Affairs
of the
Heart
Maxine Douglas
AFFAIRS OF THE HEART
Excerpts Copyright © 2014 Maxine Douglas
Cover by Honey Jans
Smashwords Edition
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers and/or author.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious.
Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, or events, is
coincidental and not intended by the author.
DEDICATION
To all my publishers who have ever had faith and fallen in love with my heroes and heroines.
To my husband and best-friend for giving space when I needed it and for always being there to celebrate or cry with me.
To my friends and family for their continued support.
To my readers who have left their ordinary world for a few minutes to venture into mine.
Thank you for falling in love with my heroes and heroines.
I love all of you!.
CONTENTS
Dedication
Acknowledgments
AKnightToRemember
BloodTies
RingsOfParadise
RoadAngel
TheQueen
NashvilleRisingStar
MeetMaxine
Reviews
Works In Progress
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
MuseItUp Publishing
Bristol Ren Faire (Kenosha, Wisconsin)
The Queen Mary Hotel (Long Beach, CA)
Manassas National Battlefield aka Bull Run (Virginia)
Antietam National Battlefield (Maryland)
Lynn Crain
Honey Jans
Sherry Derr-Wille
Gary Van Kauwenbergh
A KNIGHT TO REMEMBER
Historical Time Travel by Maxine Douglas
England, 15th Century
“Black Knight, pledge thy loyalty and love to me and no other!” Queen Isabel Trenowyth demanded.
“I cannot, Your Grace,” the Black Knight replied, ignoring her haughty tone while holding back his jet-black Andalusian from prancing too close to the queen and her court. “My heart belongs to another.”
“Another? Thou wearest the colors of this kingdom. My kingdom.” Isabel snorted, her proud face suffused with rage. “Thy heart canst belong to no other in this time or in any other time.”
“Thou speakest the truth. I wear the black and gold colors of Heartsease as a knight by my own pledge, sworn to protect the castle walls and its people, nothing more, Your Grace. I cannot give my heart to one who on a whim hast so many knights on bended knee.” The Black Knight backed his snorting stallion a little farther from the anger of Queen Isabel. He’d vowed to protect Heartsease and its lands for longer than the queen’s reign; he’d never promised to be her lover.
“Of course, there are other willing knights of Heartsease who would give me the pleasure I request. It is what thou hast refused me all these years which I seek. I have offered thee everything, and now thee shall have nothing.” Isabel waved him off like a finished piece of meat. “The tournament shall continue.”
A sneer marred her otherwise beautiful face. “Ruin him, Sir Thomas!” Queen Isabel commanded of the Black Knight’s opponent.
Sir Thomas backed his gray mount away from Queen Isabel until he reined in solidly beside the Black Knight. The line had been drawn, and the Black Knight knew Isabel would not take lightly a refusal from two of her knights.
“My Queen, I cannot. I have given my life to protect the people of thy kingdom. Heartsease is the place of my birth and that of my family before me. Our alliance to thy father before his death is long and unquestionable. It will continue as such. On this day, I refuse to take the Black Knight’s life to ease thy pride and bruised heart,” Sir Thomas replied, loudly enough for half of Heartsease to hear him.
“Thomas, thy protection of me is admirable but not needed,” the Black Knight rebutted under his arnet to his childhood friend and then turned to the queen. Her furor over Thomas’s refusal was evident and so would be her vengeance. He couldn’t allow Thomas to face her wrath. “I refuse Sir Thomas’s protection and challenge him to Joust a’ Plaisance.”
Queen Isabel thought for a moment before coolly signaling for the Chief Marshall to approach her. A wicked smile crossed her lips as she whispered into his ear. A look of dismay soon turned to pleasure as the Chief Marshall faced the Black Knight and Sir Thomas.
“These are the queen’s terms of the challenge set forth. If the Black Knight loses, he will remove the coat of arms signifying his alliance with Heartsease and be banished from these lands for all time. If he should be the victor, then Sir Thomas will be stripped of knighthood and work the land as his father before him. In addition, the Black Knight shall do the queen’s bidding day and night as Queen Isabel so chooses.”
A hush fell over the list as all in attendance waited for the Black Knight’s answer to the cruel request. If he accepted this challenge and lost, he’d be forced to leave his homeland forever. This was the place of his birth and the birth of his beloved Catherine. His victory would bring shame upon Thomas and his family and devastate them, and he’d be at Isabel’s mercy for the rest of his days. Either way, he was doomed. The queen left him without a true choice.
The Black Knight backed his black steed, turned, and then trotted around the list toward William, his young squire. Passing along the rail, he paused long enough to take up the lace-andpurple-ribboned offering from Catherine, the beautiful daughter of Heartsease’s dressmaker. He leaned in toward the raven-haired, blue-eyed young woman, his heart already hers. She smiled and tied the token around his lance, making him her champion.
“How can I help but not fail, Catherine,” he whispered to the lovely but plainly dressed maiden.
