Lindsay Townsend's Blog, page 2
December 17, 2023
Christmas Reading, Christmas Romance. Sensual Romance, The Snow Bride
THE SNOW BRIDE: [image error]https://amzn.to/2MZZan0
[image error] https://amzn.to/2H1tYzY
#HistoricalRomance - a passionate read, and full of suspense. Grab a copy of "The Snow Bride" now. #fiction #warrior #witch #romance #romantic #medieval #FREEReadKU
The SnowBride
She is Beauty, but is he the Beast?
Book One ofThe Knight and the Witch
England,winter, 1131
Elfrida,spirited, caring and beautiful, is also alone. She is the witch of the woodsand no man dares to ask for her hand in marriage until a beast comes stalkingbrides and steals away her sister. Desperate, the lovely Elfrida offers herselfas a sacrifice, as bridal bait, and she is seized by a man with fearful scars.Is he the beast?
In thedepths of a frozen midwinter, in the heart of the woodland, Sir Magnus,battle-hardened knight of the Crusades, searches ceaselessly for three missingbrides, pitting his wits and weapons against a nameless stalker of the snowyforest. Disfigured and hideously scarred, Magnus has finished with love, hethinks, until he rescues a fourth 'bride', the beautiful, red-haired Elfrida,whose innocent touch ignites in him a fierce passion that satisfies his deepestyearnings and darkest desires.
Excerpt
Elfridastirred sluggishly, unable to remember where she was. Her back ached, and therest of her body burned. She opened her eyes and sat up with a jerk, thinkingof Christina.
Her headfelt to be bobbing like an acorn cup in a stream, and her vision swam. As shetried to swing her legs, her sense of dizzy falling increased, becoming worseas she closed her eyes. She lashed out in the darkness, her flailing hands andfeet connecting with straw, dusty hay, and ancient pelts.
“Christina?”she hissed, listening intently and praying now that the monster had brought herto the same place it had taken her sister.
She heardnothing but her own breath, and when she held that, nothing at all.
“Christina?”Fearing to reach out in this blackness that was more than night and dreadingwhat she might find, Elfrida forced herself to stretch her arms. She trailedher fingers out into the ghastly void, tracing the unseen world with tremblinghands.
Her bodyshook more than her hands, but she ignored the shuddering of her limbs, closedher eyes like a blind man, and searched.
She lay ona pallet, she realized, full of crackling, dry grass. When she scented andtasted the air, there was no blood. She did not share the space with grislycorpses.
I am alone and unfettered. Now her heart had stopped thuddingin her ears, she listened again, hearing no one else. Chanting a charm to seein the dark, she tried again to shift her feet.
Lightspilled into her eyes like scalding milk as a door opened and a massive figurelurched across the threshold. Elfrida launched herself at freedom, hurling afistful of straw at the looming beast and ducking out for the light.
She fellinstead, her legs buckling, her last sight that of softly falling snow.
* * * *
Magnusgathered the woman before she pitched facedown into the snow, returning herswiftly to the rough bed within the hut. Her tiny, bird-boned form terrifiedhim. Clutching her was like ripping a fragile wood anemone up from its roots.
And she hadfought him, wind-flower or not. She had charged at him.
“I wish,lass, that you would listen to me. I am not the Forest Grendel, nor have wishto be, nor ever have been.”
Just asearlier, in the clearing where he had first come upon her, a brilliant shock oflife and color in a white, dead world, the woman gave no sign of hearing. Shewas cold again, freezing, while in his arms she had steamed with fever. Hetugged off his cloak and bundled her into it, then piled his firewood andkindling onto the bare hearth.
A fewstrikes of his flints and he had a fire. He set snow to melt in the helmet hewas using as a cauldron. He swept more dusty hay up from the floor and,sneezing, packed it round the still little figure.
No beast ontwo or four legs would hunt tonight, so that was one worry less. Finding thislean-to hut in the forest had been a godsend, but it would be cold.
Magnus wentback out into the snow and led his horse into the hut, spreading what feed hehad brought with him. He kept the door shut with his saddle, rubbed the palfreydown with the bay’s own horse blanket, and looked about for a lantern.
There wasnone, just as there were no buckets, nor wooden bowls hanging from the eaves.But, abandoned as it surely had been, the place was well roofed, and no snowswirled in through the wood and wattle walls. Whistling, Magnus dug through hispack and found a flask of ale, some hard cheese, two wizened apples, and achunk of dark rye bread. He spoke softly to his horse, then looked again at thewoman.
