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Harper St. George Samples Eliza and the Duke
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Katherine Grant: Welcome to the historical romance sampler podcast. I'm your host, Katherine Grant, and each week I introduce you to another amazing historical romance author. My guest reads a little sample of their work, and then we move into a free ranging interview. If you like these episodes, don't forget to subscribe to the historical romance sampler, wherever you listen to podcasts and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Now let's get into this week's episode.
I am very excited to be joined today by Harper St. George. Harper was raised in the rural backwoods of Alabama and along the tranquil coast of northwest Florida. It was a setting filled with stories of the old days that instilled in her a love of history, romance, and adventure. By high school, she had discovered the historical romance novel, which combined all of these elements into one perfect [00:01:00] package, and she has been hooked ever since.
She lives in the Atlanta area with her husband and two children when not writing, she can be found devouring her husband's amazing cooking and reading. Harper, I'm so excited. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
Harper St. George: Hi Katherine Thank you for having me, and I'm excited to be here.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. And you are reading from your book, which is out this week, the same week the podcast comes out, Eliza and The Duke.
Harper St. George: Yes. Eliza and the Duke. It is the second book in my Doves of New York series. The first book was The Stranger I Wed. The series is about three sisters. Their last name is Dove, so that's why it's the doves of New York. They come from New York and they have to marry titled Aristocrats to Inherit
and they're also illegitimate. So that's a little wrinkle in the plan. So they're trying to pretend that their biological father is their godfather and he's the one [00:02:00] bestowing this money on them, but only if they marry who he
wants them to marry. And the second book is about Eliza, who is the youngest Dove sister. She's been engaged to a viscount who she really does not like at all, barely knows him. And he's gone off on the continent for the summer for his, you know, boys trip basically. And she's left in England knowing
he's doing all sorts of sordid things there, and she wants to have a night out on her own in London before she has to sort of settle down with the guy she doesn't even know or really like and who doesn't care for her at all. He's only marrying her for her money. And she meets Simon Cavill, who's shown up in a few of my other books in the series.
He's manager of Montague Club, which is a gentleman's club, a gaming club. But he's from the streets of Whitechapel and he grew up [00:03:00] basically as a bare knuckle brawler, and there's a bad guy in Whitechapel who sort of runs the underground portion of that.
He is indebted to that guy. So he still fights a little bit in secret as the Duke to win prize money for the bad guy. And she is just wandering the Servant's Corridor in Montague Club because she sneaks in there one day. It's owned by a friend of the family, which is how she sort of gained access. She's young, a little impulsive, so
she snuck in and she happens to accidentally come across him as he sort of out of his mind from one of these fights. They drugged him and sent him home 'cause he was beat up pretty bad and he doesn't remember meeting her, but she meets him and he actually tells her his secret identity, which nobody else knows.
So [00:04:00] later he's hired to be sort of a bodyguard for the sisters and that's when she puts two and two together. She knows exactly who he is, both of his identities, and she sort of blackmails him, she'll tell his secret identity to everyone, which will get him fired from the club unless he takes her on this grand night out in Whitechapel and the seedier sides of London.
And that's sort of the impetus of their story. They have this night out and then realize that they maybe fell in love a little bit and one night isn't enough for either of them.
Katherine Grant: I love that. Who doesn't love a bodyguard romance?
Harper St. George: I know. Yeah.
So the scene I'm reading is where she finally comes to him and gives him the ultimatum, take me out, or I'm gonna tell everybody who you are and ruin everything for you. This is when he realizes she's serious.
He been putting her off 'cause she asked [00:05:00] him before, and this is sort of her last chance.
Chapter 10.
The brawl had gone exactly as Simon had planned it. Carstone was an overly pompous dandy who had no business challenging anyone in the ring
besides other overly pompous dandies. Simon didn't mind it though. It had earned him a tidy sum that he could put aside, assuming Brody kept his word and release him from his debt. He had been swarmed by congratulations and celebrations since the fight ended and he had ensconced himself in the small room off the service corridor that led to the gymnasium.
