Don’t tell Lady Atherly but I’ve snuck out after breakfast again. Can you blame me? Tully is my only friend here at Morrington Hall. Even back home in Kentucky, everyone knew I, Miss Stella Kendrick, the famous horse breeder’s only child, was more comfortable in the stables than at a dinner party. Here I can be myself. Horses, or grooms for that matter, don’t care which fork you use for the fish course or whether you’ve forgotten your hat in the house. Being in the stables with Tully is simply the best way to start any day, especially one that will otherwise be filled with multiple changes of clothes, social calls where everyone talks about the weather, afternoon tea with the family where everyone talks about the weather, and if I’m lucky, a little time to read my romance and adventure books.

But people in society don’t understand that or me. Through Daddy’s negligence, his reliance on grooms and coachmen to educate me in the social graces after Mama died, and his insisting I learn to drive his automobile when he’d run through three chauffeurs in so many weeks, I’ve become the odd one out. No one wanted me to attend their dances or garden parties back home and they don’t want me here at Morrington Hall.

If it weren’t for Daddy’s betrayal, I wouldn’t be. I’d set out on what I’d thought was an adventure, traveling to the English countryside for a wedding. Instead, I found myself being traded, like his finest Thoroughbred racehorses, for a British title, giving Daddy the social standing he currently lacks back home. I still can’t believe it. If Daddy, and Lord and Lady Atherly have their way, I’m doomed to marry their son, Lord Lyndhurst in a few days’ time.

I may never forgive Daddy. Morrington Hall is vast, damp and chilly. I had to ask for a fire in my room when the maid woke me up this morning and its late May! Lady Atherly refers to me as “The American” and gloats at every faux pas I commit. (Who knew the rules of society in England were so stringent?) And on top of everything, Lord Lyndhurst and I discovered poor Reverend Bullmore, the vicar who was to marry us, dead in the library!

But then again, it hasn’t been all bad. I’ve explored the countryside around Morrington Hall, called the New Forest, and it’s breathtakingly beautiful. (Did I mention the free-ranging ponies?) I’ve shown to these stoic aristocrats that curiosity can be an asset and asking questions valuable to the police, and I think Lyndy, as Lord Lyndhurst insists I call him, may not be as pompous, pretentious and rude as I’d thought. And he is quite handsome, isn’t he?

Oh, here comes James, the footman Lady Atherly has sent out to find me. If I’m going to get a ride in, I’d better hurry. Besides, I’ve got something to show Inspector Brown today. Lady Atherly won’t approve of my skipping our visit to Baroness Branston-Hill planned for later this morning, but she’ll understand how important it is that I help the police solve the vicar’s murder. Won’t she?

You can read more about Stella in Murder at Morrington Hall, the first book in the NEW “Stella and Lyndy” historical mystery series, coming May 28, 2019.

Stella Kendrick is an all-American heiress who can’t be tamed. But when the lively aspiring equine trainer tangles with British aristocracy, she meets her match—and a murderer . . .

Spring, 1905: Free-spirited like the Thoroughbreds she rides across the Kentucky countryside, Stella takes adventure by the reins when she’s asked to attend a mysterious wedding in rural England. But once she arrives at the lush Morrington Hall estate, her cold and ambitious father confesses that he won’t only give away his best racehorses as gifts—he has also arranged to give away his daughter as bride to the Earl of Atherly’s financially strapped son . . .

Stella refuses to be sold off like a prized pony. Yet despite a rough start, there’s something intriguing about her groom-to-be, the roguish Viscount “Lyndy” Lyndhurst. The unlikely pair could actually be on the right track with each other . . . until they find the vicar who was to marry them dead in the library.

With culture clashes mounting between families, a scandalous murder case hangs over Morrington Hall. Now, Stella and Lyndy must go from future spouses to amateur sleuths as they team up to search for the truth—and prevent an unbridled criminal from destroying their new life together right out of the gate . . .

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Meet the author
Clara McKenna writes the new historical cozy Stella & Lyndy Mysteries series, about an unlikely couple who mix love, murder, and horseracing in Edwardian England. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and the founding member of Sleuths in Time, a cooperative group of historical mystery writers who encourage and promote each other’s work. With an incurable case of wanderlust, she travels every chance she gets, England being a favorite destination. When she can’t get to England, she happily writes about it from her home in Iowa.

To learn more about Clara, visit her website at claramckenna.com, on Facebook, or on BookBub.

All comments are welcomed.