She wasbreathing steadily now, and her lips and cheeks had more color. By theglittering, rising fire he saw her as he had first in the forest clearing, anelf-child of beauty and grace, a willing sacrifice to the monster. Kneelingbeside her, he longed to stroke her vivid red hair and kiss the small dimple inher chin. In sleep she had the calm, flawless face of a Madonna of Outremer andthe bright locks of a Magdalene.
He hadguessed who she was—the witch of the three villages, the good witch driven todesperation. Coming upon her in that snowfield, tied between two trees like acrucified child of fairy, his temper had been a black storm against thevillagers for sparing their skins by flaying hers. Then he had seen her face,recognized that wild, stark, sunken-cheeked grief, seen the loose bonds and theterrible “feast,” and had understood.
Another young woman has been taken by thebeast, someone you love.
She—Elfrida,that was her name, he remembered it now—Elfrida was either very foolish or verypowerful, to offer herself as bait.
PublishedAugust 15th by Prairie Rose Publications
FREE toread with Kindle Umlinted.
To buy onAmazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VSHHX4N
Here’sanother excerpt from THE SNOW BRIDE, showing Elfrida, a medieval witch andMagnus, a warrior. I deliberately wrote it so Elfrida was powerful in magic butnot invulnerable. Hence her catching chicken-pox and being feverish as aresult.
EXCERPT
Magnus was worried. The fire he had made should have brought hispeople. It was an old signal, well-known between them. His men should havereached the village by now—that had been the arrangement. They were bringingtraps and provisions in covered wagons, and hunting dogs and horses. He hadbeen impatient to start his pursuit of the Forest Grendel and so rode ahead,returning with the messenger until that final stretch when the man turned offto his home. He had ridden on alone, finding the wayside shrine.
But from then, all had gone awry. Instead of the monster, he had found anailing witch, and the snowstorm had lost him more tracks and time.
Magnus shook his head, turning indulgent eyes to the small, still figure on therough pallet. At least the little witch had slept through the night and day,snug and safe, and he had been able to make her a litter from woven branches.He would give his fire signal a little longer and then return Elfrida to hervillage. There he might find someone who could translate between them.
Perhaps she did have power, for even as he looked at her, she sat up, the hoodof her cloak falling away, and stared at him in return. She said something,then repeated it, and he drew in a great gulp of cold air in sheerastonishment, then laughed.
“I know what you said!” He wanted to kiss her, spots and all.
He burst into a clumsy canter, dragging his peg leg a little and almosttumbling onto her bed. She caught him by the shoulders and tried to steady himbut collapsed under his weight.
They finished in an untidy heap on the pallet, with Elfrida hissing by his ear,“Why have you done such a foolish thing as to burn all our fuel?”
He rolled off her, knocked snow off his front and beard, and said in return,“How did you know I would know the old speech, the old English?”
“I dream true, and I dreamed this.” She was blushing, though not, he realizedquickly, from shyness.
“Why burn so wildly?” she burst out, clearly furious. “You have wasted it! Allthat good wood gone to ash!”
“My men know my sign and will come now the storm has gone.” He had not expectedthanks or soft words, but he was not about to be scolded by this red-hairednag.
“That is your plan, Sir Magnus? To burn half the forest to alert your troops?”
“A wiser plan than yours, madam, setting yourself as bait. Or had your villageleft you hanging there, perhaps to nag the beast to death?”
Her face turned as scarlet as the fire. “So says any witless fool! ’Tis tooeasy a charge men make against women, any woman who thinks and acts for herself.And no man orders me!”
Magnus swallowed the snort of laughter filling up his throat. He doubted shesaw any amusement in their finally being able to speak to each other only toquarrel. Had she been a man or a lad, he would have knocked her into the snow,then offered a drink of mead, but such rough fellowship was beyond him here.
“And how would you have fought off any knave, or worse, that found you?” heasked patiently. “You did not succeed with me.”
“There are better ways to vanquish a male than brute force. I knew what I wasabout!”
“Truly? You were biding your time? And the pox makes you alluring?”
“Says master gargoyle! My spots will pass!”
“Or did you plan to scatter a few herbs, perhaps?”
