Behind a Moonlit Veil
by Tabetha Waite
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Amaris Maxwell has lived her entire life with ill health. As the daughter of a prominent doctor, it never occurred to her to question his abilities, nor his associate’s rather unorthodox treatments. But the life of a sheltered woman has its disadvantages. She yearns to be free, to live an existence outside the same four walls. It isn’t until fate thrusts her into the path of Mr. Jackson Moreland that she begins to question everything she’s ever known. As a mysterious killer begins to terrorize the streets of London, Amaris realizes that things are not always how they may appear…
But how close is the true villain?
Jackson Moreland has lived the last two years of his life in a personal hell after the brutal murder of his wife. Released from an asylum, he struggles to come to terms with his reality. When he is engaged by Scotland Yard to assist in learning the identity of the murderer of Whitechapel, everything changes the moment he meets Amaris. He knows something isn’t right and he’s determined to find out what it is.
As things progress between them and secrets are revealed amid their growing attraction, they begin to fear that the true threat may not be the Ripper after all.
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Chapter One
1888
London, England
The first incident happened on a Tuesday in April. The watch patrolling around Whitechapel had been alerted to the sound of a woman’s screams and went to investigate. Emma Elizabeth Smith, a forty-five-year-old prostitute, was assaulted and robbed on Whitechapel Road by three men. The next day, she died at the London Hospital from injuries sustained during the attack.
Four months later, on August seventh, another episode would occur, this one even more gruesome. A woman by the name of Martha Tabram was found on the first-floor landing of George Yard. However, it wasn’t so much the fact she had died, but rather the way in which she had perished—with thirty-nine stab wounds to her body—that bothered Jackson Moreland.
He got to his feet and tossed down the paper he’d been perusing in his uncle’s study, where the press was noting this latest episode as another in the series of the “Whitechapel Murders.”
Jackson stared out the window overlooking Mayfair, a frown creasing his forehead. He was staying in an affluent townhouse in Grosvenor Square in the West End of London, far away from the terror that was wreaking havoc on the other side of the vast city. And yet, even though he had suffered much in his personal life over the past twenty-two months, he felt a compulsion to act, to ensure that such senseless murders should cease.
Of course, while he had once been a good detective, would he even be taken seriously now? Many in the department at Scotland Yard believed him to be unhinged after what had happened in Paris. It could be that they might actually consider his offer to help as an impediment to their investigation.
Jackson clenched his fist and released a long, deep breath, knowing that he had to try. He might not be Chief Inspector for H Division any longer, but he still retained the instincts that had been honed in him long ago. While his current status made him a liability, as long as he wasn’t involved in the paperwork, then surely he could do some good in the field. Anything would be worth it, just to feel as though his life wasn’t empty and meaningless anymore.
Jackson heard the front door open and close, the firm undertones of his uncle returning as he spoke to the butler. The older man appeared in the study moments later, his head bent over a paper in his grasp. However, he must have felt the sensation of another presence in the room, for he glanced up and paused. He offered Jackson a brief incline of his head as he folded the paper in his hand and set it on his desk then walked to the sideboard. He poured himself a drink. “Care for one?” he asked.
Jackson couldn’t help but smile briefly. Charles Prescott, the Earl of Bertley, knew that his nephew didn’t drink any longer, and yet he still asked out of politeness. Either that, or it was respect for his deceased sister, Jackson’s mother, for it was likely because of his devotion to her that the gentleman housed a relation who many claimed was insane. Luckily, the earl was unmarried, a rather confirmed bachelor, with no one to dispute his decision to keep Jackson under his roof.
Charles’s gaze shifted to the paper near the mantel where Jackson had been sitting. He sighed heavily. “I see that you’ve already heard the accounts.” He walked over to the settee and sat down. “I was hoping to spare you the grisly details that the press so dearly loves to announce.”
Tabetha grew up in a small town in Missouri with big dreams of being a published author after her fourth grade teacher said she liked reading her stories. She began her journey by putting pen to paper writing anything from fantasy to mystery, but it wasn’t until she started high school that her grandmother introduced her to the classic, Gothic novels. As her love of romance grew to encompass Harlequins, it wasn’t until she read “Midnight Bride” by Kathleen Drymon did she develop a fascination for historical England. After discovering Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, she was hooked!
It wasn’t until 30 years and 63 rejections later that her debut novel, “Why the Earl is After the Girl,” the first book in her Ways of Love series was picked up for publication in July 2016 to critical acclaim, winning the 2017 Best Indie Book Award in Romance and the Second Place Feathered Quill Book Award in 2018 for Romance. "Where the Viscount Met His Match" was a 2019 romance finalist in the International Book Awards, and a 2019 romance finalist in the Book Excellence Awards. "When a Duke Pursues a Lady" was a romance finalist in the 2018 Book Talk Radio Club Awards, and "Who the Marquess Dares to Desire" was a 2019 Raven Awards finalist.
When she’s not writing, Tabetha is reading as true bookworms do, checking out any flea market, antique mall, or doll show she comes across, and working as a lunch lady at the local community college. She is a certified PAN member of the RWA.
You can find her on most any social media site and she encourages any fans of her work to join her mailing list to learn more about upcoming novels or events.
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