It was a changing room for members who exercised in the gym. The walls were lined with cupboards and shelves and benches were scattered throughout the room. Simon planned to make use of the shower bath in the back corner before going out to join in the victory celebration. He peeled off his sweat stained shirt and set about unwrapping the bindings from his hands.[00:06:00]
Aside from a couple of nicks on his face and a few knuckles, he hadn't been bloodied. His still tender ribs were already starting to ache, nothing a bit of whiskey wouldn't solve. Finished with the batten, he tugged on the lacing on the front of his britches, but a knock on the door halted his progress.
Muttering a curse at the interruption, he turned off the water and made his way to the door. He never expected to see Eliza bloody Dove standing there looking at him with her wide and innocent eyes and her absurdly pretty face.
"What the hell-" he started to ask but then slammed the door shut. He had no time to deal with her tonight.
He turned to go back to his grooming, but a terrible thought stopped him cold. What if someone saw her out there and started questioning why the American was sniffing around his dressing room? What if they thought he'd compromised her? He'd lose his job. Or worse to save herself, she might very well be forced to share the secret she hadn't yet told.
Fuck. [00:07:00] He opened the door, and she still stood there, though she was frowning this time. Grabbing her arm, he pulled her none too gently into the room and slammed the door behind her, locking it for good measure. He pressed his hands into the door on either side of her, caging her in. She sputtered, momentarily taken aback.
He could kiss her now, hard.
Make her wish she'd never knocked on his door. Touch her in ways that would offend her and send her running away from him for good. He took her head into his hand to do just that, his fingers digging into the glossy brown hair piled at the over of her neck, but he couldn't. The dumb struck haze in her eyes faded into the sweet honeyed look of trust mixed with something like respect that she sometimes got when she looked at him.
They were precious things that he couldn't take from her. "Someone should take you over your knee and give you a good spanking," he growled. "Are you volunteering for the task, Mr. Cavell?" She blinked up at him. God, he'd like to. "What are you doing [00:08:00] here, Miss Dove?" "Your accent has come out of hiding, I see." He wanted to wipe the smirk off her face.
The problem was the only way he could think to do that was to kiss her. Since it couldn't be rough, it would be soft and wet and lead to things that were out of the question. He turned to stalk away from her, taking several deep breaths until he had calmed down enough to speak again. "What do you want with me,
girl? You shouldn't be here.
You
could get me into a lot of trouble."
She glanced over her shoulder at the door, uncertainty reflected in her face. "I don't wanna get you in trouble. I took precautions. Everyone thinks you're changing and alone." He wasn't reassured by that. A state of events she must have suspected because she came over to him and put her hand on his arm.
"No one saw me come in except for Jenny and Lord David."
"Lord David? Of Strathmore? That Lord David?" He paced again to get out the nervous energy her very presence caused in him.
[00:09:00] "Yes, but he won't say anything. He's doing his best to impress my sister and wouldn't dare betray our trust in him."
That did very little to reassure him.
"What do you want?" He turned quickly and almost ran into her because she'd followed him.
"I told you already, I thought I was very clear. I want you to take me out for a night."
"Impossible. I thought I already told you no."
She shook her head. "You said that you would think about it."
He took in a breath for patience.
"I cannot take you. It's too dangerous. And don't you threaten to tell everyone the secret you carry. If you were going to, you would've already."
"I can pay you." Her eyes were resolute, and she brought her handbag up to rifle through it. His gaze slicked down and was caught by the swell of her bosom. He looked away because he enjoyed looking a little too much.
She pulled out some folded bills. "It's yours. If you'll take me one night. That's all." He stared at the money but of its own volition, his gaze went back to the swell of her breast. They weren't too large, but [00:10:00] not small either. He reckoned they would be nice handfuls and... aware of where his attention was focused,
she took in a shuttering breath that broke the spell. His eyes met hers. "Why is this night in Whitechapel so important to you?" An internal battle played out over her face. She didn't know how much to tell him, but he wouldn't do this for anything less than the full unvarnished truth.
"What do you remember about the night we first met?"
She asked her voice low, almost a whisper. It drew his gaze to her mouth and her soft pink lips. He remembered that he'd called her Angel. "Tell me." She took in a long and wavering breath. "I'm engaged to be married to a man I barely know. My entire future will be an endless round of social occasions, balls and weddings and teas and political dinners.
To top it all off, I'm fairly certain I'll have to give up my dream of going to a university. So few accept women and I can't believe that Mainwaring will [00:11:00] count in such a thing of his wife. Anyway, all of that might be bearable if I loved him. He is even now cavorting across the continent and having relations with prostitutes, and he is so proud of that fact that he and his friends are keeping score on that blackboard."