He thought he heard her clash her teeth together. “I did not plan my sickness,and I do not share my secrets! Had you not snatched me away, had you notinterfered, I would know where the monster lives. I would have found my sister!I would be with her!” Her voice hitched, and a look of pain and dread crossedher face. “We would be together. Whatever happens, I would be with her.”
“This was Christina?”
“Is Christina, not was, never was! I know she lives!”
Magnus merely nodded, his temper cooling rapidly as he marked how her color hadchanged and her body shook. A desperate trap to recover a much-loved sisterexcused everything, to his way of thinking.
She called you a gargoyle! This piqued his vanity and pride.
But she does not think you the monster, Magnus reminded himself in a dazzled,shocked wonder, embracing that knowledge like a lover.
PublishedAugust 15th by Prairie Rose Publications
FREE toread with Kindle Umlinted.
To buy onAmazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VSHHX4N
A FINAL EXCERPT:
“How are thespots? Itching yet?”
Elfrida gavea faint shudder. “Do not remind me.” Since stirring, she had been aware of herwhole body tickling and burning. Mark’s idea of rolling in the snow might notbe so bad.
“Walter toldme that the village of Great Yarr has abathhouse. Bathing in oatmeal will help you.”
She did notsay that the village could afford to spare no foodstuffs and would not bedistracted. She had tried to rush off in pursuit of the monster before andgained nothing, so now she would gather her strength and learn before shemoved. “What did you call the beast? ForestGrendel? Is it known he lives in the forest?”
Magnus shookhis head. “It is not known, but I do not think so now, or at least notoutdoors. I have hunted wolf’s heads who have been outlawed and fled intowoodland, and they always have camps and dens and food caches within theforest. I have found none of those hereabouts.”
“My dowsingcaught no sign of any lair of his,” Elfrida agreed.
Magnusleaned forward, bracing himself with his injured arm. Elfrida forced herselfnot to stare at his stump, but to listen to him.
“Do yousense anything?” he asked softly.
“The nightyou came, I felt something approach.” She frowned, trying to put into wordsfeelings and impressions that were as elusive as smoke. “A great purpose,” shesaid. “A need and urgent desire.”
Now Magnuswas frowning. “Have you a charm or magic that will help?”
“Do youthink I have not tried magic, charms, and incantations? My craft is not like asword fight, where the blades are always true. If God does not will it—”
“I have beenin enough fights where swords break.”
“Are yourmen good trackers?”
“They wouldnot be with me, else.” If Magnus was startled by her determination to talk onlyof the beast, he gave no sign. “Tell me of your sister and her habits. Did shekeep to the same paths and same tasks each day?”
“Yes andyes, but what else did Walter say? The old men have told me nothing!”
“No, they donot want the womenfolk to know anything, even you, I fear.” His kind eyesgleamed, as if he enjoyed her discomfiture. He had a small golden cross in hisright eye, she noticed, shining amidst the warm brown.
A sparklefor the lasses, eh, Magnus?
To herfurther discomfiture, she realized he had asked her something. “Say again,please?”
“Would youlike some food to go with your mead? There are the remains of mutton, dates andginger, wine and mead and honey.” His brown eyes gleamed. “My men found it inthe clearing where I found you. The mutton has been a bit chewed, but the restis palatable, I think.”
“It isdrugged!” Elfrida burst out. “I put”—she could not think of the old word andused her own language instead—“I put a sleeping draft in the wedding cakes andall.” She seized his arm, not caring that it was the one with the missing hand.“Do not eat it!”
“Sleepingdraft?” He used her own words.
She yawnedand feigned sleep, startled when he started to laugh.
“A weddingfeast to send the groom to sleep! I like it!” He chuckled again and opened hisleft hand, where, to Elfrida’s horror, there was one of her own small weddingcakes.
PublishedAugust 15th by Prairie Rose Publications
FREE toread with Kindle Unlimited.
To buy onAmazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VSHHX4N
Author Bio
LindsayTownsend lives in Yorkshire, where she was born, and started writing stories atan early age. Always a voracious reader, she took a degree in medieval historyand worked in a library for a while, then began to write full-time aftermarriage.
