A Merry Medieval Christmas Box Set

by Laurel O'Donnell

  “He did?” asked Eva, unable to believe her ears. Only a fool would turn down the chance of becoming a baron.

  “Aye, he turned me down, even though he’d wanted the title for a very long time. I don’t understand why, and he didn’t explain. However, it was then that he asked for his leave from his position. It sounded like it was what he really wanted, so I granted him the right to go his own way.”

  “He left?” she asked. “Where did he go?”

  “I do not know, Lady Eva. All I know is that to turn down the chance of becoming a baron is the only stupid move the man has ever made.”

  “My dear, it is good to see you again,” said Queen Philippa, breaking into the conversation. “Now, if you’ll kindly escort us inside, I’d like a warm cup of mead and to get out of the cold.”

  “Of course, my queen,” she said, blindly, curtseying and escorting the sovereigns into the castle. She found it hard to believe that Adam had never told the king about her missives or about her father’s condition. He must truly have loved her, she realized, to keep her family’s secret and turn down the chance of becoming a baron as well. Now, she worried for him since, as he said, keeping information from the king could very well be considered treason.

  “Earl Cavendish,” said the king as soon as they entered the keep. “I hear you’ve had an accident and are no longer able to serve me.”

  “Aye,” said her father, not saying anything more.

  “Well, I am sorry to hear it. And I am also sorry to have to tell you that I cannot allow you to keep your title. Neither can I allow you to keep the castle or your lands.”

  “It’s all right, my king,” said the earl, about breaking Eva’s heart. “It was an honor to serve you all these years, and I would do the same if I were in your position.” His words were still slurred, but not as much as usual. Eva figured her father was trying his best to keep up appearances in front of the king. “Your Majesty, before you strip me of my title, I have but one request.”

  “What is it?” asked the king, fingering his beard.

  “I ask that you allow me to betroth my daughter to the knight, Sir Adam de Ware.”

  “Sir Adam?” the queen asked, looking up in surprise.

  “Is this something that Sir Adam wants as well?” asked Edward.

  “I am sure he does,” answered the earl, even though Eva could no longer believe it. “He has actually asked my daughter to marry him.”

  “Then it’s done,” said Edward with a flick of his wrist. “Now, bring on the food. We have had a long journey and the queen and I are famished.”

  “Steward, tell the servants to bring the food at once,” said Eva quickly, feeling that knot in her stomach return. She didn’t want the king’s last impression of her family to be the horrible-tasting food that they were about to serve him.

  To her surprise, a procession of servants came marching from the kitchen, each of them carrying one dish after another that looked and smelled amazing. She could only watch with her mouth hanging open, wondering how the servants managed to pull this off. And when the meal started and she tasted the food, she was in shock. It tasted as good as the food prepared by Sir Adam.

  “This is the best food I’ve ever tasted,” said the king, digging into one course after another as if he couldn’t get enough.

  “I agree,” said the queen, dabbing her mouth with a cloth. “It tastes an awful lot like some of the meals Sir Adam used to cook for us before he left the castle.”

  “Sir Adam used to cook? For you?” asked Eva in surprise.

  “Oh, he never let anyone know about it, since it isn’t considered an acceptable action from a knight,” said Philippa with a giggle. “It was our secret.”

  “And it was a secret worth keeping,” remarked Edward. “I will miss the man’s cooking. However, now that I’ve tasted food equally as delicious, I might steal your cook instead. It is hard to believe there is another that matches the skills of Sir Adam in the kitchen. Who cooks for you, Lady Eva?”

  “Well, I –” Eva stopped in midsentence when she saw Adam, dressed in his chain mail tunic and wearing his leather arm guards, emerge from the kitchen carrying a tray with a seed cake on top.

  “Your Majesties,” said Adam, bowing to the king and queen. “Earl. Lady Barbara. Lady Eva.” His eyes flashed over to each of them as he greeted them one by one. When he looked at her, his gaze lingered, and she felt her heart skip a beat.

