An employer asks his secretary to stay late and copy some disks for him. It's not an unusual request so she complies. He goes into his office.... Five minutes later, the secretary is running for her life as she sees her boss murdered.
That's the beginning of my new novel, Three Moon Station. It's a straight romance, albeit a futuristic one, a departure from my other stories which border on fantasy/horror, so I employ a pseudonym--Icy Snow Blackstone. The origin of that name has a story all its own, but that's for another day. For now, Three Moon Station and the people who live there have the spotlight.
Katy Rawls is a shy, compliant orphan raised by a domineering uncle who's a successful business man because he plays dirty and has even dirtier friends. His partner, Karel Andrews, is his exact opposite, loved by everyone in the office. Katy's witnessing of Andrews' murder sets her feet on a path that sends her to another planet. With the disks containing the evidence that got her boss killed, she heads for the shuttle terminal, intending to go to the police. Because the killers are in hot pursuit, however, and she left purse and identification behind in the office, her destination turns out to be entirely different.
At first, Katy thinks this is the best idea. Getting included in a transportation of Domestics to the pioneering planet Tritomis-2--where females are at a minimum and each passenger will be bid for by a man who'll take her to his ranch--Katy figures she can tolerate being a housekeeper for a year, then when things on Earth cool down, she'll go to the local Federation Marshal and turn over the evidence and live Happily Ever After, as well as Safe from Harm.
Almost immediately, things don't go as she plans. She's noticed by Alwin Marsten, a rancher whose Domestics mysteriously die within a year of going to his ranch. A woman who befriends her on the voyage to Tritomis-2 gets caught in a bidding-duel between Marsten and Abel, a handsome, young farmer who desperately wants her. Only the intervention of a mysterious redheaded station owner enables Abel to win over Marsten, an event that erupts into a fist fight between the rancher and the redhead. When Marsten attempts to buy Katy, the stranger bids four times as much for her and again the rancher loses, leaving the auction with anger and threats.
Katy finds her new employer, Sarkin Trant, a gentle, humorous, and surprisingly shy man, the son of an Arcanian Exile and a schoolteacher from the Scottish colony on Mars. Though still in his thirties, he has a son two years younger than Katy, and she believes he'll be easy to work for--as well as easy to leave when the year's up. When they arrive at Three Moon Station, his ranch, only then does she learn the truth: the Contract she signed with Sar wasn't an Employment Agreement as she thought but a Marriage License, and she's now wed to a total stranger who expects to receive full marital benefits from his new wife!
Katy has exchanged one danger for another of a very, very different kind...and the Terran hit men are still on her trail!
Sounds like my kind of read!
Read and enjoyed the unedited version so that I could "review" this novel. Toni has departed her usual venue and done a danged fine job of a romance!!!
Congrats Madam author.
I read the beginning and that was just a teaser! More!
Sounds great, Toni, and I love your pen name. Very kewl.