“I know not, but thou wilt find a way to right this wrong,” she said, a trusting smile brightening her worried face. Touched by her faith in him, he rode off to the east end of the list, doom flittering down his spine. The only honorable way out would be to lose, even though it went against his nature, and he could possibly lose Catherine as well.
“Sir Reynold?” William queried.
He gave his squire a confidant smile, seeing the fear in the boy’s eyes. “I will not allow the queen to dictate my life any longer, my young friend. If I must leave my home and country to save Thomas’s family name, I will.” Reynold dismounted and handed the reins to William.
“The queen would rather see thee dead, sir,” William commented, leading the stallion alongside Reynold toward their tent.
“Beware what thou sayest, young William. In this court, even the ground hast ears,” Reynold cautioned his bold squire, placing a hand on the young man’s shoulder. “Lest thou take care in those words, or it could be thee riding Abraxas and carrying a lance against thy father instead of me.”
“What of my cousin?” William tethered Abraxas to a post outside their tent. “What will become of Catherine if thou art no longer here to protect her?”
“Catherine knows I’d not bring shame on thy family name. I will find a home and send for her when the time is right.” Reynold walked into his tent to prepare for his joust against Thomas, his blood brother and childhood friend. “Wherefore Isabel hast chosen this course now is beyond my knowledge, Will. Her jealousy runs deeper since her father’s death.”
“Some say that Isabel hast consulted the stones. T
hey say the stones have foreseen thy failure and disappearance from Heartsease, Reynold,” Will said in a hushed tone, as if afraid to be heard by anyone but himself. “Father is fearful that Isabel plays with the darkness of life to rid thee of thine. Her witch is powerful in the black arts.”
Reynold handed his arnet to Will, shook his head, and took a deep breath. It confirmed his own thoughts. “I have heard the same words whispered behind tankards of ale. It is more than my life she yearns to rid me of, it is my will to refuse her advances and physical pleasures.”
* * * *
Reynold pulled himself into the saddle and waited for Will to hand him his shield and cronel-tipped lance. Much was at stake in this event. At the other end of the list, his oldest and closest friend waited for their time at the joust.
They all had grown up together—Thomas Astley, Catherine, Isabel, and he. Thomas was the son of a farmer, and his cousin, Catherine, was the dressmaker’s middle daughter who was more of a tomboy than a girl. As a child, Isabel hadn’t known the difference in their positions in life. Her father, King David, had allowed her to play with the children of Heartsease. She’d been a big-hearted girl, filled with passion and love. Reynold had been the king’s eyes and ears even as a boy, up until the king’s death when Isabel was but an enthusiastic girl of sixteen. Something inside her changed that day—something dark and evil.
At one time in Reynold’s life, he had thought he loved Isabel. These past years with her ruling cruelly as queen made him realize that Catherine, and not the selfish woman Isabel had become, had his heart.
After years of fulfilling the promise he’d made to Isabel’s father as he lay dying, Reynold continuously refused the provocative suggestions Isabel presented him on a regular basis. He’d promised the king he’d defend Heartsease and look after Isabel, not become a bed toy for her to play with like so many others. Isabel proved to need no looking after; she had plenty of willing knights to defend her honor and visit her private quarters.
The sound of trumpets brought him back to the present and the task awaiting him. His plan was a simple one that he’d have to conceal from Will. If he didn’t, the young squire would find a way to inform his father of Reynold’s planned deception.
Reynold spurred Abraxas ahead and entered the list at the east end at the same time Thomas did from the west end. They’d been through this many times before on the practice field. Abraxas stomped in eagerness to charge, and Reynold spurred the stallion forward.
Galloping toward Thomas on the opposite side of the tilt, Reynold felt the jolt of the lance against his chest. He’d hit Thomas but not enough to knock him off his mount. Gathering himself, he repositioned the lance and charged toward Thomas again. As they met in the middle of the tilt, Reynold lowered his weapon at the last moment and felt the jolt of Thomas’s lance hit him squarely in the chest, causing him to teeter in the saddle. The cheers of the crowd echoed inside his arnet, vibrating in his ears.
One more pass, and it would be over.
Ignoring Will’s questioning look, Reynold spurred Abraxas around and charged his lifelong friend for what he prayed would be the last time. When the two passed, Thomas lifted his lance, missing Reynold by inches. Knowing in that instant Thomas was no fool, Reynold fell sideways, allowing Abraxas to drag him to the west end of the list.
The pain shooting through his body was nothing compared to the satisfaction of knowing Thomas would continue his life as a knight. His plan may not have worked to perfection, but his honor to Thomas was held intact. Reynold would find a new life—a lonely one but a life nonetheless.
“Whoa! Whoa!”
The words came through the blackness trying to take claim to his mind. Abraxas suddenly halted, and Reynold felt himself lifted off the ground. Someone took his foot from the stirrup and pulled the arnet from his head.
Focusing, he gazed into the eyes of his raven-haired love. He had indeed found his place, at last, in Catherine’s arms.
