He put it back into his jeans pocket. Modern technology fascinated Robert, but he’d somehow found a way of making it work for him, instead of being a slave to it, like she’d been. Her detox period in his time, as she called it, had cured her of her obsession, and, with him as a guide, she’d managed to have the same outlook as well. Robert’s sharp mind was still medieval in the best sense, able to keep them both rooted in the moment. Though he’d been fascinated as hell about being able to measure time to the minute, much less the second.
“Have you hit five hundred members yet?”
“Maybe.” He fingered his father’s crusade stone, which was now mounted on a small silver chain around his neck. “I’ll find out later.”
Greg was his business partner in a medieval combat school he’d opened last year in Cardiff, where they’d made their home. It had immediately become popular, serving those in reenactment groups, as well as those looking for the newest way to get in shape. Lately, though, their services had piqued the interest of Hollywood movie types. They’d just landed a consulting gig for a new period drama set in the thirteenth century. She’d given up her job and opened an adjunct business next to his, offering consulting services for academics—and now movie producers—on the history, culture, and language of medieval Welsh, Middle English, and Norman French.
His new goal was to get a degree in medieval history so that he would have accepted credentials for his knowledge. He was constantly combing old documents and maps as well as museums for surviving objects. Studying what he found, he then published short papers in journals where he presented his own “interpretation” of their use or meaning. While his theories were based on his knowledge, he found creative ways to explain them from what was visible in the objects or documents. Already academics were fascinated by his “refreshing and unique outlook.”
Standing before his effigy now, something inexpressible stole over her again. But this time, instead of feeling lost and adrift, she felt whole and complete. Part of life.
No better time than the present to let him know her news. “Robert?”
“Yes?” He took her hand and kissed the tips of her fingers.
She pulled his hand down to her belly and pressed it flat, her hand covering his.
His hand jerked under hers, and then he spread his fingers and looked into her eyes, questioning.
Through a sheen of tears, she smiled and nodded, her heart bursting with love for her hunky medieval warrior.
He caught his breath and raised her hand to his lips, kissing the ring on her pinkie finger. His eyes glinted with joy and love, not needing to say a word, each of them grounded in the moment and its marking of their next adventure together.
Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading Must Love Chainmail!
I hope you enjoyed Katy and Robert! Keep flipping forward to read my historical note about the events in the book. And if you join my mailing list for the latest news, I'll send you deleted scenes as a thank you! If you realllly loved it, and want to help pimp my books and get free content and be the first to hear of news, you can join my street team!
Want some visuals? While drafting and revising, I created a Pinterest board to help visualize and brainstorm, and it includes not only some historic clothing, but also which actor I pictured for Robert :)
Did you miss Book One, which featured Isabelle’s adventures back in time? Must Love Breeches is the first book in my Must Love Time Travel series and she meets not only a hunky lord, but also historical figure Ada Lovelace. Flip to the end of this book for a sneak peek at the first two chapters or add it to your Goodreads shelf. Purchase on Kobo.
Please feel free to reach out to me. I love to hear from readers about what they loved (or didn't) about my books, so drop me a line if you'd like at [email protected] or find me on my website or on twitter at @angelaquarles, or on my Facebook page.
And now a big favor. Readers like you make it possible for writers to do what they love, spin tales! Thank you for your support. If you enjoyed Must Love Chainmail, I hope you'll take a moment to share your enthusiasm with other readers by posting a review. Discoverability for new authors like me is a challenge and every review helps connect a reader to a book they might enjoy. I appreciate any review, positive or negative, so if you have a moment to post one, even just a line or two about what you thought of the story on Goodreads or your favorite review site, I’d be grateful! The more reviews a book receives, the more other readers are willing to take a chance on a new author. It also helps a reader decide whether a book is for them or not. Regardless, I thank you for reading! If you do leave a review, send me an email at [email protected] so I can personally thank you, or tweet me @angelaquarles.
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Also by Angela Quarles
Beer and Groping in Las Vegas
an erotic geek romantic comedy
Must Love Breeches
a time travel romance, Book One in the Must Love Time Travel Series
Steam Me Up, Rawley
a steampunk romance
Historical Note
Wow, where to start! I had a lot of fun (and some frustrations) researching this novel. The main rebellion on which the events in this story hang, Madog’s Rebellion of 1294, is an often overlooked, and short-lived, uprising against King Edward. If anyone is only glancingly familiar with the Welsh attempts to maintain or regain their sovereignty, it’s usually those centered on Llywelyn the Great and Llywelyn the Last prior to the events of this novel, or that of Owain Glyndŵr from 1400-1415. Focusing on this rebellion was a little frustrating due to the paucity of the information, but this was also a blessing, as it gave me more narrative freedom.