She isfascinated by the medieval and ancient world, especially medieval Britain,where she set her full length medieval romance novels A Knight's Vow, AKnight's Captive, A Knight's Enchantment and A Knight’s Prize, (first publishedby Kensington Zebra, now re-issued) and also The Snow Bride, A Summer Bewitchment, and several novellas. Lindsay is also intrigued by ancient Rome,Egypt, and Britain. Flavia’s Secret, a historical romance set in Roman Britain,was followed by two more ancient world historical romances, Blue Gold, set inancient Egypt, and Bronze Lightning, set in Bronze Age Greece and the Ancient Britainof Stonehenge. All these ancient world historicals are just 99cents or 99p.
When notwriting or researching her books, she enjoys walking, reading, cooking, music,going out with friends and long languid baths with scented candles (and perhapschocolate).
Author pageon Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Lindsay-Townsend/e/B000API55C/
Twitterpage https://twitter.com/lindsayromantic
September 27, 2023
Christmas Reading, Christmas Gift. Sweet Romance, Sir Conrad and the Christmas Treasure
Fancy a feel-good, sweet romance for a Christmas Read as the nights draw in? My sweet medieval historical romance, "Sir Conrad and the Christmas Treasure" is out as a Kindle, a Paperback and now as a Large Print. The Large Print version is coming out on December 1st as a perfect Christmas Read and Christmas Gift.KindleVersion
USA https://amazon.com/gp/product/B07KW6K5RL/
UK https://amazon.co.uk/dp/B07KW6K5RL/
Large Print Version:
Large Print Version:
England, 1192. When Maggie’s brother Michael is kidnapped by outlaws, she appeals to the grim Sir Conrad for help. The first time he sees her, Conrad is overwhelmed by Maggie’s beauty and courage. Yet what will it cost him to aid this peasant girl, who seems strangely familiar? Working together to find Michael, Maggie and Conrad discover more about each other – but some knowledge is dangerous. As Christmas approaches, will their love prevail?
Pre-Order from The Reading House.
Pre-Order from Amazon Co UK
Pre-Order from Linford Large Print
September 2, 2023
Halloween Reads and Romances
Fancy a Spooky or Witchy Romance for Halloween? Please have a look at my Halloween Reads below.
-Townsend-ebook/dp/B0722TNLG5?tag=765 htt-Townse
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Dark Maiden - A Diverse Medieval Paranormal Romance
Ghosts, Revenants, Incubi, Vampires and Demons Haunt Medieval England, as Yolande and Geraint must use their Love to Survive.
Dark Maiden: Amazon USA.
Dark Maiden: Amazon UK
The Snow Bride - A Medieval Beauty and the Beast Romance. First Novel in the Self-Contained Knight and the Witch Series.
She is Beauty but is he the Beast?
THE SNOW BRIDE (THE KNIGHT AND THE WITCH 1): USA https://amzn.to/2MZZan0 UK https://amzn.to/2H1tYzY
EXCERPT https://bit.ly/2yV95Cb
June 30, 2023
Read of a knight & a witch & their descendants in 4 wonderful romances! All #freeread with #KindleUnlimited & in #paperback!
Read of a knight & a witch & theirdescendants in 4 wonderful romances! All #freeread with #KindleUnlimited &in #paperback!
She is Beauty, but is he the Beast?
THE SNOW BRIDE (THE KNIGHT ANDTHE WITCH 1): USA https://amzn.to/2MZZan0
UK https://amzn.to/2H1tYzY
EXCERPT https://bit.ly/2yV95Cb
REVIEW https://bit.ly/38ynFzh
A SUMMER BEWITCHMENT (THE KNIGHT AND THE WITCH 2)
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07ZTMNWZ9/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=a+summer+bewitchment&qid=1572606494&s=digital-text&sr=1-1
SIR THOMAS AND THE SNOW TROLL: USA https://amzn.to/30FFzlo
EXCERPT https://bit.ly/3nr4xgT
THE MASTER COOK AND THE MAIDEN: USA https://amzn.to/3FsEhJm
EXCERPT https://bit.ly/3oI9npx
Read of a knight & a witch & their descendants in 3 wonderful romances! All #freeread with #KindleUnlimited & in #paperback!
Read of a knight & a witch & theirdescendants in 3 wonderful romances! All #freeread with #KindleUnlimited &in #paperback!
She is Beauty, but is he the Beast?