In 15th Century England, The Black Knight a/k/a Sir Reynold, has fallen from grace with his childhood friend, Queen Isabel, and is in a no-win situation. He must compete against his friend, and blood brother Thomas. If he wins, Sir Reynold will be banished from Heartsease; if he loses, Thomas will be stripped of his knighthood…
Courtney Parker is a 21st Century seamstress at the Bristol Renaissance Faire. Unlike other reenactors, she performs her profession year-round, making costumes for others. She's always loved the story of the mysterious Black Knight of Heartsease and has looked forward to it every year. But this year’s different…
Issie Cummings, the Ren Faire’s potion shopkeeper, will stop at nothing to gain what escaped her centuries ago...Sir Reynold Loddington’s love and body.
Will Reynold be able to turn back the hands of time and right what went wrong—or will he find himself banned from another country and the woman he loves?
Get your download today and post a review!
www.museituppublishing.com / www.amazon.com
A Knight to Remember Excerpt © 2012 by Maxine Douglas
MuseItUp Publishing
14878 James, Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada, H9H 1P5
BLOOD TIES
Historical Time Travel by Maxine Douglas
Prologue
“Manda? Who’s Manda?”
Emma fingered the name on the inside cover of the battered leather journal.
“Samanda―Manda―is, or was, my oldest sister. You carry her name Emma―Emma Samanda Sorenson.”
“You have a sister named Manda?” Emma’s heart flipped with regret that her mother had kept such a secret from her. “What happened to her, Mom?”
“The Kinsman house is what happened to her, and the family who lived there. She was in love with one of the Kinsman boys―Henry. He had this look about him like he was looking for something he knew in his heart he’d never find. Then one day word came he’d disappeared without a trace, leaving all his things behind. Manda was frantic with grief and loneliness when she came home that night, but Father turned her away.”
Emma waited in silence as a tear slid down her mother’s softly wrinkled cheek. She tried to remember the last time she’d seen her mother cry, but couldn’t.
“Father warned her to stay away from Henry, but her heart defied any sense of our family pride.”
“Manda actually went against Granddad’s word?” Emma tried to picture anyone strong willed enough to defy him.
“Yes. Our Manda had never done anything against Father before. Not until she met Henry and his crazy family, anyway,” Mabel said, settling down slightly.
“Crazy, as in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? Or just different from everyone else?” Emma asked, handing her mother yet another tissue.
“Just different, I suppose. Anyway, she seemed to always be with Henry’s family for everything. Father told her since she liked the Kinsmans so well, she’d best go live with them because as far as he was concerned, she was dead. So, she left. The need to be with Henry cost her quite a lot, but she loved him regardless.
“Manda’s been gone ever since, up until this journal, a word has never been spoken or written about her. Father wouldn’t allow it.”
A slight hesitation to defy the growing need to find out what happened to her missing aunt didn’t mix well with her mother’s scared reaction. Emma believed more with each passing second that there was a message of how to find her Aunt Manda in that journal, and she had a strong feeling her mother knew what it was.
Chapter One
“1910 Pleasant Springs Road, one more block to go. Please don’t let this be a waste of my time.” Emma Samanda Sorenson’s hair waved in the warm spring breeze that came through the open windows of her late model Chevy Baretta. She drove slowly down the town’s namesake street, her head bobbing back and forth as she tried to see the house numbers.
Aunt Manda’s journal described the late 1800s home as a Victorian-type so popular in Southern Wisconsin during the latter part of that century. She pu
lled over to the curb in front of a large two-story Victorian, then double-checked the address on the scrunched piece of paper in her hand.
A rush of heat surged through her veins, igniting her hopes and dreams. She got out of the vehicle, then strolled up the front walk to the wraparound porch.
Dry, dirty paint was peeling off wooden boards. Tattered lace curtains hung behind dusty windowpanes. The old wooden porch swing swayed slightly in the breeze, its chain rusty from years of neglect.
With caution, she stepped on the porch steps and wondered if her foot would go through the dry-rotted planks or not. The floorboards creaked as she rapped on the slightly opened door.
“Hello, is anyone here?” She knocked harder, then pushed open the solid oak and etched glass door. The musty smell similar to that of an old chest in her Grandma’s attic drifted through the doorway and tickled her nose.
She crossed the threshold into an entryway of rich dark oak that welcomed her arrival. An open staircase wound its way along one wall toward the Tiffany chandelier, then transformed itself into a balcony leading to the rooms housed upstairs. The dark, ornate spindles of the banister marched along beside what once must have been a deep, rich red carpet.
Could Aunt Manda have once danced in this house while her beloved held her close to him? How many declarations of love were made during each dance? How many young ladies lost their hearts to their suitors? Or vice versa?
“Ms. Sorenson, I presume?” A nervous voice swept into Emma’s thoughts.
The grandmotherly figure of a woman stood next to a doorway. Her silver-streaked hair was pulled neatly to the back of her neck, while her crystal blue eyes held an apprehensive glint to them.
Affairs of the Heart Page 1