Book Title: Blackmailer’s Delight
Author: David Lawrence
Publisher: Broadbound Publishing
Cover Artist: L1graphics
Release Date: February 13, 2024
Genre: Historical M/M Romantic Comedy
Tropes: Forbidden love
Themes: Understanding that you are not alone in your experiences
Heat Rating: 3 flames
Length: 81 300 words/282 pages
It is a standalone story and does not end on a cliffhanger.
Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited
Three men. Two blackmail notes. One slight misunderstanding.
Blurb
Every new romance has its ups and downs…
Its bumps in the road…
Its blackmail notes…
A misunderstanding ties the fates of three men together in this heartfelt, sensual, and uproarious romantic puzzle. Blackmailer’s Delight is a tale of lives tossed into the air, then reassembled in some rather unexpected ways.
England 1795
London gentleman Daniel Thornton has just dumped his philandering lover Clarence. He moves to Grantham to care for his ailing uncle and nurse a broken heart. The move he hopes will be a fresh start – a place to discover himself and perhaps a new way of seeing the world.
Luke Morley is a draper’s son struggling to accept his sexuality. He has withdrawn into a world of fantasy, but with the arrival of Mr. Thronton this private world is shattered. Grantham’s most eligible bachelor is everything Luke has ever dreamed of. After months of silent admiration, he determines to introduce himself.
Re-enter Clarence, who arrives to win back his old lover. When Daniel rejects him again, he is not about to take it lying down…
A blackmail note appears – a demand that Daniel marry one of Luke’s sisters. A demand that he fulfill Luke’s sexual desires.
Daniel saw young Mr. Morley leave the note on his mantle.
The note is from Luke.
Nevertheless, by the time Daniel observed Luke walking up the drive, he had soaked and scrubbed to his heart’s content and was in decidedly improved spirits. Sighting the visitor, he fumbled to close his dressing gown as he stepped to his bedchamber window. Luke was dressed in quite a stylish powder-blue suit and knee breeches. Under one arm he held one of those oversized books of fabric samples drapers sent round to the homes of potential clients. Perhaps replacing the drapes had come up over cards last night. It was possible. So why should it be so delightful to see him like this?
He supposed Luke’s having the air of making a business call prompted his being a tradesman to the front of his mind. Arriving to snag a wealthy client. There seemed something in it of role-playing which Daniel found both charming and not a little titillating. And what was this? The hillock of that untameable cowlick from the night before had today been plastered down with something – flattened as last night it had been buoyant, and not a bit less conspicuous. Daniel could scarcely keep from running to him and taking him in his arms. Smiling, he was dressed and on the first-floor landing before the butler could ascend to announce the visitor.
“To see Philip?”
“No sir, to see you. He wished to speak privately if you are available. He told me three times he would come back if this is not a good time.”
“I will see him.”
“He requested to be shown into the sitting parlour.”
Daniel was quickly downstairs. He crossed the corridor, then stepped into the room. What he observed set him back. Luke was standing at the mantle, book under one arm. He appeared to be, quite impertinently, thumbing through the post. Daniel could scarcely credit what he was seeing – Luke Morley had not at all seemed the kind. When Daniel came forward and cleared his throat, his guest started, setting a letter atop the others then turning round to face him.
“I’m sorry, Mr Thornton – Daniel – I didn’t mean to be impertinent. I thought I might make room on the mantle so I could set my book down until you came. I wanted to look out the south window and didn’t wish to carry it.”
Daniel believed not one word of this. Still, after the informality of last night, the command from Philip to call him Daniel and continually urging him to be more at ease… Luke likely hadn’t had the best of educations, so perhaps… Anyhow, he did look quite marvellously fetching in his suit of soft blue cotton. Snowy white shirt and stockings, more refined than such a young man would normally go about in.
Yet this matter of the post. Fixing his eye on the place, Daniel affirmed his visitor should take in the view from the south window – it had been too dark last night to see the prospect, which was quite fine from this room. As Luke proceeded, Daniel crossed to the mantle, immediately observing the letter Luke had deposited there. No direction.
To Mr Daniel Thornton
Taking it up, he looked again at his guest, who was now gazing out the window to the green. No direction. Luke had not been going through the letters; he had left one of his own. But why the devil should he wish to leave a letter when he might simply have handed it to him? Presumably so that he would find it later. Or… had he intended to be seen leaving it because it contained something he did not wish to give him directly, but wished him to open all the same?
Daniel’s indignance now turned to apprehension. When the maid entered to sweep round the fireplace, he said, “Mr Morley, you told the butler you wished to speak privately.”
Turning from the window, he responded, “Yes, sir.”
“Let us go up to my study.” Then, his heart beating harder, Daniel gathered the rest of the post and led him up. Once inside the study, he turned the key in the lock. Luke remained by the desk as Daniel strode by and sat in an armchair, pleased to let his visitor stand until he understood what the hell was going on.
I am the author of two queer historical novels – ‘Hugh: A Hero without a Novel’ and ‘Blue Billy’s Rogue Lexicon’. As a writer, I love taking a deep dive into the social norms and historical events of 18th century England, told with humour and whimsy, while presenting what I hope are compelling and unique coming-of-age tales.
A native of the American Southwest, I have spent much of my life in Great Britain, France, and Finland. I now live in the American Northwest – Helena, Montana – with my Finnish partner.
By day I love hiking under the Big Sky of my beautiful adopted state.
By night, however, I prefer wandering the byways of 18th century London…
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