I love all my characters. Even the villains, because I empathize with being misunderstood. Still, every once in a while someone comes along, just strolling down the lane of my mind, and becomes one of my favorite people in the world.

Willa from To Wed a Scandalous Spy is one of my dearest friends. She’s smart and funny. She’s so loyal that nothing can convince her of Nathaniel’s guilt. Her blithe confidence in herself and the people she likes makes me want to be a better sort of person myself.

Even though she is quite pretty and comes from a good family, she is an orphan and a misfit in her little village. They love her dearly there, but they really need to get Willa out because every time a young man gets too close to her, something terrible happens to him! They are starting to run out of young men! Beloved jinx that she is, when a gentleman (who had an untimely mishap with his horse and a falling hornet’s nest) compromises Willa by accidentally spending the night unconscious by her side, Willa is cheerfully forced to marry him and be on her way to London immediately, where supposedly there will be many more young men to come to bad ends.

Willa was originally from a story called An Uncommon Fancy, which was never published as such because I turned it into the first book of the Royal Four series. Everything changed in that story, except Willa. She remained stalwart and perpetually upbeat, so sure that she could just MAKE things–and people–be better. Some books write themselves. Willa wrote her own story. I just typed it for her!