Title: Ardent
Author: Heloise West
Publisher: Manifold Press
Release Date: February 1st 2017
Genre: Historical MM Romantic Suspense
BLURB
In the village of Torrenta, master painter Morello has created a color that mimics the most expensive pigment of all, the crimson red. Master Zeno, from strife-ridden Medici Florence, tells him the color gives him a competitive advantage – but Morello must be careful. Fraud is ever-present in the dye and pigment markets.
As they work together in Torrenta, Morello falls hard for Zeno’s assistant, Benedetto Tagliaferro, a young man of uncommon beauty and intelligence. Benedetto is still fixed on his old lover, the master painter Leo Guisculo, and cannot return Morello’s affections.
But when Leo dies in a terrible accident, it’s to Morello that Zeno and Benedetto turn for help. And Morello soon finds that in Florence, every surface hides layers of intrigue.
EXCERPT
Hunger drove them home again for Benedetto’s change of clothes and a quick meal in the tavern. At the end of the day, they returned to Morello’s cottage where they went on talking as they drank pale trebbiano, unable to part. Or so Morello believed. But then word came that Master Zeno needed Benedetto for some business, and Benedetto left Morello sitting alone on the bench outside, bereft.
Just after sunset, a soft rain began to fall, so he went inside and lit a few lamps. That melancholy time was the reminder that Morello was alone in the world, with no family; a foundling left on the steps of the local church, possessed of nothing but the shame of abandonment. He had since concluded he was some traveling painter’s by-blow, but there was no mother to tell him or lie to him, no father to return and claim him. Abandonment was a perpetual sunset in his soul, the twilight of unknowns. Rain was worse, far worse, at this time of day and fed the melancholy until it bloated his thoughts and filled him with loss. He left the remainder of the wine untouched and went back to work – work the only cure for this loneliness that yapped at his heels like a small dog.
Just after sunset, a soft rain began to fall, so he went inside and lit a few lamps. That melancholy time was the reminder that Morello was alone in the world, with no family; a foundling left on the steps of the local church, possessed of nothing but the shame of abandonment. He had since concluded he was some traveling painter’s by-blow, but there was no mother to tell him or lie to him, no father to return and claim him. Abandonment was a perpetual sunset in his soul, the twilight of unknowns. Rain was worse, far worse, at this time of day and fed the melancholy until it bloated his thoughts and filled him with loss. He left the remainder of the wine untouched and went back to work – work the only cure for this loneliness that yapped at his heels like a small dog.
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About the Author
Heloise West, when not hunched over the keyboard plotting love and mayhem, dreams about moving to a villa in Tuscany. She loves history, mysteries, and romance of all flavors. She travels and gardens with her partner of thirteen years, and their home overflows with books, cats, art, and red wine.
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