This is an M/F romance, but I wrote it quite a while ago for Blushing Books and I rather like it, so I’m posting mention of it here in the hopes you might feel the same way. This is my first real historical romance, involving a criminal British heroine sentenced to transportation and sent off to Australian shores.
(Cross-posted from Lokirenard.com.)
Young Jane Wilde was once a noblewoman, but the coming of a dark plague and winds of ill fortune have led her to the streets of London where she survives on her wits alone, stealing enough food to eat, and fencing enough pretty jewelry to keep a roof over her head.
Unfortunately for the once Lady Wilde, the British empire is still in an expansive state and intends to settle the far off Australian continent not only as a penal colony, but as a lawful outpost of the empire. To that end they need women to sate the lusts of the criminal men already languishing in that desolate place. When Jane is caught stealing bread and put before a judge, her sentence is inevitable: deportation.
Once aboard the transportation ship Jane catches the eye of Master Roake, the man charged with overseeing discipline. Jane thinks him cruel and harsh, but her fear does not quell her natural defiance. Indeed, her rebellious nature sets her across his path many times – and equally many times across his knee.
Jane’s proud nature cannot bring her to submit to the man who wields leather as naturally as he breathes. As for Master Roake, he is not a man given easily to sentiment, nor his he accustomed to finding true ladies on his ship and under his lash. And yet, each time they meet in a clash of wills and reddened flesh, a fondness grows.
Soon they will make land. Jane will be forced to serve her sentence in one of the female factories and Master Roake will once more set sail for England. Love is no match for the mighty British Empire.
Or is it?