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“I like you , Celeste, even when you’re angry with me.”
Warmth flooded through her. The heat of desire. Lust. Sin.
“I don’t care whether you like me or not. I am not leaving.”
“Oh, yes, you are,” he replied, in that same low, seductive tone. “You can come quietly and obediently, like a good little nun, or I’ll have to carry you.”
She must be strong. Her faith, her duty and her self-respect must make her so. “I will not allow you to drag me through the village like some chattel.”
“I didn’t say I’d drag you. I shall pick you up and carry you—like a groom carries his bride across the threshold.”
She swallowed hard and fought to maintain her composure … such as it was. “I am a bride of Christ and shall never be a man’s.”
I enjoy creating the main characters of my novels, but I also really enjoy coming up with secondary characters—the ‘best friends’, ‘second bananas’ and ‘bit players’. Sometimes I know from the planning stage who my secondary characters are going to be— especially if the character is a villain. Other times I realise in the writing that I need somebody for my hero or heroine to interact with. So sometimes very minor characters become more important.
Arnhelm and Verdan, who first appeared in Bride for a Knight, began as basic background characters. Then I realised I had more than one place where I had such characters. Why not combine them? Why not give them names?
Once they had names, I began to give them more to do. They were soldiers in the household of the heroine’s uncle, so they would know her better than the hero—at least at first. Why not make them a sort of protective Greek chorus, wondering and worrying about her?
Then I made them brothers, and the minute I did that I realised their friendly relationship could contrast with that of Roland and his twin brother, Gerrard.
Being a romance writer, I couldn’t resist giving Arnhelm and Verdan their own love interests—two female secondary characters who live in Dunborough. And I gave them a mother who is making a bit of trouble for them.
That’s how secondary characters become just as real and vital to me as the heroes and heroines of my stories—and I hope for my readers, too.
Scoundrel of Dunborough
Margaret Moore
Award-winning author MARGARET MOORE has written over fifty romance novels and novellas for Harlequin Mills & Boon, Avon Books and HarperCollins Children’s Books. Her stories have been set in the Dark Ages and medieval Britain, Restoration, Regency and Victorian England, and pre-Civil War Massachusetts. Margaret lives in Ontario, Canada, with her husband and two cats.
She can be found online at margaretmoore.com, margaretmoore.blogspot.com and @MargMooreAuthor on Twitter.
With thanks to my family and friends for their love and support, especially during times of crisis. It’s appreciated more than words can say.
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