Aloha to Eileen Richards and AN UNEXPECTED WISH

Isn't this a sweet cover?  Eileen Richards joins us today with a sexy guest post from an expected source ....

Having Fun with the Bible in Regency England

When I first read Song of Solomon, I was fifteen and determined to read the Bible cover to cover. What I discovered, to my delight, was poetry of sexual love. IN THE BIBLE! Who knew? Imagine my delight to find this hidden romantic gem in the Bible. It was every bit as racy as my favorite historical romance novels of the time.

I am no Biblical scholar by any stretch of the imagination, but when I needed some lines from the Bible for Vicar Cecil Worth to read to Anne Townsend in An Unexpected Wish, my memory of the sexual descriptions in Song of Solomon came back to me.

This is one of my favorite scenes in the book. Let me set it up for you. It’s Sunday morning and in true Regency style, our parishioners were sitting in their assigned seats. Our heroine, Anne, sat with her sisters on one side of the knave. Our hero, Nathaniel Matthews, sat with his grandmother in the Matthews pew near the front of the church.

Mr. Worth, while a young man, is starting to bald. He is barrel chested but still has enough of the poppycock in him to think quite highly of himself. His mother, a dour, self-righteous woman always sat in the front row. There was a rumor that she wrote his sermons because her son couldn’t be serious enough.

The service starts quite normally until Cecil Worth’s eyes met Anne’s across the church. Suddenly he opens the Bible to Song of Solomon and reads Chapter 7 from the King James Version:

How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman.

2 Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies.

3 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.

Imagine that its 1818. You are sitting in church and listening to the sermon just like every single Sunday. Then imagine that the Vicar, a rather slimy young man, focuses intently on you and reads this to you during the service.

Let’s just say that Anne made her escape from the church as quickly as she could without being scene. The scene embarrasses her but it also a catalyst for Nathaniel to wake up and see her as someone he admires. She handles herself with grace and dignity despite her embarrassment and his teasing.

Anne and Nathaniel will be tested again by the good vicar during the course of the story. But don’t worry, Cecil gets his just desserts in the end.

I hope you’ll give An Unexpected Wish a read an enjoy reading the scene as much as I enjoyed writing it. Let me know what you think.

AN UEXPECTED WISH

Anne Townsend doesn’t ask for much. Plain and poor, she’d settle for the funds to put food on the table. Making a wish on the fabled Fairy Steps is hardly a solid solution, but to see her two sisters taken care of, Anne’s willing to try anything. Yet when she finds herself suddenly surrounded with suitors, romance is now a possibility for the spinster everyone always ignored except with the one man who will never want her…

Nathaniel Matthews has no time for courting. As the eldest, he has his family’s lost fortune to rebuild, and his reckless brother to manage before he gambles his future away. Odd that Nathaniel can think of little but kissing bright-eyed Anne, who seems to be fighting off admirers from all sides. Is it the country air, or is Nathaniel ready to discover that love has a magic all its own?

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Eileen Richards has been writing for most of her life. Poetry, totally inappropriate answers to essay questions in school, and interesting error codes during her 30 year IT career has prepared her for the manic world of publishing.

She writes sassy regency romps set in the small villages of England where the rules are bent a bit and gossip rules the day.

Eileen resides with her husband and their diva of a greyhound in North Carolina.

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Kim's note:  Check out the Pinterest link to find out which TV star inspired the book's hero ... a personal favorite here at SOS Aloha!

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