THE SNOW BRIDE (THE KNIGHT ANDTHE WITCH 1): USA https://amzn.to/2MZZan0
UK https://amzn.to/2H1tYzY
EXCERPT https://bit.ly/2yV95Cb
REVIEW https://bit.ly/38ynFzh
SIR THOMAS AND THE SNOW TROLL: USA https://amzn.to/30FFzlo
EXCERPT https://bit.ly/3nr4xgT
THE MASTER COOK AND THE MAIDEN: USA https://amzn.to/3FsEhJm
EXCERPT https://bit.ly/3oI9npx
May 28, 2023
CountDown to the Solstice with 3 Historical Romances!
Countdown to the #Solstice!
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3 #RomanceNovels, All #FREEReadKU all #HistFic. [image error][image error][image error]#SummerSolstice BRONZE LIGHTNING https://tinyurl.com/4wps7wvs
A SUMMER BEWITCHMENThttps://tinyurl.com/2mwz6h7a
#WinterSolstice THE SNOW BRIDE: [image error]https://amzn.to/2MZZan0
May 17, 2023
The Snow Bride - Medieval Historical Romance and Medieval Beauty And The Beast. Blurb, Links and Excerpts
THE SNOW BRIDE: [image error]https://amzn.to/2MZZan0
[image error] https://amzn.to/2H1tYzY
#HistoricalRomance - a passionate read, and full of suspense. Grab a copy of "The Snow Bride" now. #fiction #warrior #witch #romance #romantic #medieval #FREEReadKU
The SnowBride
She is Beauty, but is he the Beast?
Book One ofThe Knight and the Witch
England,winter, 1131
Elfrida,spirited, caring and beautiful, is also alone. She is the witch of the woodsand no man dares to ask for her hand in marriage until a beast comes stalkingbrides and steals away her sister. Desperate, the lovely Elfrida offers herselfas a sacrifice, as bridal bait, and she is seized by a man with fearful scars.Is he the beast?
In thedepths of a frozen midwinter, in the heart of the woodland, Sir Magnus,battle-hardened knight of the Crusades, searches ceaselessly for three missingbrides, pitting his wits and weapons against a nameless stalker of the snowyforest. Disfigured and hideously scarred, Magnus has finished with love, hethinks, until he rescues a fourth 'bride', the beautiful, red-haired Elfrida,whose innocent touch ignites in him a fierce passion that satisfies his deepestyearnings and darkest desires.
Excerpt
Elfridastirred sluggishly, unable to remember where she was. Her back ached, and therest of her body burned. She opened her eyes and sat up with a jerk, thinkingof Christina.
Her headfelt to be bobbing like an acorn cup in a stream, and her vision swam. As shetried to swing her legs, her sense of dizzy falling increased, becoming worseas she closed her eyes. She lashed out in the darkness, her flailing hands andfeet connecting with straw, dusty hay, and ancient pelts.
“Christina?”she hissed, listening intently and praying now that the monster had brought herto the same place it had taken her sister.
She heardnothing but her own breath, and when she held that, nothing at all.
“Christina?”Fearing to reach out in this blackness that was more than night and dreadingwhat she might find, Elfrida forced herself to stretch her arms. She trailedher fingers out into the ghastly void, tracing the unseen world with tremblinghands.
Her bodyshook more than her hands, but she ignored the shuddering of her limbs, closedher eyes like a blind man, and searched.
She lay ona pallet, she realized, full of crackling, dry grass. When she scented andtasted the air, there was no blood. She did not share the space with grislycorpses.
I am alone and unfettered. Now her heart had stopped thuddingin her ears, she listened again, hearing no one else. Chanting a charm to seein the dark, she tried again to shift her feet.
Lightspilled into her eyes like scalding milk as a door opened and a massive figurelurched across the threshold. Elfrida launched herself at freedom, hurling afistful of straw at the looming beast and ducking out for the light.
She fellinstead, her legs buckling, her last sight that of softly falling snow.
* * * *
Magnusgathered the woman before she pitched facedown into the snow, returning herswiftly to the rough bed within the hut. Her tiny, bird-boned form terrifiedhim. Clutching her was like ripping a fragile wood anemone up from its roots.
And she hadfought him, wind-flower or not. She had charged at him.
“I wish,lass, that you would listen to me. I am not the Forest Grendel, nor have wishto be, nor ever have been.”
