In my book, Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 7: Spinster, my heroine Lena is recovering from sickness and uses her favorite shawl to keep warm.

🧵 Click here to download the FREE PDF of the pattern.

Here’s the short excerpt from the book that mentions the shawl:

📖 Excerpt from Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 7: Spinster

Lena still felt a chill as she sat in the sunlight streaming through the window of the Viponds’ drawing room. She was swathed in her favorite lace shawl, a gift from Melinda, who had knit it in Lena’s favorite color, red, along with cream and pink stripes.

Tabitha finished pouring the tea and handed her a cup. Lena tried to smile as she took it, but her face felt stiff, like hardened clay.

She was an utter failure. Despite all her training as an agent, she’d been undone by a malicious woman and a locked balcony in the rain.

Had she given up too quickly? She’d been deterred by the railing, believing it would have broken under her weight. She had also been shivering too much to be certain of her physical prowess if she had tried to climb over the railing and drop to the ground, or to jump to the other balcony. But she’d chosen to wrestle with the door hinges rather than attempt the more dangerous option, and so the cold had seeped into her through the rain, weakening her muscles.

She only barely remembered Mr. Vipond leaping to her balcony in order to wrap her in his coat. She didn’t know how he had managed when the railing had been so unstable, but he had done it somehow.

It made Lena wonder if she should have tried harder to climb over and drop down. Or maybe her chilled hands would have faltered and she would have fallen and broken an ankle.

She sipped her tea. She couldn’t stop thinking about what she should have done so that she wouldn’t have needed to be rescued like the silly heroines in those Gothic novels.

Despite being years younger than Lena, Tabitha regarded her with an “exasperated mother” look. “Your frustration is seeping out of you like a strong smell from a fish.”

Lena eyed her. “Are you implying I smell rotten?”

“Why do you look so upset with yourself?”

Lena sighed and stared into her teacup. “I inconvenienced everyone and needed to be saved. I feel quite mortified.”

“I do not understand why you are blaming yourself rather than that woman.”

Lena could have sworn that sparks flew out of Tabitha’s irritated gaze.

“I confronted her in my anger, but now I feel like a bully that has been thrashed.”

Tabitha glared at Lena. “You are not the bully. If you continue to spout such nonsense, I shall send you back to your bedroom forthwith.”

🧵 Shawl Construction

I had already picked out this Knit Picks curated bundle of red colorways because they matched Lena’s bold personality, and so I only needed to pick a stitch pattern for her shawl.

I used the Open Diamond pattern #19 from The Lady’s Assistant volume 1 by Jane Gaugain. The original edition was published in...

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If you enjoy Regency romance with wit, awkward ballroom encounters, and a heroine who can’t quite keep her thoughts to herself, you’ll love Lissa and the Spy. This free Christian Regency romantic suspense novella is the perfect entry point into my Lady Wynwood’s Spies series. Get it free when you join my newsletter (details below).

Miss Lissa Gardinier survived her last London Season by pretending to be as inoffensive as possible. But at this ball, she lets her true thoughts slip yet again. And this time, they involve an unfortunately named spaniel.

Excerpt

Last year during that first dance with Mr. Collingworth, upon seeing him excitedly discuss his dog breeding, she had been encouraged to also speak without restraint. So she had voiced her exact thoughts rather than hiding behind a vapid facade. “Why in the world would you name a dog Lickspittle Furrybottom?”

At Mr. Collingworth’s startled look, Lissa realized that she’d said that out loud now, in this dance with him.

“… Not that it’s not a lovely name,” she added lamely.

Mr. Collingworth didn’t believe her, and his conversation faltered. She regretted that, for she hadn’t intended to be rude to him.

“Er … did I speak of Lickspittle Furrybottom?” he asked.

Lissa did a mental shriek at her mistake. “We spoke briefly about her last year. You were worried about her compatibility with Snout Droolalot.”

About the Book

In the opulent ballrooms of Regency-era London, Miss Lissa Gardinier struggles through her second Season with a singular goal: marriage to escape her mother's constant criticism. So she represses her cheeky remarks behind a quiet, innocent facade, but combined with her plain face, it only serves to make her uninteresting to potential suitors.

