, LADY LOUISA'S CHRISTMAS KNIGHT was a Library Journal Best Book of 2012, and THE BRIDEGROOM WORE PLAID was a PW Best Book of 2012. Her Regency romances have received extensive praise, including starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Grace is branching out into short stories and Scotland-set Victorian romance with Sourcebooks. She is a practicing family law attorney and lives in rural Maryland.

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About TREMAINE'S TRUE LOVE

He's had everything he could ever want...until now

Wealthy wool magnate Tremaine St. Michael is half French, half Scottish, and all business. He prowls the world in search of more profits, rarely settling in one place for long. When he meets practical, reserved Lady Nita Haddonfield, he sees an opportunity to mix business with pleasure by making the lady his own.

Nita Haddonfield has a meaningful life tending to others, though nobody is dedicated to caring for Nita. She insists the limitations of marriage aren't for her, then Tremaine St. Michael arrives-protective, passionate, and very, very determined to win Nita's heart.