Just asearlier, in the clearing where he had first come upon her, a brilliant shock oflife and color in a white, dead world, the woman gave no sign of hearing. Shewas cold again, freezing, while in his arms she had steamed with fever. Hetugged off his cloak and bundled her into it, then piled his firewood andkindling onto the bare hearth.
A fewstrikes of his flints and he had a fire. He set snow to melt in the helmet hewas using as a cauldron. He swept more dusty hay up from the floor and,sneezing, packed it round the still little figure.
No beast ontwo or four legs would hunt tonight, so that was one worry less. Finding thislean-to hut in the forest had been a godsend, but it would be cold.
Magnus wentback out into the snow and led his horse into the hut, spreading what feed hehad brought with him. He kept the door shut with his saddle, rubbed the palfreydown with the bay’s own horse blanket, and looked about for a lantern.
There wasnone, just as there were no buckets, nor wooden bowls hanging from the eaves.But, abandoned as it surely had been, the place was well roofed, and no snowswirled in through the wood and wattle walls. Whistling, Magnus dug through hispack and found a flask of ale, some hard cheese, two wizened apples, and achunk of dark rye bread. He spoke softly to his horse, then looked again at thewoman.
She wasbreathing steadily now, and her lips and cheeks had more color. By theglittering, rising fire he saw her as he had first in the forest clearing, anelf-child of beauty and grace, a willing sacrifice to the monster. Kneelingbeside her, he longed to stroke her vivid red hair and kiss the small dimple inher chin. In sleep she had the calm, flawless face of a Madonna of Outremer andthe bright locks of a Magdalene.
He hadguessed who she was—the witch of the three villages, the good witch driven todesperation. Coming upon her in that snowfield, tied between two trees like acrucified child of fairy, his temper had been a black storm against thevillagers for sparing their skins by flaying hers. Then he had seen her face,recognized that wild, stark, sunken-cheeked grief, seen the loose bonds and theterrible “feast,” and had understood.
Another young woman has been taken by thebeast, someone you love.
She—Elfrida,that was her name, he remembered it now—Elfrida was either very foolish or verypowerful, to offer herself as bait.
PublishedAugust 15th by Prairie Rose Publications
FREE toread with Kindle Umlinted.
To buy onAmazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VSHHX4N
Here’sanother excerpt from THE SNOW BRIDE, showing Elfrida, a medieval witch andMagnus, a warrior. I deliberately wrote it so Elfrida was powerful in magic butnot invulnerable. Hence her catching chicken-pox and being feverish as aresult.
EXCERPT
Magnus was worried. The fire he had made should have brought hispeople. It was an old signal, well-known between them. His men should havereached the village by now—that had been the arrangement. They were bringingtraps and provisions in covered wagons, and hunting dogs and horses. He hadbeen impatient to start his pursuit of the Forest Grendel and so rode ahead,returning with the messenger until that final stretch when the man turned offto his home. He had ridden on alone, finding the wayside shrine.
But from then, all had gone awry. Instead of the monster, he had found anailing witch, and the snowstorm had lost him more tracks and time.
Magnus shook his head, turning indulgent eyes to the small, still figure on therough pallet. At least the little witch had slept through the night and day,snug and safe, and he had been able to make her a litter from woven branches.He would give his fire signal a little longer and then return Elfrida to hervillage. There he might find someone who could translate between them.
Perhaps she did have power, for even as he looked at her, she sat up, the hoodof her cloak falling away, and stared at him in return. She said something,then repeated it, and he drew in a great gulp of cold air in sheerastonishment, then laughed.
“I know what you said!” He wanted to kiss her, spots and all.
He burst into a clumsy canter, dragging his peg leg a little and almosttumbling onto her bed. She caught him by the shoulders and tried to steady himbut collapsed under his weight.
They finished in an untidy heap on the pallet, with Elfrida hissing by his ear,“Why have you done such a foolish thing as to burn all our fuel?”
He rolled off her, knocked snow off his front and beard, and said in return,“How did you know I would know the old speech, the old English?”
“I dream true, and I dreamed this.” She was blushing, though not, he realizedquickly, from shyness.
“Why burn so wildly?” she burst out, clearly furious. “You have wasted it! Allthat good wood gone to ash!”
“My men know my sign and will come now the storm has gone.” He had not expectedthanks or soft words, but he was not about to be scolded by this red-hairednag.
