The Key to His Heart: A Steampunk Christmas Fairytale

By Barbara Burke

Since he was a small child Andre has been treated like a monster because of his mechanical parts - scorned and reviled by children and adults alike. He's learned to hide himself away from people. Arabella, an airship engineer in training, doesn't believe he's a monster at all. But can she convince him of that? When she's forced to join him on his airship, The Rose, on a flight through the winter skies it's an opportunity to teach him that love is for everyone and humanity is more than just flesh and blood.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
• Release date: Dec 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781509217861

Barbara Burke

Barbara Burke?s parapetetic life means she?s lived everywhere from a suburban house in a small town to a funky apartment in a big city, and from an architecturally designed estate deep in the forest to a cedar shack on the edge of the ocean. Everywhere she?s gone she?s been accompanied by her husband, her animals and her books. For the last ten years she?s worked as a freelance journalist and has won several awards. She was a fan of Jane Austen long before that lady was discovered by revisionists and zombie lovers and thinks Georgette Heyer was one of the great writers of the twentieth century. She lives by the philosophy that one should never turn down the opportunity to get on a plane no matter where it?s going, but deep down inside wishes she could travel everywhere by train.

Book preview

Inc.

His cowl was thrown back over his shoulders, his face bare in the chill night air.

Arabella didn’t hesitate. She was across the deck in no time, and before he could stop her, she had her hands up on either side of his face, forcing his head down to look at her and allow her to look at him for the very first time.

By the light of the docking lamps around them, reflected in the snow that had begun to fall, she stared into his eyes.

They are golden, she said in wonder. Just as people said.

He stared back, unblinking. He hadn’t blinked in twenty years.

My parts are made of reinforced gold so they don’t rust, he explained, his voice weary and resigned, as if waiting for her inevitable revulsion to manifest.

Instead she stood closer still. Her raised hands cupped his cheeks, which were cold in the winter darkness. She could feel the edge of a scar under her fingers. It ran from his hairline down to his brow and across his face to disappear beneath sharp cheekbones into the shadows of her hand. It must once have been horrific. Now it was thin and slightly puckered. His mouth was flawless.

You fraud, she said. There’s nothing wrong with your face. You have the eyes of a tiger and a scar. Nothing more.

Praise for Barbara Burke

Barbara Burke builds a world and weaves a tale that captivates from the very beginning. Would love to read more of this world!

~USA Today best selling author Victoria Barbour

~*~

Titillating! Sophisticated! Will rock readers with a stunning new world! Thank you Barbara Burke for introducing me to the world of steampunk!

~Katherine King, author of Captivated: Stile Series

~*~

Also by Barbara Burke

and available from The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

RECOMPROMISING AMANDA

NOT2NITE

The Key

to His Heart

by

Barbara Burke

A Steampunk Christmas Fairy Tale

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

The Key to His Heart

COPYRIGHT © 2017 by Barbara Burke

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Contact Information: [e-mail]

Cover Art by Tina Lynn Stout

The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

PO Box 708

Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

Publishing History

First Fantasy Rose Edition, 2017

Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-1786-1

A Steampunk Christmas Fairy Tale

Published in the United States of America

Dedication

To Rowena, my own Beauty,

And to Ross,