  “Adam,” she said under her breath, wanting to apologize for the horrible way she’d treated him the last time they were together.

  “De Ware, what the hell are you doing here?” asked the king.

  “I’m here as Lady Eva’s cook. And knight,” added Adam, with a bow of his head. “That is, if she’ll have me.”

  “Adam,” whispered Eva, her bottom lip trembling as he handed her a piece of seed cake.

  “For you, my lady,” he told her in his charming manner. Her heart melted. She had missed his smile.

  “I don’t think I can eat at a time like this,” she muttered, pushing the cake away.

  “Take a bite,” he said with a nod of his head, pushing the piece of cake back toward her. “But I must warn you to be careful.”

  “Careful?” she asked, suddenly intrigued. “Is there something inside this cake that I don’t know about?” It was custom on the Feast of the Magi to serve a cake with a bean, a coin, or a ring served inside it. Whoever got the bean was king for the day. The person who found the coin would be wealthy and the ring meant that person would be married soon.

  “There is only one way to find out,” he answered.

  Curiously, Eva picked up the piece of cake and took a bite. When she did, she felt something made of metal in her mouth. She pulled it out, and held it in her palm.

  “It’s a ring,” she announced, looking at Adam and then over to her father.

  “The king stripped me of my title, castle and lands,” the earl told Adam. “But he agreed to let me betroth my daughter to you.”

  “I would like that,” said Adam.

  “And so would I.” Eva cried, tears dripping down her cheeks. “I want to marry you, Sir Adam. However, I cannot marry you without first telling the king the truth about those missives.” Eva spoke the truth, fearing for her life yet at the same time not wanting to start a new life while harboring lies.

  “Lady Eva,” said the king, licking his fingers as he spoke. “If you are talking about the fact you wrote those missives and not your father, I already know. Sir Adam told me months ago his suspicions that a woman was writing the messages and not the earl. We deciphered it was either you or your grandmother.”

  “Months ago?” she asked, looking over to Adam.

  “Aye,” answered Adam. “I knew you were probably the one forging the missives before I ever set foot into Cavendish Castle. I could tell by your writing and your choice of words that it wasn’t coming from a man. What we didn’t know was why the earl was letting you do it.” Adam turned and addressed the king next. “Your Majesty, I have kept the information of the earl’s condition from you and, for that, I will take any punishment that you see fit. But before you do, I need to tell you that I love Lady Eva and the reason I didn’t tell you was because I didn’t want her and her family to end up living as paupers.”

  “Aye,” said the king, stroking his beard in thought. “Keeping information from me could be considered treason.”

  “Oh, please, don’t punish him,” begged Eva. “Punish me instead. I never should have asked him not to tell you about it in the first place. I only did it because I was afraid of my father losing everything he has worked so hard to attain in his life. The accident never should have happened to such a wonderful man, and my heart breaks to see him in this condition.”

  “I see,” said the king. “It is most unfortunate. Sir Adam, I understand your dilemma, and that you love Lady Eva, but that is still no excuse. You have done me wrong, and I am afraid I will have to punish you in some way.”

>   “But he didn’t give you a missive I wrote,” said Eva. “If he really wanted to keep the information from you, wouldn’t he have given you the missive saying not to come to Cavendish at all?”

  “Eva, the king already knew you were writing the missives, so there was no need to give it to him,” explained Adam.

  “But you didn’t stop him from coming here, Adam. Yet, you knew full well that he would discover my father’s condition as soon as he arrived.”

  “I did,” admitted Adam. “I couldn’t betray my king, yet I couldn’t betray you either, Eva. I figured this was the best way to inadvertently complete my mission, yet at the same time show you how much you mean to me as well. By letting the king arrive in Cavendish, I have given him the chance to learn the truth about your father. And by not giving him your missive, I never came out and told him what I’d learned.”