She pointed in the direction of the very room of their first meeting. As he recalled, there had been several check marks added since that night. There was a twinge in the vicinity of his heart. It wasn't that he didn't feel for her, it was that he found it difficult to empathize with her making a decision that she knew was bad for her.
" Then why are you marrying him?" He asked. "Because it would be stupid not to. My godfather, Mr. Hathaway is in charge of my inheritance, and he will only dole it out upon my marriage To a man he finds suitable. He only finds aristocrats suitable."
"So what happens if you do not marry an aristocrat?"
"Then I receive no inheritance and I'll have nothing. I have no father, Simon." He wasn't [00:12:00] prepared for the fist punch effect of the sound of his name on her voice. It stole his breath. "My mothers and sisters and I sold everything we own to come here for the sole purpose of finding husbands to secure our futures.
There is nowhere to go back to. There is no future where I don't inherit." He didn't know Mainwaring well, but he knew men like him. The thought of her married to one of them was anathema to him. Men like that wouldn't know how to deal with her. They'd crush her to control her. "There is, you simply choose not to want that future."
"Would you choose that future?" She challenged him. "Would you walk away from $250,000 to a future of nothing but insecurity? I'm sure you're aware that options are limited for women." Simon could hardly conceive of that sort of money. He imagined his sister Mary, her curls and laughter and all the small things about her that he didn't think about unless he had to because it was too [00:13:00] painful.
If she'd had that choice, she might be alive now. She certainly wouldn't have wasted away in that dirty little attic room in a brothel, her body ravaged by a fever that had set in and refused to leave, her baby left to die on a diet of watery pap until he paid a bloody fortune for a wet nurse to care for her.
How could he fault Eliza for choosing the way she had? "I still don't understand the scheme of yours. What if Mainwaring finds out about this night in Whitechapel? He won't marry you then and you won't inherit your fortune." "Don't you understand? I need this. If I can have just one adventure where I don't have to think about main wearing or a future with him, then maybe I can face that future.
He has an entire summer to indulge in adventure. I simply want one night. I know it's foolish to ask for more, but surely one night is possible and he won't find out because we'll go where no one knows me. I won't even talk to anyone." He bit out a curse and she startled. [00:14:00] "One night." He held a finger between them.
"That's all you get one night, and then I never wanna see you skulking around here again."
Katherine Grant: How fun.
Harper St. George: Yeah, so she got her way being the bratty younger sister.
Katherine Grant: Well, clearly things are about to transpire and I'm looking forward to asking you all of my questions, but first we're gonna take a quick break for our sponsors.
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Katherine Grant: So I am [00:15:00] back with Harper St. George, who just read a delightful excerpt from Eliza and the Duke, and I think this excerpt really highlighted a theme that we see in historical romance, and particularly in victorian and Gilded Age romance, which is the importance of money and also the intersection of class and money.
Like Simon can't really blame her that she wants this money. And also Eliza really can't imagine living life the way Simon lives his, but they're attracted to each other.
Harper St. George: Right.
Katherine Grant: So I wonder if you could talk about that, how you think about that as you've written these two different series that are interconnected.
And then I have more questions about the different eras you've written in.
Harper St. George: Sure. So the one thing I wanted to do with this book is explore that different part of London because with my first series, the Gilded Age Heiresses and this series, they were [00:16:00] all fairly privileged as far as you know, being born into families who had money, who had security, and Simon did not have that.
And Eliza she only grew up conditionally with money as long as they did what her godfather wanted, he would take care of them. So she grew up not really thinking she was upper class and she even tells Simon, "we're not that much different." But then she goes to Whitechapel and she sees, oh, this is how people in poverty really live.
And she sort of sees that it wasn't exactly what she thought. So I wanted to explore that a bit. And also in Whitechapel, they go to this really famous theater that is actually still standing. It was there at the time. It did get burned out, but the original building is still there.
Where you had these traveling singers who would like go there, even singers from America, you know, in other parts of Europe. And this was in Whitechapel, so it's not [00:17:00] quite exactly what we think of when we think of Whitechapel. I think of like Jack the Ripper and
Katherine Grant: mm-hmm. You know,
Harper St. George: the prostitutes and the alleyways and all of that was there.
