Clean Romances discussion

I noticed that it's suggested we leave excerpts from authors' books, so I am leaving one from Hide in Time Xandra, a young woman from the 21st century needs to hide from a criminal gang. She has followed the instructions given to her for a good place to hide and now finds herself on a bleak coastal path and begins to realize her life is changing for ever - she has lost her memory.


“Whoa, there,” barked the man with the whip which had been flailing perilously close to the scarlet-liveried man standing guard at the back. “Whoo, whoo.” He brought the horses to a halt and bellowed, “Get out of the way, woman. Are you weak in the mind!”

“Great flumpleducks, girl; what are you doing here?” A woman, wearing a long, grey skirt, brown shawl tied around her shoulders and a white mobcap, stepped down from the coach onto the track.

Instinctively, Xandra put her hand to her head and felt her own cap with the lacy scarf still tied around it. If she could have answered, she would have, but she wasn’t at all sure what she was doing here.

The horses restlessly pawed the ground and tossed their heads. “Get her out of the way. We’re already late,” called the driver.

“You mind your manners. You’re charging a king’s ransom to take us to Canterbury tonight, so you just…”

“What is it, Martha? What causes the delay?” A man in clerical garb alighted from the coach. To say he was amply proportioned would do his physique insufficient justice. He approached Xandra. “Are you in distress?”

Xandra looked down at her wet, sandy shoes and the hem of her dress which hung damp, heavy and close around her ankles.

“Flollops! Of course she’s in distress. Can’t you see she’s all wet and wobbly?”

Parson Emmanuel Raffles looked both annoyed and abashed. “Martha, you are to be my kitchen maid, not my mouthpiece.” He sighed and muttered, “God forbid.”