“That is your plan, Sir Magnus? To burn half the forest to alert your troops?”
“A wiser plan than yours, madam, setting yourself as bait. Or had your villageleft you hanging there, perhaps to nag the beast to death?”
Her face turned as scarlet as the fire. “So says any witless fool! ’Tis tooeasy a charge men make against women, any woman who thinks and acts for herself.And no man orders me!”
Magnus swallowed the snort of laughter filling up his throat. He doubted shesaw any amusement in their finally being able to speak to each other only toquarrel. Had she been a man or a lad, he would have knocked her into the snow,then offered a drink of mead, but such rough fellowship was beyond him here.
“And how would you have fought off any knave, or worse, that found you?” heasked patiently. “You did not succeed with me.”
“There are better ways to vanquish a male than brute force. I knew what I wasabout!”
“Truly? You were biding your time? And the pox makes you alluring?”
“Says master gargoyle! My spots will pass!”
“Or did you plan to scatter a few herbs, perhaps?”
He thought he heard her clash her teeth together. “I did not plan my sickness,and I do not share my secrets! Had you not snatched me away, had you notinterfered, I would know where the monster lives. I would have found my sister!I would be with her!” Her voice hitched, and a look of pain and dread crossedher face. “We would be together. Whatever happens, I would be with her.”
“This was Christina?”
“Is Christina, not was, never was! I know she lives!”
Magnus merely nodded, his temper cooling rapidly as he marked how her color hadchanged and her body shook. A desperate trap to recover a much-loved sisterexcused everything, to his way of thinking.
She called you a gargoyle! This piqued his vanity and pride.
But she does not think you the monster, Magnus reminded himself in a dazzled,shocked wonder, embracing that knowledge like a lover.
PublishedAugust 15th by Prairie Rose Publications
FREE toread with Kindle Umlinted.
To buy onAmazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VSHHX4N
A FINAL EXCERPT:
“How are thespots? Itching yet?”
Elfrida gavea faint shudder. “Do not remind me.” Since stirring, she had been aware of herwhole body tickling and burning. Mark’s idea of rolling in the snow might notbe so bad.
“Walter toldme that the village of Great Yarr has abathhouse. Bathing in oatmeal will help you.”
She did notsay that the village could afford to spare no foodstuffs and would not bedistracted. She had tried to rush off in pursuit of the monster before andgained nothing, so now she would gather her strength and learn before shemoved. “What did you call the beast? ForestGrendel? Is it known he lives in the forest?”
Magnus shookhis head. “It is not known, but I do not think so now, or at least notoutdoors. I have hunted wolf’s heads who have been outlawed and fled intowoodland, and they always have camps and dens and food caches within theforest. I have found none of those hereabouts.”
“My dowsingcaught no sign of any lair of his,” Elfrida agreed.
Magnusleaned forward, bracing himself with his injured arm. Elfrida forced herselfnot to stare at his stump, but to listen to him.
“Do yousense anything?” he asked softly.
“The nightyou came, I felt something approach.” She frowned, trying to put into wordsfeelings and impressions that were as elusive as smoke. “A great purpose,” shesaid. “A need and urgent desire.”
Now Magnuswas frowning. “Have you a charm or magic that will help?”
“Do youthink I have not tried magic, charms, and incantations? My craft is not like asword fight, where the blades are always true. If God does not will it—”
“I have beenin enough fights where swords break.”
“Are yourmen good trackers?”
“They wouldnot be with me, else.” If Magnus was startled by her determination to talk onlyof the beast, he gave no sign. “Tell me of your sister and her habits. Did shekeep to the same paths and same tasks each day?”
“Yes andyes, but what else did Walter say? The old men have told me nothing!”
“No, they donot want the womenfolk to know anything, even you, I fear.” His kind eyesgleamed, as if he enjoyed her discomfiture. He had a small golden cross in hisright eye, she noticed, shining amidst the warm brown.
A sparklefor the lasses, eh, Magnus?
To herfurther discomfiture, she realized he had asked her something. “Say again,please?”
“Would youlike some food to go with your mead? There are the remains of mutton, dates andginger, wine and mead and honey.” His brown eyes gleamed. “My men found it inthe clearing where I found you. The mutton has been a bit chewed, but the restis palatable, I think.”