It is her very unpopularity that enables her to notice the enigmatic Lord Jeremy Stoude and set in motion a chance encounter. An overheard conversation and faux dialogue later, she finds herself entangled in Jeremy’s covert undertakings. Lissa resists the temptation to pry, finding delight in their mysterious friendship.

Yet the world Jeremy inhabits is one of secrets and subterfuge, and he cannot afford to be distracted by Lissa’s charming smile and unflappable demeanor. Lissa’s family dynamics grow increasingly complicated with a sister harboring her own desires for the eligible Lord Stoude, and a formidable rival—Lady Charline Halberstam—making her intentions clear.

As danger stalks them and true feelings come to light, can Lissa and Jeremy navigate the labyrinth of society’s expectations and their own insecurities to find love?

Lissa and the Spy offers readers an intoxicating blend of romance, suspense, and wit, set against the glittering backdrop of Regency London. Perfect for those who love their historical fiction laced with a dash of intrigue and a sprinkle of humor.

Prequel to the Lady Wynwood’s...

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Regency Haircuts and Disguises in Lady Wynwood’s Spies

In this excerpt from Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 8: Traitor, Phoebe prepares for a dangerous mission—one that requires her to disguise herself as a young man. The hairstyle she receives, called a Brutus cut, was actually quite fashionable during the Regency. Read on to find out more about this curious trend and why it suited her new identity so well.

Excerpt from Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 8: Traitor:

By far, the absolute worst part of Uncle Sol’s plan was that Phoebe had to cut her hair.

Of the four agents, Phoebe and Mr. Coulton-Jones would be the least likely to be recognized when they entered the Ramparts building—Mr. Coulton-Jones, because of his skill in altering his facial features and his posture, and Phoebe, because she could play a convincing young man, which no one would expect.

A disreputable hat would hide her long hair to an extent, but it would not fool anyone who looked closely. Also, because she would look like a junior agent, she would be expected to remove her hat if addressed by a senior officer in a corridor. It would be far too easy for a wig to slip in such circumstances.

She gazed mournfully at the locks carpeting the floor underneath her chair as Aya removed them and gave her a fair approximation of a Brutus cut. Phoebe’s skin hadn’t the roughened texture of a common working man, and so it had been decided that she would pose as a young man from a more wealthy background. Aunt Laura had managed to collect several sets of male clothing for her, including an outfit appropriate for the son of a wealthy merchant.

Phoebe used cloth to pad her waist and groin areas, and she looked like a slightly portly young man with spindly arms and legs.

She pictured gentlemen of her age, especially those younger than herself, and recalled the way they stood, the way they walked and carried themselves. She made an effort to alter her gait and posture.

And suddenly, looking back at her from the full-length mirror in Aunt Laura’s bedroom stood an arrogant young stripling just down from university.

But what exactly is a Brutus cut?

The Brutus cut was all the rage in the early 1800s, especially in the years following the French Revolution and into the Regency era.

From Roman hero to fashionable haircut

The Brutus cut (sometimes called the Titus cut in French fashion plates) was inspired by ancient Roman statuary, particularly busts of figures like Lucius Junius Brutus, the legendary founder of the Roman Republic. In an era newly obsessed with classical antiquity, it was the ideal hairstyle to show off your noble ideals—short, tousled curls, brushed forward, and decidedly free of powder or wigs.

This was a radical change from earlier Georgian fashion, where men often wore powdered wigs, queues (a braid or ponytail down the back), and elaborately styled hair. The Brutus cut rejected all of that in favor of a more “natural,” even slightly rebellious look.

Think:...

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A New Look for Year of the Dog (and a Behind-the-Scenes Oops!)

What do a dog trainer, a security expert, and a nearly-naked book cover have in common? Let me explain. 😅

Year of the Dog is the first book in my Christian romantic suspense series, Mahina Security, set in beautiful (and sometimes dangerous) Hawaii. It features quirky humor, family tensions, sweet romance, and a mystery involving a missing person—and it’s now available to read in the Christian suspense anthology, Danger in the Shadows, on Kindle Unlimited!

But before that happened, I had a bit of a cover mishap…

While creating the ebook cover, I realized that the original stock photo made my heroine look, well, completely nekkid. 😳 She’s actually wearing a tube top in the image, but when I cropped it for the ebook, the top disappeared—leaving her looking very PG-13.

