Welcome to teaser Tuesday, where I share snippets from new and past releases and works-in-progress, and do my best con author buddies into doing the same.

Which I have for this week’s Teaser Tuesday. Yes, my lovelies, we have another guest. Rah!

Before I pass you over to our visitor, news from the Hein house.

Umm…

Not a lot, to be honest. Except I bought a new KitchenAid mixmaster and have been going a bit potty with it. So potty I’ve been temporarily banned from making any more cakes. Which is fine. I’ll just switch to bread and test out its dough hook instead. Or the bonus pasta roller and cutter set that came with it. Got to run my new toy through its paces!

Enough of that. Time for our guest.

I’m delighted to welcome back Cheryl Adnams to Teaser Tuesday. It’s been a long time since her last visit but Cheryl has been a very busy lady. Not only with writing but travelling too. The Instagram feed of her recent journeys left me green with envy. Oh, the places she went! Check it out when you get a moment. The photos and videos are fantastic.

Also fantastic is Cheryl’s foray into historical romance and women’s fiction. You may be familiar with her highly rated Muller’s of McLaren Vale rural romance series, which included Handpicked, Chasing the Flames and Bet On It. Although still Australian-set, Cheryl’s most recent books have moved back in time to turning points in Australian history. The first was The Girl From Eureka (ebook available now with print coming out in 2020) and now Cheryl’s newest title, The Bushranger’s Wife has hit shelves, and I know you are going to love it.

Here’s Cheryl to tell you more and share an excerpt.

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Hi Cathryn!

Thank you for having me as your guest today. I’m thrilled to be able to tell you and your readers about my latest release, “The Bushranger’s Wife”.

This book is a follow on from my first Australian Historical romance “The Girl from Eureka” which introduced readers to amateur bushranger Jack the Devil. Jack was a fun side character and friend to my heroine Indy.

“The Bushranger’s Wife” takes up Jack’s life six years after the famous Eureka Stockade rebellion and he is now a fully-fledged bushranger who is also running a semi-legitimate transport business. The story begins with him robbing our heroine, Pru and her grandmother, and he is instantly captivated. A series of encounters throws the two together until finally an event forces Pru into marriage with Jack. But this is not your usual marriage and some fun scenes as well as challenging moments test the love that they find within what started out as a marriage of convenience.

This scene is one of the fun pre-marriage scenes that Jack and Pru have. I hope you enjoy enough to want to read the rest. Cheryl xxx

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Pru spent a fitful night and was up earlier than usual. She’d tossed and turned in her bed, having worked herself up to a state she knew would only be sated by Jack’s kisses and hands. Hands that he still refused to lay on her, damn him. It was romantic really and she admired him for his patience and his strength, but didn’t he know how much she wanted him to make love to her?

Having dressed and made breakfast, she went to the little spare room to see if Jack was awake. He must have returned very late from town, as she hadn’t heard him come home. The door was slightly ajar and she pushed it a little to see if he was there. No Jack. The bed was made, just as she had left it the day before.

Following her instincts out to the barn, Persephone and Misha stood chomping on their morning feed. They lifted their heads to look at her momentarily before digging back into their chaff. He must have come back at some point in the night, or early this morning, and had taken the time to feed to horses. But why had he gone out again?

‘He’s run away again, has he?’ she asked Misha, giving her a good scratch.

A few hours later, Pru heard a horse and wagon coming up the driveway and opening the front door she stepped out onto the wide wooden porch to see Jack just pulling a small dray to a halt at the bottom of the steps. When he grinned at her before jumping down off the wagon, she smiled and placed a hand over her belly. It never failed to amaze her how the sight of him caused butterflies to wake in her stomach.

‘Where have you been?’ she asked. ‘And where did you get the dray?’

‘I’m sorry I was gone so long,’ Jack responded. ‘I needed to go a little further afield for this particular delivery, and required something larger to carry it in.’

‘Another present? For me?’ she asked, clapping her hands in delight.

Taking a step forward to help him unload the dray of whatever he’d bought, she stopped dead when instead he unloaded a man, bound and gagged.

Jack walked his prisoner towards the house and her eyes widened as she saw the man’s distinctive clothing.

‘What’s this?’

‘It’s a priest.’

‘I can see that,’ she said. ‘Why is he bound and gagged and standing on our doorstep?’

‘He wouldn’t come of his own accord.’

‘So … you kidnapped him?! You kidnapped a priest?’

‘He said we had to come to church on Sunday,’ Jack said, as though it ought to make sense to her. ‘But I needed him to marry us today. He refused. So I talked him into it.’

Pru struggled against the smile that threatened. ‘How romantic?’

Jack removed the gag from the old priest’s mouth. The man coughed and spluttered. ‘He dragged me out of my bed before dawn. Made me get dressed. Dragged me all the way here from Daylesford.’

‘Daylesford?’ Pru shot another angry look at Jack.

‘Well, I couldn’t use a priest from Ballarat. They all know me.’

‘Really?’ Pru raised an eyebrow. ‘Priests know you?’

Jack rolled his eyes. ‘Fine, so I’ve never stepped foot inside a church in my life. But I couldn’t risk anyone recognising me from town. This was the only way.’

‘Untie his hands too,’ Pru ordered.

‘But …’ Jack started, rubbing his chin as he hesitated. ‘He already hit me once.’

‘I’d say you deserved at least one, wouldn’t you?’

‘What happened to “how romantic”?’ Jack huffed.

She stepped down the wooden steps and kissed him. Then she slapped him across the back of the head.

‘Ow!’

‘I was being sarcastic, you madman.’ Pru shook her head and turned to the priest.

‘Father, I apologise for my wayward, romantic, husband to be. You are free to go.’

‘Now hold on,’ Jack complained. ‘I brought him here to marry us and that’s exactly what he’s going to do.’

‘I’ll not be married by a man of God who is being held against his will.’

‘I do not know why you agreed to marry this reprobate, child,’ the priest said, rubbing his rope-burned wrists.

‘She proposed to me,’ Jack grumbled.

Pru ignored him. ‘Can I at least offer you a cup of tea before you go, Father?’

The priest looked from Jack to Prudence with some remaining suspicion before he yielded. ‘The name is Father Flaherty. Your friend here did not even bother to ask.’

‘You were too busy taking swings at me,’ Jack threw in.

‘You were dragging me out of my bed!’

‘Jack, enough!’ Pru ordered.

‘A cup of tea, you say?’ the priest said, ignoring Jack and stepping up onto the porch. ‘Don’t mind if I do.’

Both of them turned their backs on Jack and walked into the house.

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Hooly-dooly, how much fun does The Bushranger’s Wife sound!! You want a copy, oh yes you do, so satisfy that want with an instant purchase via any of these links.

Amazon.com | Amazon.au | Amazon.uk

Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Barnes & Noble

Happy reading!

If you’d like to learn more about Cheryl and her books, please visit her website. You can also connect via Instagram and Twitter using @cadnams.

Make sure you tune in this coming Friday when I’ll be sharing a stack of photos from our recent trip to Sculpture on the Farm. Not to be missed!

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