Dear Reader,
Thank you to all of the romance readers who love the all important HEA (Happily Ever After), essential to my stories, who have become my readers, too. Without the HEA, it is not a romance. As an impressionable twelve-year-old, I fell in love with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland in The Adventures of Robin Hood the first time I watched it on the late, late, late show. It formed my idea of a romance, and what was romantic. There was action, adventure, good guys vs the bad guys. And in the end, the good guys win, the hero rescues the heroine and kisses her… And I sighed. I still do! Over the years, and with the advent of video cassette players, I have worn out two VHS copies of The Adventure’s of Robin Hood, but the DVD is still in good shape!
Today I’m celebrating release day for Rescuing the Lady of Sedgeworth, Book 3 in my reissued Medieval series, The Ladies of the Keep. A huge shout out and thank you to Kathryn Le Veque and my FAB publisher Dragonblade Publishing for reissuing this series for me and introducing it to a new readership. Catch me today at the Dragonblade Publishing Reader’s Group Facebook page. I’ll be chatting from 9am to 5pm, will have excerpts, a game or two, and giveaways!
ICYMI, and are not on Facebook, here’s a snippet from today’s new release: Rescuing the Lady of Sedgeworth.
Rescuing the Lady of Sedgeworth
©C.H. Admirand July 2023
The Ladies of the Keep, Book 3
Excerpt from Chapter One
“Hang on, lass,” MacInness urged. “’Tis just through the wood.”
Shards of pain splintered throughout his bruised and battered body. His grip slackened. Ruthlessly pushing the pain aside, he focused on the woman in his arms and tightened his hold.
Ebony tresses lay plastered against her ghastly pale face. His throat closed. Was he too late? “Almost there,” he rasped.
Refusing to give in to his body’s clamoring need to stop and rest, Scots Mercenary, Winslow MacInness, clenched his jaw and his resolve. If he stopped now, he’d drop from sheer exhaustion. He’d not give the bastards the satisfaction of dying. Not now when sanctuary lay just across the open field.
Merewood Keep.
He crossed toward the Saxon holding. He’d been gone for months. Though he wished he’d stayed on in the Highlands, fate had brought him home and had him rescuing the woman he carried.
Would she make it? Duncan hadn’t. He must be losing his mind as well as his life’s blood if he was thinking about his dead horse.
Numbness crept slowly up his shins and his mind drifted. Not paying attention, he slipped on the wet grass, going down hard on one knee. The jagged edge of a rock tore into his flesh. Pain shot through him. Thank God he still had feeling in his legs.
“Hold!” a voice commanded through the mist.
Ignoring it, he placed one quivering leg in front of the other. If he stopped now, he’d never make it. He glanced down; she was still unconscious.
Too long.
The gash on his forehead began to throb in earnest, accompanied by the warm trickle of blood sliding down the side of his face.
The first arrow surprised him. He braced for another. The tip of the second arrow sliced through the bottom edge of his plaid before plunging into the soft earth between his feet. The feathered knock brushed against the top of his thigh and his manly pride.
“Bollocks,” he swore.
The lads are gettin’ better. He shifted his handhold freeing his right hand and gave the signal Garrick taught him when he had sworn allegiance and become vassal to the Lord of Merewood Keep. Raising his fist in the air, he waited a heartbeat, then touched it to his heart.
The third arrow sailed wildly over his head and a voice called out, “MacInness?”
“Aye.”
“We thought you dead.” Garrick’s shout was echoed by the grating of wood against stone as the gate opened.
“No’ yet.” His vision grayed as the blood oozing from a dozen places reached a crucial level. Darkness danced at the edge of his sight.
His legs wobbled, forcing him to his knees. The impact jarred the deep wound in his thigh. Razor sharp pain lanced through him as the healing wound re-opened. He gasped for breath.
“Let me help.” A disembodied voice said while questing hands reached for the battered woman still held protectively in his arms.
“Nay.” He fought off a surge of dizziness, pulling her closer to his heart.
“You cannot even hold yourself up. Let me take the woman.”
He focused his gaze and looked into his overlord’s eyes. “I canna,” he whispered half to himself. “She’ll die.”
He closed his eyes against the harsh reality. After finally saying aloud what he’d feared while making his way back to Merewood, anguish lanced through him. Somehow, he knew if he severed the physical connection of her limp body tucked against his, she’d let go of the last thread of life she clung to.
MacInness had never seen anyone so fragile looking suffer so much and yet live to tell of it.
“Winslow?” A soft lilting voice called to him through the fog of pain threatening to swallow him whole.
“Jillie lass,” he murmured.
“Aye,” Garrick’s wife answered. “You trust me, do you not?”
“What about—” Garrick started to protest.
MacInness opened one eye and saw the glare Merewood’s lady bestowed upon her husband, and the answering look of retribution reflected back at her. He almost smiled.
“With my life, lass,” he answered.
“And your friend’s as well?” she asked, all the while prying his stiff fingers apart, one at a time.
His gut clenched. “I wilna let her suffer.” He was too exhausted to care that his voice broke over the words.
“Let me ease her pain,” she urged. “I’ve brought my healing herbs.”
Garrick knelt down, waiting. MacInness slowly nodded to his overlord and then looked at Jillian. “Take away her pain, lass. I couldna.”
Jillian nodded and touched the tips of her slender fingers to his brow. MacInness sighed and gratefully gave up his hold on the ebony-haired woman in his arms and let the pain have him.
Read the Blurb:
Norman beauty Lady Genvieve is on her way to her cousin’s new holding Merewood Keep to take charge of his young daughter…
Her escort is attacked. Struggling to break free from her captors she is brutally beaten, suffers a blow to the throat, and knocked unconscious.
Returning to Merewood Keep, MacInness, vassal to Garrick of Merewood, sees a midnight-haired angel being brutally attacked. He rushes to rescue her, but an enemy arrow shoots his warhorse out from beneath him. Nothing will stop him from saving her; he continues on foot. She is unconscious, but he encourages her to hang on until they reach safety.
MacInness has no desire to marry…
They arrive at Merewood Keep, unaware of the changes that have taken place while he was away. When she wakens, she cannot speak. Waiting for her to recover he discovers a woman he can love, instead of the one he can never have—his overlord’s wife.
Genvieve de Chauret is drawn to the handsome Highlander who risked his life to save hers, and falls in love with him. Someone wants her dead, and when MacInness marries Genvieve, his life is now in danger. When MacInness is attacked, rumors abound that it is his wife who wants him dead. When Genvieve’s life is threatened, they will have to look into their hearts, and that of their keep’s people to find the traitor threatening their newfound happiness.+
In this novel you can enjoy Medieval Romance, Hardheaded Heroes, Feisty Heroines, Second Chances, Marriage of Convenience, Injured Heroine, Forced Proximity, Norman vs Saxon, 11th Century.
Read in Kindle Unlimited!
The Ladies of the Keep
Book 1 – Liberating the Lady of Loughmoe
Book 2 – Bargaining with the Lady of Merewood
Book 3 – Rescuing the Lady of Sedgeworth
NOTE: This story was previously published under the title A Scot’s Honor. It now has newly added content for you to enjoy.
Genres & Tropes: Medieval Romance, Historical Romance, Hardheaded Heroes, Feisty Heroines, Second Chances, Marriage of Convenience, Hero to the Rescue, Injured Heroine, Second Chances, Forced Proximity, Norman vs Saxon, 11th Century.
