Connie Brockway | An Accursed Charade

I know men who enlisted after 9/11. To a man, they were (and happily I can say all still are) honorable, fervent and dedicated, but first and foremost natural protectors, not only of their families, friends and homes, but of the principles upon which this country is founded. They are also idealists in the very best sense of the word, their belief in the value of what they were protecting absolute. In HIGHLANDER UNDONE, Captain Jack Cameron is just such a man, a career soldier whose idealism is severely tested when he discovers that one of his fellow officers may be profiting from the very slave trafficking that Britain was purportedly trying to end. The notion that the “lads” for whom he feels personally responsible may have died because of another officer’s greed, is nearly inconceivable, outraging and offending every fiber of his being. He vows to do whatever necessary to uncover the truth—even if it means deceiving the beautiful, wounded widow, Addie Hoodless. As a very young woman, Addie fell in love with a dashing officer from the upper classes of society. It was only after her marriage that she discovered the uniform hid a monster. Now Addie, the sister and daughter of famous portraitists, having had no interaction with military men other than her brutish husband and his similarly nasty friends, believes all soldiers to be cut from the same cloth. Addie’s poignant determination to rediscover her former self, her joy and spontaneity touches Jack deeply. In Addie, Jack sees a reflection of his own best self: brave, valiant and devoted, intolerant of lies and treachery. It is small wonder he falls in love with her before ever even seeing her. (You’ll have to read the books to discover just how!) But when Jack’s vow to unmask the traitor amongst the regiment Addie’s brother has been commissioned to paint leads to Jack’s masquerade as an artist, he is caught in a horrific Catch-22 because the very qualities which make Jack love Addie will also make her hate him once she learns of his deceit and have all the evidence she needs to validate her loathing of soldiers. Yet, honor —and the ghosts of all his lost lads— demands Jack do something. It’s a heartbreaking, conscience-twisting, damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t sort of conflict— the sort I purely love to explore. Poor Jack. He plays the part of an overly fastidious, artificial hanger-on —albeit an amusing one—touched by Addie’s increasingly fervent defense of his supposed helplessness, unexpectedly providing her the perfect platform to regain her former pluck and nerve. And all the time he’s counting down to that moment when he will uncover the traitor— and forever lose the only woman he will ever love. It’s a accursed charade that is sure to prove his ultimate undoing. I hope you root for Jack and Addie’s perfectly matched yet impossible happily ever after to work and I would love to hear from you at [email protected]. And please, for news of future works, subscribe to my newsletter.

About Connie Brockway

New York Times and USA Today best selling author Connie Brockway has twice won the Romance Writers of America's Rita award for best historical romance as well as being an eight time finalist for RWAs Rita award.She haas received numerous starred reviews for her romances in Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal. Library Journal also named her Her 2004 romance, My Seduction, one of the year's top ten romances. In November of 2011, THE OTHER GUY'S BRIDE (a sequel to the perennially popular AS YOU DESIRE) will by Amazon's Montlake Publishing Imprint's launch title. Today Connie lives in Minnesota with her husband David, a family physician, and two spoiled mutts. Website | Twitter | Facebook | Blog

About HIGHLANDER UNDONE

While recovering at his uncle’s estate from wounds sustained in the Sudan, Jack Cameron—a loyal Scottish captain in the British army—is haunted by the words of a dying officer: one of Her Majesty’s Black Dragoons is aiding the slavers they were sent to suppress. But how will he find the traitor without sending the culprit to ground? He finds a way while listening to the voices beneath his open window— particularly those of Addie Hoodless, a beautiful widow, and her brother, Ted, a famed artist commissioned to paint portraits of the Black Dragoons’ senior officers. Posing as an artist, Jack decides to infiltrate the close circle of friends at Ted’s studio to listen in on the unguarded conversations of the officers. But first, he must win Addie’s trust despite the emotional wounds of her past. Will Jack dupe the only woman he has ever loved or stand down from hunting the traitor? If his real identity is exposed, Addie’s life will be in terrible danger.