A Little Bit of What I Love by Lucy Felthouse

Thanks to Judith for having me here today to share a little bit about my novella, Love Through Time, which was just released as part of Noble Romance's Timeless Desire collection.

The background of my story is simple – the theme was chosen for us. "Timeless desire" was to be out theme to interpret as we wished. I scratched my head for a while trying to come up with something that I was happy with, and wanted to write. Once I had the idea, though, there was no stopping me. Because, you see, after then I simply went on to write a little bit of what I love.

I love country houses, libraries and books. I spend lots of my weekends going around visiting country houses and admiring their interiors and exteriors. I see a lot of their libraries, some more impressive than others, and more houses still which have bookshelves here, there and everywhere.

When I came up with the idea for Love Through Time I immediately knew that I wanted to set it in a country house. Preferably in a library. Which is how the idea of making the main character, Emily, a book conservator came about. That way, she could be working with books in a library, inside a country house. 

Right there, you have three things that I love, all rolled into one story!

The house in the story, Westbury Manor, doesn't really exist. It's an amalgamation of different houses. I've basically chosen my favourite features from many houses and put them together to make a suitable setting for my novella. The library, however, is based on a real place, with some tweaks to make it work better within my story.

It was great fun to write about these places in Love Through Time, and set the action within places that I'm enthusiastic about and love to visit. It's stories like this that make being a writer so much fun! I hope that you'll read the story and be mentally transported to the setting, seeing what I've seen, and exactly why I'm so enthusiastic about it.

Happy reading!

Blurb:

Westbury Manor is a stately home with a fascinating past, and when book conservator Emily Stone starts uncovering it, she's startled by what she finds . . . .

Emily arrives at Westbury Manor with a job to do. She's to clean and conserve all of the books in their impressive library, preserving them for future generations. Not long into her stay at the house, she bumps into the night guard, George. She'd expected an old, balding guy with a comb over, so the hunky chap she actually meets is a very pleasant surprise. The introductions complete, George leaves Emily in peace to get on with her job. But when a falling photograph sets off a chain reaction of ghostly events, Emily and George are thrown together in order to find out who—or what—is causing them. Their investigation uncovers a tragic past, a lost love, and a stunning secret.

Buy link: https://www.nobleromance.com/Authors/162/Lucy-Felthouse

Excerpt:

Emily received some strange looks and frowns from the people she passed as she walked across the graveled drive toward the front entrance of Westbury Hall. She could appreciate their confusion. It was closing time for the stately home, and the last of the visitors were being politely ushered out of the building, yet she was heading inside. She'd been invited. She had a job to do.

An elderly lady stood in the porch, smiling and nodding as she held the door open for those departing the hall. Most of them seemed in no hurry to leave, stopping to make comments to the woman at the door, thanking her for a lovely visit and so on. Emily waited patiently to the side, allowing the patrons to leave before attempting to enter. When the staff member—most likely a volunteer, Emily thought—caught sight of her, she gave her a polite nod of acknowledgment.

Finally, the last of Westbury Hall's visitors moved out, leaving Emily free to enter. Climbing the single, stone step to the threshold, she took the hand already offered her.

Shaking Emily's hand with a surprising firmness, the woman said, "You must be Miss Stone." Her smart appearance and the intelligence in her eyes indicated that despite her age, she was far from past it. "I'm Mrs. Thompson, house supervisor."

"I am," Emily replied, dropping her hand back to her side, "but please, call me Emily. It's lovely to meet you. So, house supervisor? Do you live on site?"

Indicating Emily should step inside the entrance hall, Mrs. Thompson proceeded to close and lock the porch and front doors of the house, securing them in.

"I do," the older woman said, turning back to face Emily, "I have rooms in a separate building just off the back of this one. So you needn't worry about me disturbing you."

"Oh no," Emily said, worried she'd inadvertently rubbed Mrs. Thompson the wrong way. "I didn't mean that. I was just curious. You're more than welcome to see me at work, Mrs. Thompson; although, I'm afraid you won't see anything terribly exciting."

Mrs. Thompson smiled now, the warmth reaching her eyes. Emily sighed silently with relief. She'd yet to see the extent of the work she had to do, but she'd been told it was no easy task, so she could be here for some time. The last thing she needed was to upset any of the staff.

"Oh, you'd be surprised, my dear. This is a fascinating old place. Of course, all these old houses have history, but Westbury Hall's is particularly rich."

Emily smiled. The woman's enthusiasm was infectious. "Well then," she replied, "I can't wait to learn more about it. I hope you'll feed me full of historical tidbits while I'm here?"

Mrs. Thompson gave an enigmatic smile. Then, startling Emily somewhat, she turned smartly on her heel and walked deeper into the house. "Come, my dear, I won't hold you up any longer. I'll show you to the library, where you'll soon start uncovering Westbury's illustrious history for yourself."

*****

Lucy is a graduate of the University of Derby, where she studied Creative Writing. During her first year, she was dared to write an erotic story - so she did. It went down a storm and she's never looked back. Lucy has had stories published by Cleis Press, Noble Romance, Ravenous Romance, Summerhouse Publishing, Sweetmeats Press and Xcite Books. She is also the editor of Uniform Behaviour and Seducing the Myth. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.