To fix it, I did some Canva magic on a strappy top from another image and stuck it onto the model (so she’s decent now).

But when I resized the image for the paperback, a bit of that strappy top peeked out behind her shoulder like a rogue piece of laundry flapping in the wind. So I had to adjust the front paperback cover, which altered the original ebook cover a little, too.

Most people probably won't notice, but the model looks a little bigger on the paperback cover than on the original ebook cover.

I also gave the back cover copy a makeover. The original was a bit too long for the layout, so I streamlined it. Here’s a peek at both versions:

🐾 Old Version (Longer)

Mari Mutou, a professional dog trainer, is having a bad year.

While renovating her new dog kenneling and training facility, she needs to move in with her disapproving family, who have always made her feel inadequate—according to them, a job requiring her to be covered in dog hair and slobber is an embarrassment to the family. She convinces her ex-boyfriend to take her dog for a few months … but discovers that his brother is the irate security expert whose car she accidentally rear-ended a few weeks earlier.

Ashwin Keitou has enough problems. His aunt has just shown up on his doorstep, expecting to move in with him, and he can’t say no because he owes her everything—after his mother walked out on them, Aunt Nell took in Ashwin and his brother and raised them in a loving Christian home. What’s more, his brother Dusty also needs a place to stay after being kicked out of his apartment—with a dog in tow. And guess who the dog’s owner is?

But then Ashwin gets a request from an old friend, Edytha Guerrero, a private investigator who also runs a day spa on O’ahu’s north shore. A strange bit of “vandalism” at Mari's facility had led her to find a purse belonging to Edytha’s sister—who had disappeared three years ago. Worried that Mari might be in danger, and finding out that security expert Ashwin already knows her, Edytha asks him to covertly keep an eye on the busy young woman.

Ashwin is reluctantly...

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Free Christian Regency Romance Novella – Start Here!

A quiet wallflower. A wary spy. A dance of secrets.

Miss Lissa Gardinier may appear unremarkable in the ballrooms of Regency London, but her sharp wit and keen observations make her far more dangerous than society suspects. She’s trying to endure her second Season without offending anyone—again—and escape her mother’s relentless disapproval with a sensible marriage.

But when she crosses paths with the mysterious and guarded Lord Jeremy Stoude, her uneventful Season takes an unexpected turn into whispered secrets, hidden motives, and subtle sparks.

This novella, Lissa and the Spy, is a stand-alone story in the world of my Lady Wynwood’s Spies series and blends romance, suspense, and a dash of dry humor. If you’re new to my stories, this is the perfect place to start.

Here’s a snippet from the opening scene (including my annotations):

***

Spring, 1807

London

If only she were allowed to open her mouth.

Lissa reflected that in all fairness, she was not prohibited from opening her mouth. She was allowed to drink champagne and eat the delicacies offered by the host of the ball. She was allowed to discuss the weather, she was sure. And her mother likely wouldn’t be disappointed if she discussed fashion with a young lady or gentleman. She might even be allowed to say something ignorant about Napoleon, as long as she accompanied her words with a smile and a giggle.

But she had been ordered—under threat of being sent back home even in the midst of the Season—to keep her tongue under control while in London. Lissa didn’t think her tongue was particularly out of control. She had perfect control of her words. She had completely meant what she said when she compared Lady Adderly’s hat to a molting chicken (1).

And to be perfectly honest, she had been extremely polite when she asked Mr. Peterson to take more lessons from his dancing instructor. There was nothing rude about a gentle suggestion such as that, surely? (2)

Because she could have instead told him that he stomped on her foot like a bad-tempered donkey trying to maim its owner. She had exercised an iron grip on her tongue in that instance, and yet her mother had scolded her.

***

(1) This is an Easter egg. Laura, Lady Wynwood, might have also unfavorably described Lady Adderly’s hat in The Spinster’s Christmas

(2) In The Spinster’s Christmas, Aunt Lavinia gossiped about the rector’s wife, Mrs. Peterson, whose husband’s older brother became heir presumptive to an earldom. This poor gentleman with two left feet is Mrs. Peterson’s brother-in-law, but before the events that will lead to his expectations.

***

Ready to enjoy the full adventure? Download Lissa and the Spy for free when you join my newsletter!