“It isdrugged!” Elfrida burst out. “I put”—she could not think of the old word andused her own language instead—“I put a sleeping draft in the wedding cakes andall.” She seized his arm, not caring that it was the one with the missing hand.“Do not eat it!”
“Sleepingdraft?” He used her own words.
She yawnedand feigned sleep, startled when he started to laugh.
“A weddingfeast to send the groom to sleep! I like it!” He chuckled again and opened hisleft hand, where, to Elfrida’s horror, there was one of her own small weddingcakes.
PublishedAugust 15th by Prairie Rose Publications
FREE toread with Kindle Unlimited.
To buy onAmazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VSHHX4N
Author Bio
LindsayTownsend lives in Yorkshire, where she was born, and started writing stories atan early age. Always a voracious reader, she took a degree in medieval historyand worked in a library for a while, then began to write full-time aftermarriage.
She isfascinated by the medieval and ancient world, especially medieval Britain,where she set her full length medieval romance novels A Knight's Vow, AKnight's Captive, A Knight's Enchantment and A Knight’s Prize, (first publishedby Kensington Zebra, now re-issued) and also The Snow Bride, A Summer Bewitchment, and several novellas. Lindsay is also intrigued by ancient Rome,Egypt, and Britain. Flavia’s Secret, a historical romance set in Roman Britain,was followed by two more ancient world historical romances, Blue Gold, set inancient Egypt, and Bronze Lightning, set in Bronze Age Greece and the Ancient Britainof Stonehenge. All these ancient world historicals are just 99cents or 99p.
When notwriting or researching her books, she enjoys walking, reading, cooking, music,going out with friends and long languid baths with scented candles (and perhapschocolate).
Author pageon Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Lindsay-Townsend/e/B000API55C/
Twitterpage https://twitter.com/lindsayromantic
April 14, 2023
Romance, "A Holiday in Bologna" in Large Print in Libraries
My sweet romance, "A Holiday in Bologna" is published in Large Print and will be out in Libraries for perfect summer reading! Please order your free reading copy from your local Library.
March 12, 2023
A Black Medieval Female Exorcist - Dark Maiden. A Medieval Diverse Romance published by Prairie Rose Publications
A Black Medieval Female Exorcist - Dark Maiden
Yolande, the heroine of my latest medieval historical romance novel, 'Dark Maiden' is an exorcist. Her father, who was born in Ethiopia (a country with very ancient Christian roots) was an exorcist. Her mother was born in York.
As is now being discovered, there were people of African descent living and working in Britain, especially in cities and ports like York. Archaeology discovered a Romano-British grave in York where a woman of black African and mixed race heritage had been buried in a rich tomb with grave goods. Archaeology also uncovered a tomb of a man of north African descent buried at a medieval friary in Suffolk, England, close to the port of Ipswich. According to bone specialists he had a bad back! The thirteenth century statue of Saint Maurice in Magdeburg cathedral in Germany clearly shows him as African.
Half-African, half-English, Yolande is the dark maiden of the title, a spiritual wanderer and warrior, helping those tormented by the restless dead and assisting the restless dead themselves to find final peace. She lives and works in England during the time of the Black Death.
I chose this time period quite carefully. Women during the Middle Ages could not be priests but during the period of the Black Death, when thousands died, including hundreds of priests, the church allowed women to take confessions from dying people. In early 1349 the bishop of Bath and Wells wrote to his priests to encourage all men to confess, before they were taken by the pestilence. He added that if they had no priest they should follow the teaching of the Apostles and confess to each other 'or, if no man is present, even to a woman'. (From translation in Philip Zeigler, The Black Death, page 125).
Medieval people also believed that in a crisis anyone, priest or lay person, could perform an exorcism because every Christian has the power to command demons and drive them away in the name of Christ. I took these ideas and developed them, allowing my Yolande to become an exorcist.
In 'Dark Maiden' I have Yolande and Geraint (a travelling player who becomes her friend, help-mate, lover and finally husband) face several encounters with both restless spirits and also demons. My ideas have always been shaped by the real beliefs of the time. So in 'Dark Maiden' there are evil spirits, restless ghosts called revenants, an incubus and vampires - all paranormal creatures with a medieval slant.
More details of 'Dark Maiden' here.
Read Chapter One here:
http://www.authorsden.com/adstorage/92533/DarkMaidenChapterOneExcerpt.pdf
January 4, 2023
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