The ever delightful Jo Bourne was kind enough to provide TGTBTU a pond exclusive excerpt to her much anticipated novel The Spymaster’s Lady (in November 2007). Sadly it was never posted and I know you have all bought this book already and most of you loved it.

After reading Lawson’s recent review I remembered just why I fell in love with this novel. And asked Jo Bourne to be one of our Valenduckies. Sadly Jo, much like Jo Goodman, seems to delight in making my life difficult and was hard at work on finishing up her next novel, My Lord and Spymaster, which is scheduled for July 2008. I am sure Jo will be shortly sharing a wonderful excerpt from this upcoming novel, right Jo? 😉 But until this as this is Valentines and we are celebrating all the things we love… and for the few of you left who haven’t bought The Spymaster’s Lady, I give you a much too short excerpt (yes Jo that is a subtle sybilish hint to make the next one long *eg*).

“One does not love one’s jailer. It is a fallacy jailers have, that their prisoners like them, but it is never true. If you had not trapped me, I would have walked away by now. In a week I would have forgotten you altogether.” Or in a month, or a year. Or never. “There is nothing between us except a hunger of bodies.”

“There’s that, too.”

“I do not want to feel anything for you. Do you understand? Can you imagine what it is to have not even a shift to wear? To be so dependent upon a man that I must ask him for clothing? This is not a good basis for friendship.”

“I know. It makes it harder. Will you sleep with me tonight?”

He would ask. Not demand. Just ask. She did not know how to fight such cunning. “Can I say no?”

“Of course you can. There’s five or six empty bedrooms, one right across the hall. I can put you in there.” He took back the space between them till they were almost touching. “I’ll leave my door unlocked. Will you come to me?”

“I am very stupid.”

“I think that means yes.” He was smiling.

She gave him his victory. “I would come to you sometime in the night, tiptoeing down the hall, and open the door and crawl in beside you. Already, I am listening to the argument your body makes to mine. If you carried me to that bed, even without taking a moment to be persuasive, I would want you like flames.”

“The hall gets chilly. Sleep with me tonight, in that bed.”

He cradled her cheek into the warm hardness of his palm. He was so aware of her … even the infinitesimal nod of her head, he felt.

“You have to say it.”

“Yes.” She was without shame.

“I’ll hold you to that.” He drew her against him, body to body, and nuzzled into her hair, breathing the scent, making a growl deep in his throat. It grappled at her heart – he desired even her smell.

Copyright © 2008 Jo Bourne
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

I love this novel. If you haven’t yet, go get it. And if it is sitting on your TBR – READ it! And tell us what you think.

Now we wait for Jo to send the excerpt for My Lord and Spymaster…
From her Blog:

My Lord and Spymaster is the story of Jessamyn and Sebastian. Set in London in 1811. Adrian plays a secondary part. Doyle has a walk-on. (release July 2008. Berkley)