Castell y Bere was one of the first castles to be besieged by the Welsh, but the records are unclear as to what exactly happened. Some scholars take at face value that since King Edward ordered a relief party to be sent (twice) to this castle meant that the party arrived and relieved the besieged. But the total silence of any mention of the royal town of Bere and its castle after this could argue otherwise (as some scholars have). Combined with the discovery of a layer of ash over the remains, I seized on this as a plot point—having the besiegers succeed via fire. The low numbers of defenders is on record, however. Originally, I’d meant for the castle to be fictitious, but when I stumbled upon Castell y Bere in my research, I’m pretty sure I got the goose bumps as I realized how perfect it would be for my story.
The Welsh did besiege Harlech, Caernarfon, and Rhuthun (Ruthin) castles, but whether or not Madog occupied Rhuthun, much less made it his base like I portray, is unknown as far as I could find—according to one history, they were successful in besieging it, but beyond that, I don’t know. Historical figures included Simon de Montfort, King Edward, Sir Robert Staundon (commander of Castell y Bere), Sir Robert Fitzwalter, Madog ap Llywelyn, Sir Reginald de Grey, Sir Griffith de la Pole (Lord of Powys), and Maelgwn ap Rhys. Apparently de Grey was in Flint, even though his castle had been besieged, and the chaos around Flint, and the burnt town is true. However, I only made it partially burned, so Robert and Katy could have an inn to stay in. I also took liberties with ascribing the destruction of a monastery to Lord Powys, which is completely fictional, as was the event itself and the monastery; apologies to his descendants! For a good history of this rebellion, see The Revolt of Madog ap Llywelyn by Craig Owen Jones.
While Robert and his father are fictional, the events Robert describes surrounding his father and the Oxford Provisions were pulled from history. His description in Chapter Twenty-Four of that conflict were accurate as far as I could make it, except for his own father being a part of it, of course. Simon de Montfort was a fascinating historical figure, and if you
’re wanting to read a great historical fiction surrounding him, as well as the early Welsh wars with Llywelyn the Great and Llywelyn the Last, Sharon Kay Penman’s Welsh Princes trilogy makes for an absorbing read.
The legend Katy mentions, about anyone who spends the night on Cadair Idris Mountain will wake up either a madman or a poet is a real legend.
When Robert is asking Katy where she’s from and hears that she’s from the West, past Ireland, he mentions Madoc the Shipbuilder. This Welshman does exist in the legends and historians and enthusiasts have come up with various possible places where he settled. One of which, of interest to me since I live in Mobile, Alabama, is that his party settled here and his descendants intermarried with the native population.
On their last night at Rhuthun castle, as Robert follows Katy up the stairs, I drew inspiration from the wonderfully sensuous painting Hellelil and Hildebrand, The Meeting on the Turret Stairs by Frederic William Burton, which hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland.
Finally, a note on language. I had to take liberties with writing Robert’s point of view, since the actual language he’d have spoken wouldn’t be possible for me to write. So I wrote it in modern English, using modern words that I'm going to assume he'd have the equivalent word for in his. For instance, the concept of the word “fuck” would’ve been around, if not the word itself (though some debate how old that word truly is). Anyway, I had de Buche use it, as the power of that word worked in that scene and I’m sure he’d have used the equivalent in his language. “Machinations” is another example—the etymology for English is late 1400s, but it’s derived from Old French, so I took the liberty of making it a part of Robert’s French. I tried to avoid using words for concepts or technology Robert wouldn't have been aware of, but some might have slipped by me. With that said, I took the literary license to cast his speech and syntax so that it sounds “older.” Hopefully, I struck the right balance with getting you immersed in his time period without it being overloaded with thees and thous to where you gritted your teeth and wanted to smack me upside the head.
About the Author
Photo by Keyhole Photography
Her debut novel, Must Love Breeches, swept many unpublished romance contests, including the Grand Prize winner of Windy City's Four Seasons contest in 2012. Angela loves history, folklore, and family history, and has been a hobby historian for twenty+ years. She decided to take her love of history and her active imagination and write stories of love and adventure for others to enjoy. When writing, she's either at her desk in the finished attic of an historic home in beautiful and quirky Mobile, Alabama, or at her fave spot at the local Starbucks. When she isn't writing, she's either working at the local indie bookstore or enjoying the usual stuff like gardening, reading, hanging out, eating, drinking, chasing squirrels out of the walls, and creating the occasional knitted scarf.
Angela has had a varied career, including website programming and directing a small local history museum. She's an admitted geek and is proud to be among the few but mighty Browncoats who watched Firefly the first night it aired. She was introduced to the wonderful world of science fiction by her father, by way of watching reruns of the original Star Trek in her tweens and later giving her a copy of Walter M. Miller Jr's A Canticle for Leibowitz as a teenager. She hasn't looked back since.
She has a B.A. in Anthropology and International Studies with a minor in German from Emory University, and a Masters in Heritage Preservation from Georgia State University. She was an exchange student to Finland in high school and studied abroad in Vienna one summer in college.