  “That’s true,” her father spoke up. “He gave up the chance of being a baron because of his love for you, Eva.”

  “Aye, you did,” she said, feeling her heart breaking even more.

  “Enough! I will have no sad faces today,” Edward commanded, putting another piece of food into his mouth. “De Ware, as far as I’m concerned, you completed your last mission for me. Even if it wasn’t what I expected.”

  “Your Majesty?” asked Adam. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying, if you are going to marry the daughter of an earl then you will need a better title than just Sir.”

  “Daughter of an earl?” asked Adam, cocking his head. “Didn’t you just say the earl no longer holds his title?”

  “Let me finish.” Edward took a swig of ale and smacked his lips together, still enjoying the food. “I’ve decided I am going to make you a baron after all.”

  “You are?” Adam looked confused and too stunned to even thank him.

  “That’s right.” Edward turned to talk to Eva’s father next. “Earl Cavendish, you can keep your title since you were always one of my favorites and in the past have risked your life to protect me, fighting at my side. I will even pardon your mother and daughter since I know they were only trying to help you. But because of your condition and the fact you can no longer fight or defend anyone, I am giving your castle and lands to Baron de Ware.”

  “That sounds good by me,” said Eva’s father, making Eva’s heart soar by the way he was smiling again.

  “Thank you, Your Majesty,” said Adam, snapping out of his daze. “I will never even consider withholding information from you again.”

  “You’d better not, de Ware, or there will be hell to pay.”

  “You won’t be sorry,” said Adam. “I promise you that. I will hold my position as baron with pride and honor every day of my life.”

  “What about me?” asked Lady Barbara. “Where will my son and I live now that the castle is gone?”

  “You’ll stay right here at Cavendish where you belong,” answered Adam, walking up to the dais to gather Eva into his arms. “After all, my wife will want her family close and that’s how it’ll stay. Lady Barbara will stay at Cavendish, just as well as my squire. Isn’t that right, Bryce?” Adam called out to his squire who was across the hall.

  “Aye, my lord,” said Bryce with a gulp, making everyone laugh since he still feared the old woman and her cane.

  “Then there is just the issue of your punishment, Sir Adam.” King Edward scooped more food atop his trencher.

  “I am ready for the verdict, Your Majesty,” Adam said, bowing his head.

  Eva gripped Adam’s hand tightly, fearing that the punishment might be something horrible like being locked in the dungeon, or put up on display tied to a stake atop the battlements. Her hand went to her shoulder that had been scarred by the guard’s whip. With Adam’s comfrey salve, she was almost healed. But what if the king ordered Adam to be whipped? She feared for his safety and what might happen to him.

  “I have made my decision,” announced Edward. “Baron Adam de Ware, your punishment will be that you come to my castle once a week and work in my kitchen cooking delicious food like this for my wife and me.”

  “Cook?” asked Lady Barbara in surprise. “You want him to cook for you as his punishment? That’s all?”

  Edward glared at Lady Barbara from the sides of his eyes. “Did you want me to convict you as well, Lady Barbara? Because if you don’t think his punishment is enough, I can punish you as well for your part in all this deceit.”

  “Nay, not all, Your Majesty,” said Lady Barbara, looking at the ground.

  “My king, I am honored that you like my food,” said Adam. “However, cooking is not a punishment to me, as I truly enjoy it.”

  “Mayhap it isn’t,” said Edward. “However, not having your food at my castle will be a punishment to me. So that is my decision.”

  “Then I accept,” said Adam, laughing, pulling Eva to his chest in a hug. She looked up to see him holding something over her head.

  “What are you doing?” she asked with a giggle.

  “I am holding a sprig of mistletoe above your head so you will kiss me,” he told her.

  “You don’t need that,” she said, kissing the man she loved who was about to become her husband. “After all, weren’t you the one who told me I was your Mistletoe?”

  “Aye, and I am your Chain Mail,” said Adam, kissing her passionately in front of everyone.

