MARY’S CHRISTMAS KNIGHT: for those of us who go weak-kneed at the smell of hot cocoa, baking cookies, peppermint bonbons, and the most delicious chocolately baritone voice whispering in your ear.

Poor Mary Cavendish, she’s trying to trim down in time for the next London Season so she’ll attract her “knight on a white charger,” but all the lovely Christmas food is tempting her. She imagines the sugarplums call to her in little voices, Eat me! Eat me! Her corset is laced so tightly, it creaks. Embarrassing!

As a distraction, she volunteers practically everywhere, including the parish hospital. Enter a mysterious Christmas Eve patient, who proves to be none other than the famous Shakespearean actor Sir Wesley Samuel Darcy. Mary finds him arrogant, too forward… and maddeningly handsome.

We’re guessing sparks fly? Tell us more.
When Mary learns Sir Wesley has been invited to spend Christmas with her family at Rougemont, she vows to resist the charming London rogue. But is he really all that bad? Sir Wesley seems to understand her like no one else, which Mary finds bewildering. Even Philip, her beloved brother, vouches for Sir Wesley’s character as a former mate in the Navy. But what about the horrid rumors circulating in London about him?

Wesley thinks finding the perfect present for Miss Cavendish will tempt her — she’s not as prim as she pretends to be. Mary turned down six proposals last Season, and she’s not about to give in to a rake. But if Mary can’t resist the sugarplums, how can she resist the dashing Sir Wesley?

What period is this story set in?
Mary’s Christmas Knight is a historical romance novella, set in England 1872 – late in the Victorian era.

Tell us about Mary.
Mary Cavendish is a curvy girl who shouldn’t compare herself to her willowy sisters, and she’s determined to get thinner before the next London Season. (And thus the creaky tight-laced corset.) Smelling all the delicious holiday food everywhere is killing her! She’s desperate for a distraction, which explains why she’s working as a nurse in the parish hospital on Christmas Eve.

And Sir Wesley, what’s he like?
Sir Wesley Samuel Darcy has a very bad reputation indeed, but he only earned about half of it. He wishes Mary would come right out and ask if it’s true he poisoned his late fiancee, but they’re too busy
arguing over how to treat his injured shoulder. You see, he’s had a trying day, being mobbed by admirers at the train station then waylaid by a stagecoach robber. And Mary is the first lady he’s ever met who is utterly unimpressed with his celebrity status…

You’ve taken us to Rougemont before, haven’t you?
Also in the Rougemont series is SONG FOR SOPHIA (interview here) and THE KING OF THREADNEELDE STREET, featuring characters from the same troublemaking family.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m a night owl, chocolate addict, music geek, “mean” mom, part-time fitness junkie, and hobby shooter. I write historical & paranormal romance. I have a Master’s degree in music. I live in Las Vegas with my husband, four children, and two possibly brain-damaged cats. My books have been a 2012 RWA Golden Heart finalist & 2012 National Reader’s Choice Award winner.

How can we keep up with you online?
http://moriahdensley.com
http://www.facebook.com/MoriahDensley
@moriahdensley

How easily do new storylines come to you? If we give you four random words – Man, Woman, Airport, Darkness – can you give us a brief storyline?
Oh, yeah. *cracks knuckles*

A professional poker player arrives at the Las Vegas McCarran International Airport in a hurry and accidentally switches luggage with a harried mother pushing a stroller. When the power cuts out and masked assailants swarm the terminal, he realizes his opponent from the poker tournament with ties to the mafia wants his winnings back! Imagine his surprise to open his luggage for the gunmen, only to reveal diapers, bottles, and fuzzy hand puppets…

That’s excellent!
What’s next for you?
Next in the Rougemont series is THE KING OF THREADNEEDLE STREET, about a financial prodigy who will do anything to get his childhood sweetheart back.