Find Angela Quarles Online:
www.angelaquarles.com
@angelaquarles
Facebook.com/authorangelaquarles
Mailing list: www.angelaquarles.com/join-my-mailing-list
Acknowledgments
Writing a historical novel cannot be done solo, at least for me! I’m hugely indebted to a number of people who helped me out with the historical aspects of the plot, description, and characters. I’d like to specifically thank the following for helping me; any mistakes or inaccuracies, however, are my own.
Randall, Eric R. Allen, and the other knowledgeable members of the myarmoury.com forum for answering questions about mail, Welsh Wars, and providing great sources for my research. Randall was also kind enough to review my outline back during the first draft phase in 2013 and gave me wonderful guidance. He also took a look at the first half of the book and pointed out some inaccuracies, which I fixed. Eric and his wife, Erin, also read the early outline and gave me invaluable feedback. It really helped to nail down the historical plot points before I delved too far into revising. Eric also Beta read the completed novel and not only pointed out historical inaccuracies, but also provided great reader feedback on plot and characterization. Thank you!
Huge gratitude to Mike “Lochko” Slone, a member of the Society of Creative Anachronisms (SCA) through Mobile’s local chapter, the Barony of the Osprey. Two years ago, I showed up announced at one of their meetings, and he was immediately a willing fount of knowledge. He was always willing to chat with me via Facebook about any historical point, and was always supportive. I’d also like to thank other members of the barony who volunteered to Beta read and give me feedback, including Beau, Sonja, and Amy.
Thank you to the members of goldrefiningforum.com who helped me with the specifics of melting gold.
I’d also like to thank my best Beta buddy Jami Gold and Tess Gingrich for taking a look at the initial outline and helping me nail that down.
Alpha readers of the full manuscript who gave me helpful feedback include Jami and Kate Warren—you helped me see where I was on track, or wasn’t.
I had two Beta rounds, and I’d like to thank Shaila Patel for reading it both times, as well as Alice Keyes, Buffy Armstrong, and Celia Breslin for the early round, and Jami (again!), A.F. Dery, Merry Farmer, Megan Finnegan Grimes, Meggan Haller, Karen Kirby, Alex McLeod, Joseph Quarles, Marlene Relja, Angie Stanton, E.W. Trigg, and Julie Trigg for reading the second round. Every one of you gave me invaluable feedback that made this book better than it would have been on its own. Special thanks goes to Jami, Buffy, and Shaila for always being available for me via Facebook chat when I needed encouragement or yanking me back from some fruitless rabbit hole of research detail. Shout out also to the Divas on RomanceDivas forum for their help and encouragement.
I’d also like to thank various instructors I had who helped me with elements of this book, including Margie Lawson, Suzanne Johnson, Greta Gunselman, and Carol Hughes.
To my editors who helped me get this into final shape! Jessa Slade for reading a pretty rough draft and helping me firm up the plot and characterization; Jody Allen with Rings True Research for the medieval history fact checking; Erynn Newman for the word-smithing—you understood my voice and helped me make it shine; and finally to my proofreaders Dana Waganer and Elizabeth (Elizabeth Edits)—you caught what slipped by me, thank you!
I also want to thank the few but awesome members of my street team for helping me spread the word!
To Pam, Diane, and the rest of the crew at the Government Street location of Starbucks who keep me supplied in food and decaf when I camp out there to write/revise; I get so much work done there and it helps me stay off the social media. I revised this book there numerous times.
I’d also like to thank my facebook and twitter friends who are always willing to answer questions I pose, whether it’s about writing, or character ideas, or an opinion sought.
And finally to my family, who have always believed in me and make it possible for me to pursue writing.
DID YOU MISS ANGELA QUARLES'S DEBUT RELEASE? BE SURE TO FLIP FORWARD TO READ AN EXCERPT
She’s finally met the man of her dreams. There's only one problem: he lives in a different century.
“A fresh, charming new voice” — New York Times bestselling author Tessa Dare
“a delight” — Publisher’s Weekly
“a del
icious twist on historical drama and romance” — USAToday
RELEASED SEPTEMBER 3, 2014
Chapter One
Here’s a sigh to those who love me,
And a smile to those who hate:
And, whatever sky’s above me,
Here’s a heart for every fate.
Lord Byron, To Thomas Moore
A reenactment ball was the perfect setting for romance. Or not.
Isabelle Rochon fidgeted in her oddly-shaped-but-oh-so-accurate ball gown, surrounded by women who’d sacrificed historical authenticity for sex appeal. Red carpet ball gowns in the nineteenth century, really? Once again she was like the dorky kid participating in dress-up day at school when everyone else had magically decided it was lame.
“Gah. I feel like a green robot with strange battle armor.” Isabelle pointed to her dark green dress, the shoulders flaring out almost to a point, exaggerating their width. “What were the fashionistas in 1834 thinking?”
“I have no bloody idea.” Jocelyn squeezed the poof of fabric at her shoulder. “These huge-ass sleeves are ridiculous.”
“Ah, screw it, we’re having fun, right? I’m not going to self-sabotage the ball. Not after all the time I spent obsessing over my costume.”
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