  Eva could barely wait to be his wife.

  And so the Twelve Days of Christmas that had started out rocky, ended in a very joyful celebration for everyone involved. Two people were brought together in marriage not long afterwards with a celebration that included some of the best food known to the land.

  With Adam and Eva’s wedding came a new tradition. Every year at Christmastide, a new kissing bough constructed by the couple hung over the dais, right above the Lord and Lady of the Castle’s chairs. Adam and Eva kissed under it often, looking up to the ornate kissing bough above their heads that was constructed from none other than Mistletoe and Chain Mail.

  From Elizabeth Rose:

  I hope you enjoyed Adam and Eva’s story and will take a moment to leave a review for me.

  I am so excited about my new Holiday Knights series that will include many holidays and the extensive research woven into the stories to let you experience the traditions and customs of medieval times.

  One of the things I was amazed to learn while researching this book was the origin of piggy banks. Back in medieval times, metal was expensive, so an orange clay called pygg was used for making jars and vessels. On St. Stephen’s Day, the lord would give little clay pots with slits in the top to his servants, putting a penny in each one. The poor could save their pennies in this jar, having to break it open in order to retrieve the money. (Hence, the first piggy banks.) Now, how it turned into a pig was all by accident. Hundreds of years later, someone got the order to make pyggs. But he thought he was supposed to create pigs instead. It was a funny mistake and people liked the idea of saving money in a jar shaped like a pig. Therefore, pygg jars turned into piggy banks instead.

  I find things like this quite interesting and hope to bring about more knowledge of the medieval ages through this series. I loved the play on the Twelve Days of Christmas, and learned that the calling birds from the song were really collie birds, or blackbirds. They really did have live blackbirds pop out of a pie back then as a novelty – not to eat. However, it is to my understanding that the crust of the pie was thick and domed and cooked beforehand and that the birds were placed into the piecrust after it cooled. Remember the rhyme about four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie? Well, there you go.

  The books in this series will be sweet and clean romance novellas. If you prefer a little spice in your stories or would like to read full-length novels instead, please visit my website to find out more about my other books. My newest spicy romance is Highland Storm – Book 1 of my Highland Chronicles Series.

  Be sure to read Matchmade Hearts: Valentine’s Day, and May Queen: May D
ay as well.

  Elizabeth Rose

  About Elizabeth Rose

  Elizabeth Rose is the bestselling author of over 80 books. She writes medieval, historical, contemporary, paranormal, and western romance. She is an amazon all-star, and a multi-time award finalist. Her books appear as ebooks, print, and some audiobooks as well.

  Her favorite characters in her works include dark, dangerous and tortured heroes, and feisty, independent heroines who know how to wield a sword. She loves writing 14th century medievals, and is known for her medieval series.

  Elizabeth started out over twenty years ago as a traditionally published author. But life takes it twists and turns and after losing her day job she decided to try her hand at Indie publishing.

  She started self-publishing, creating her own covers and her own booktrailers on a dare from her two sons. She loves anything paranormal and is inspired by spending time in nature. Elizabeth has a secret garden that serves as her outdoor office where she writes in the summer. This same secret garden inspired her series, Secrets of the Heart, and is the setting of these books.

  Series by Elizabeth Rose:

  Secrets of the Heart

  Seasons of Fortitude

  Legendary Bastards of the Crown

  Second in Command

  Holiday Knights

  Tangled Tales

  Barons of the Cinque Ports

  Legacy of the Blade

  Daughters of the Dagger

  MadMan MacKeefe

  Elemental Series

  Greek Myth Fantasy

  Tarnished Saints

  Cowboys of the Old West

  Once Upon a Rhyme

  Sweet Nothings

  A Look Behind the Series

  Working Man Series

  The Highland Chronicles Series

  You can find out more about Elizabeth’s books and read excerpts by visiting her website. Be sure to also sign up to receive her newsletter.