But you know, it was people with a lot of factory workers and things like that, who honestly, Yes, lived very meager existences, but they also had the music theaters and there were sort of side shows you would have pop up and parlors and taverns. So there was sort of a thriving arts community there as well, which I don't think we really think of when we think of that era.
So it was really interesting to explore all the different sides of London and how the people might have lived back then.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. That's really cool. And did you have to do a lot of new research for this book or the series that took, took you to London?
Harper St. George: Yeah. So I was lucky right before [00:18:00] the pandemic we were able to take a trip to London and of course we went to Mayfair and all the parks and Hyde Park and all the others.
But we did go to Whitechapel and, go to the alleys. And so I did get to see that firsthand because I knew at some point I wanted to bring that into the story. And then just researching, gosh, there are recordings of musicians who played there still around today, which is pretty amazing if you can think about it.
And a lot of the songs that were written there would be performed in theaters in the United States too. So it's, it was just really cool that research.
Katherine Grant: Yeah, absolutely. And something that I noticed in my research for you was like, you have also written an extensive series in Viking romances.
Mm-hmm. You've written Gilded aged Western America, gilded Age, New York. So I have a two part question. One is, [00:19:00] what do you think unites those eras, like what's similar about writing through these eras? And then what differentiates each era? What do you get to explore in the different eras?
Harper St. George: That's a tough question.
What I like about the Viking era is, well, I always love the research portion. I'm a librarian at heart, even though I'm not a practicing librarian. So I really love the research and I love digging into these worlds and cultures that, you know, we don't really experience today. And the Vikings certainly let me do that.
But also there's a lot about the Vikings we don't really know. There's a lot of gaps. So it's very much where history meets legend, which I like about that because you get to world build a little bit more. Mm-hmm. But also that's what I love about the Gilded Age, the Victorian era. There's so much we do know and we have a lot of primary sources and we have newspapers that [00:20:00] were around then that we can still have access to.
So we know what people were thinking. There's much more of a framework that you're working within as you're writing. So it's just sort of a different way to write a story. And both of them are good in different ways. So if I could do whatever I wanted, I'd go back and forth because I just, it challenges my creativity in different ways.
So that's definitely how they're different. The one thing I think that combines them though, are just the stories, the people in their lives. As much as we change throughout history, the more we stay the same. We're always looking for love, family acceptance.
I feel like that's what sort of brings all of my stories together. I like to use love as a source of empowerment. People are always, and the characters in my stories are sort of looking for that, whether in their own family, found family, whatever, to give them strength.
Katherine Grant: That's beautiful.
Harper St. George: Oh, thanks.
Katherine Grant: Yeah, and so does the research [00:21:00] inform your story ideas or do you kind of get a little kernel of a story and then say, oh, I need to research this? Is it throughout every day you're doing research? How does that fit into your process?
Harper St. George: So, gosh, it's like what came first, the chicken or the egg?
I always have sort of my initial characters and usually they're connected in some way friends or family or something. And then I start researching and reading all these things and gosh, there are so many interesting stories. If you just read through a Victorian era newspaper, you find so many, like, there's this one story I found, which I have not written yet.
I would like to write it one day. It's just, it was like a police blotter, and I wanna say it was in the 1870s, maybe early 1880s, and this guy goes into the police station and he's reporting a crime. He's reporting that this woman paid him, [00:22:00] I can't remember the amount, but it was in the thousands of dollars to guide him from San Francisco to guide her from San Francisco to New York.
They were in New York and she won't pay him the money. Now, I don't know why you would pay somebody thousands of dollars. 'cause that would be a lot. Even now, you know? Yeah. You're talking like maybe 20, $25,000 and because you had the Transcontinental Railroad at that time,
right?
Take the railroad. Maybe she wanted the scenic route.
Maybe she was hiding from something, I don't know. So he takes the police back to the lady's hotel room, bang, bang on the door. Nobody answers. They go to get the hotel manager, he comes with a key and unlocks the door. The room is empty. They go to the hotel safe to see if maybe she left money in there.
They open the door and there's a pile of bird seed.
Oh [00:23:00] my goodness. What is the story there? And I looked through all the days after to see if there was a follow up on what happened. I could not find any sort of follow up Wow. To what happened to that story. So you're always finding little things like that, little nuggets, and you're like, I'm gonna work that into a story somehow.
