The Bedwyns were born in my imagination when I was writing A Summer to Remember and needed a powerful, haughty family to give Lauren Edgeworth a rough time after Kit Butler, Viscount Ravensberg, brought her home as his betrothed when he was expected to pick one of their number as his bride. But as soon as I created them I knew they were trouble. They burst to life and tried to dominate the book. I did what I have done before under such circumstances, though I have never before felt quite so close to being overpowered by my own creations--I promised them all that if they behaved themselves in that book and would be content with the role of minor characters, they could have books of their own in future. One for each sibling!

There were six of them--Wulfric (WOLF-rick), Aidan, Rannulf (RAH-nulf), Freyja (FRAY-u), Alleyne (u-LAIN), and Morgan--and so I committed myself to writing a sextet of books. I mentioned the idea tentatively to my editor at Dell, and the very next day was offered a contract for all six. Those Bedwyns were obviously determined to have their stories told!

Curiously enough, when I asked them who wanted to go first, it was Aidan who stepped firmly forward--the only one who had made no personal appearance in A Summer To Remember. Though perhaps it was not so curious--he was a Bedwyn, after all and had been ignored for too long.

There are six Bedwyn books--three of them published in 2003, and three in 2004. My editor was the one who suggested Slightly Married as the title for the first book. I suggested that Slightly Scandalous would suit one of the other books, and she came back with Slightly Wicked as the possible title of another. And so the series became known not only as the Bedwyn series, but also as the Slightly series.

Good news for those of you who are finding it difficult to let the Bedwyns go--they do make several appearances in the SIMPLY quartet. So do Kit and Lauren. And they will probably appear again. I fully intend writing a book for Gwen, Lady Muir, who first appeared in One Night For Love. Her story is bound to include some of the Butlers and Bedwyns. Under pressure from readers, I have also agreed that I may write stories for Becky and Davy, adopted children of Aidan and Eve Bedwyn. I always hesitate to write stories for the children of my characters since that means showing current characters when they are much older and I prefer to preserve the romantic fantasy that they remain young forever. But by the end of the Bedwyn and Simply books, Becky and Davy are already halfway to being grown up. And so books for them are a possibility.

Here are the Bedwyn books all together, with pictures of the covers and links to a brief description of each and an excerpt.