When Travis and Regan were on the seat, he turned to her. "Shall we go home?"

"Home," she whispered. "Home is where you are, Travis, and that's where I want to be."

He kissed her. "I love you," he said, "and—."

"I'm bleeding to death, and you two are courting, " Wesley bellowed from the back.

"Courting!" Travis snorted, clicking to the horses. "Little brother, you don't even know what courting is.

As soon as you're up to the excitement, I'm going to tell you about the world's best courtship. Maybe someday you can be half as creative—. " He stopped and narrowed his eyes at Regan, who'd started laughing, and his look of injury made her laugh harder.

"I think I'd rather hear Regan's side of any of your stories, Travis," Wesley said, smiling, his eyes closed.

"Home," Regan said, wiping her eyes. "It's going to be very good to get home."

Travis began to smile also as he turned the horses toward the Stanford plantation.

JUDE DEVERAUX ANSWERS QUESTIONS.

I fell in love with every one of the Montgomery men. Will there be more books about them in the future?

When I finished Velvet Angel, I hadn't planned to write more books about the Montgomery family, but since then I have received hundreds of letters asking me for more of this family. Several of the letters contained long outlines of plots for stories about Montgomery children, American Montgomerys, outlaw Montgomerys, you name it.

It was a difficult decision (took about ten minutes), but I decided to write four more books dealing with the descendants of my lovely men. They are set in America and cover all four corners of the United States. I have no idea what the t.i.tles will be, and if you have any t.i.tle suggestions, please send them to me.

In the back of Velvet Angel was a mention of a contemporary romance between the American Montgomerys and the English branch. When will this book be out?

You saw my attempt at contemporary fiction in Casa Grande, and you can still ask me for more?!

It seems that when G.o.d so kindly gave me the ability to write, He didn't extend it very far. All I want to do is write the very best historical romances that I possibly can—and historical seem to be all I'm capable of. I don't want to write family sagas or occult books, and I have no intention of again trying to ruin the contemporary market.

In The Black Lyon you mentioned Dacre and Angharad, and it seemed to me that this would make a good sequel. Are you planning to write about them?

I had intended to write the story of Dacre and Angharad and had the plot ready. But when I turned in The Velvet Promise, which had many references to The Black Lyon, Rannulf being a major character in the book, I was told that thirteenth-century books didn't sell and that I had to change the book to the sixteenth century, which did sell, or my book would not be published. I spent a month changing the description and background and removing the Warbrooke family. The plot for Dacre and Angharad became Highland Velvet, changing Wales to Scotland.

In Velvet Song you mentioned the lion belt. When are you going to write about how the belt went from Lyonene to Alyx?

Every one of my medieval heroes and heroines has come from uppercla.s.s families, and I felt so much sympathy for Alyx because she was intimidated by her rich in-laws, that I let the reader know that she was actually uppercla.s.s too.

It was intended as a throwaway scene, and I wasn't sure my readers would even notice it, but I have received stacks of letters asking about the belt. Maybe someday I'll do more medievals, but for now I'd like to stay in America.

Are you a man or a woman?

I'm a woman. And my name is p.r.o.nounced as in Saint Jude—the saint of hopeless causes.

Why are the Montgomery books all t.i.tled with velvet? What significance does the word have?

Velvet has no relation to anything. I can never come up with t.i.tles for my books, so I think I got the next one on the publisher's list. When I moved to Pocket Books, they had the task of coordinating the other three t.i.tles in the series with The Velvet Promise.

end.