Katherine Grant: Yes, yes. Yeah.
Harper St. George: That's amazing. Yeah. That guy really, was he really her guy?
Katherine Grant: And why did she have all the bird seed?
Harper St. George: I feel like it had to mean something to that guy. Right. That was a big F you. Yeah. Yeah.
Katherine Grant: Okay. Well, and you talked about how you discovered your historical romance novel in high school and that it combined all these elements. So who are some of the authors that you think influenced your work the most?
Harper St. George: So many, Johanna Lindsay, Julie Garwood for sure, Judith McNaught. [00:24:00] I would read her books over and over.
I remember in high school reading one of her books wanting to write, and I would like copy on a notebook her paragraph word for word. And then halfway through I would close the book and try to finish it in my, my own voice. Wow. Like literally just trying to infuse her voice with my work.
Katherine Grant: That's actually a great writing exercise,
Harper St. George: maybe.
I think so. Yeah, so definitely her. Who else? So many others that I can't. Think of right now. I just remember reading all the time, historical romance. I would occasionally pick up a contemporary romance or like something that wasn't romance, but I would always get pulled back to the historicals
'cause that's, I don't know, I've just always been a history nerd. I love history and seeing it come alive that way. Heather Graham, that's another one. [00:25:00]
Katherine Grant: Yeah.
All right. Are you ready for love it or leave it?
Harper St. George: I'm ready. I've been ready.
[Musical Interlude]
Katherine Grant: All right. Do you love it or leave it? Protagonists meet in the first 10% of the story.
Harper St. George: Love it. As soon as you can get them together on the page. I eat it up.
Katherine Grant: Love it or leave it?
Dual point of view narration.
Harper St. George: Love it. I love to see the other character pining and the misunderstandings.
Katherine Grant: So many lovely misunderstandings. Yes. Love it or leave it? Third person, past tense.
Harper St. George: Love it. I would never give it up. I know a lot of people are doing first person now, but I love their third person past.
I just love it.
Katherine Grant: Love it or leave it? The third act, breakup or dark moment.
Harper St. George: Love it. I have to know that they have been tested and they're going to have to stay together. I mean, [00:26:00] I don't, they don't have to break up necessarily, but I need something to come in and throw a wrench in their plan so I can see them work through it.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. Love it or leave it? Always end with an epilogue.
Harper St. George: Leave it. I can take it or leave it. Once they've done the happily ever after, maybe it's 'cause I'm a writer. I'm good with just imagining myself. What happens next?
But
I don't mind a good epilogue as a reason. Yeah.
Katherine Grant: Love it or leave it? Always share research in your author's note.
Harper St. George: Love it. I love just understanding where the story came from or the little tidbits that they found that they put in there.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. And are there any other romance rules I didn't ask about that you like to break?
Harper St. George: That's a good question. So in historical romance, I think especially. We always have the virgin heroine.
Katherine Grant: Mm-hmm.
Harper St. George: And I like to find interesting ways besides being a widow, [00:27:00] how that would not be the case, because I do think it's actually a little more realistic than what we've been led to believe with every heroine saving herself for marriage. I mean, absolutely that did happen, but not all the time.
Katherine Grant: Yeah.
That's a good rule to break.
Harper St. George: Yeah.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. Well, Harper, thank you so much for coming on. This episode is out June 25th, so Eliza and the Duke released yesterday mm-hmm. At bookstores near you. Where can our listeners find you and more about your books?
Harper St. George: The best place would be my newsletter. That's harper st george.com/newsletter where you can find out
all the stuff before you can find out anywhere else. And I share little sneak peeks and little facts that I find in my research there. Also Instagram at Harper St. George.
Katherine Grant: Nice. All right. And listeners, I'm gonna put a link in the show notes, so just click on through. Yeah, thank you so [00:28:00] much. This has been fantastic.
By the time this comes out, we will have done a panel together in Decatur, Georgia, which I'm very excited for. And yeah, I can't wait for listeners to hear the sample and then read Eliza in the Duke.
Harper St. George: Thanks so much for having me. It's been great talking to you.
That's it for this week! Don't forget to subscribe to the Historical Romance Sampler wherever you listen, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Until next week, happy reading!