THE CAPTIVE HEART by Michelle Griep ~ Meet the Characters

 

I'm thrilled to have Michelle Griep on the Sweet South Blog today! She's answering interview questions as her heroine Eleanor Morgan from The Captive Heart.

Are there any children or pets in your life? What do you love about them?

Besides Samuel, two-year-old Grace is the love of my life. She’s as naughty as they come, but I am helpless against her smile. My favorite thing about the girl, while it may seem trivial, is the way she throws out her arms and dances in the sunlight. Oh, to be so free.

What is your dearest dream?

Funny, is it not, how dreams change the more years we add to our number. I used to dream of becoming the best governess in all of England—and so I nearly was. But la! Since coming to Carolina colony and marrying Samuel, I now strive to make the best possible life for him and little Grace.

Any current romantic interests?

Oh, yes. My husband, Samuel. Though I admit that at first I thought him a beast, I see him now through different eyes. He’s an interesting mix of strength and gentility. I love the way the world is set to rights whenever he enters a room. His penetrating brown eyes, his smell of leather and gunpowder, and dare I say the way his waistcoat stretches across his shoulders . . . oh my! Is it getting warm in here?

Where were you born? What other significant happenings surrounded this event?

My family roots are in Devonshire, but I was born just outside of London. I am told there was a blood moon the night I was born. Not that I am a superstitious sort, though if I were, it would explain the trials and tribulations I’ve experienced.

Are there any hardheaded people in your life right now? What’s the issue?

As much as I love my husband, yes, Samuel is quite hardheaded. When he sets his mind to something, he will not be turned, my tears or not. I understand his need for freedom—truly, I above all others do—but I cannot account for his risk-taking with the Sons of Liberty. In dangerous times such as these, no one is to be trusted, yet he trusts them with his life. I pray it will never come to that.

 

ABOUT THE BOOK ~ THE CAPTIVE HEART

The wild American wilderness is no place for an elegant English governess.

On the run from a cruel British aristocratic employer, Eleanor Morgan escapes to America, the land of the free, for the opportunity to serve an upstanding Charles Town family. But freedom is hard to come by as an indentured servant, and downright impossible when she’s forced to agree to an even harsher contract—marriage to a man she’s never met.

Backwoodsman Samuel Heath doesn’t care what others think of him—but his young daughter’s upbringing matters very much. The life of a trapper in the Carolina backcountry is no life for a small girl, but neither is abandoning his child to another family. He decides it’s time to marry again, but that proves to be an impossible task. Who wants to wed a murderer?

Both Samuel and Eleanor are survivors, facing down the threat of war, betrayal, and divided loyalties that could cost them everything, but this time they must face their biggest challenge ever . . . Love.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR ~ MICHELLE GRIEP

Michelle Griep’s been writing since she first discovered blank wall space and Crayolas. She is the author of historical romances: THE CAPTIVE HEART, BRENTWOOD’S WARD, A HEART DECEIVED, UNDERCURRENT and GALLIMORE, but also leaped the historical fence into the realm of contemporary with the zany romantic mystery OUT OF THE FRYING PAN. If you’d like to keep up with her escapades, find her at www.michellegriep.com or www.writerofftheleash.blogspot.com or stalk her on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.