Enjoy summer because winter is coming!
It’s awesome to be blogging with Gabrielle today, because my
medieval ménage series, “Elinor’s Stronghold” begins in the summer, but they
are thinking about, and preparing for, winter. Before the days of shopping
malls and takeout, if you didn’t grow or gather the food in summer, well, you
were going to be mighty hungry come winter.
Book1: “Pillaging Elinor’s Castle” blurb:
Lady
Elinor's father and two brothers are killed in battle, and Lord Rhys loses his
demesne. To protect her people Elinor decides she will marry Lord Rhys, but
only if he agrees the Captain of the Guard, Hammond, will share their bed and
the decision making from now on. They agree and seal their contract in blood.
Rhys and his people move into the stronghold.
After the wedding they begin to plan for how to survive the attack that will inevitably come. The stronghold is a wealthy one, and many will consider it an easy target with its lord and his sons dead. They also have to blend the two households together and prepare for the coming winter. At night Hammond and Rhys work hard in bed, learning to share Elinor, finding out what pleases her best, and arousing each other to new heights along the way.
Book 2: “Defending Rhyannon’s Inheritance” blurb:
Hated and incompetent Lord Jeffrey wants to marry Rhyannon,
and her bad-tempered cousin, Coll, wants to steal her jewels. She needs a good
protector.
Alistair has loved her faithfully for years, but he has no assets and can’t support them both. Lord Devon is a suitable husband, but does he even like Rhyannon? It’s a big challenge, but maybe together Alistair and Lord Devon can protect her and her jewels from Lord Jeffrey and Cousin Coll.
Meanwhile, winter is settling on the stronghold and Lord Jeffrey is attacking the people once again. And Cousin Coll is determined to get her jewels any way he can. Surviving the winter is hard enough to do without all these other things happening as well. Everyone in the stronghold is living on a knife edge. Alistair and Lord Devon focus on Rhyannon. They’ll love her and protect her—and each other as well.
Book 3: Restoring Garnet’s Heart: blurb
Tragically
widowed, Garnet is loved by two men. If a noble lady can have two men, why
can’t a mere sewing woman? Garnet decides she’ll marry them both! Then she
adopts two orphaned, starving little girls.
Garnet,
Byram, and Carlysle are sent to repair the demesne. Can they achieve this huge
task before the harvest is gathered in? First a high stone wall needs to be
built to protect them from attackers. The buildings must be cleaned and
repaired, the crops sown, weeded, cared for, and hopefully reaped. Is it
possible to complete such a huge undertaking before the next vicious winter
arrives? Will the peasants help them?
Meanwhile Lady Elinor gives birth to the heir of the stronghold, and Lord Rhys and Lady Rhyannon, with Alistair and Lord Devon, go to court to sort out her inheritance.
And
what about Garnet’s threesome relationship? Will that be successful?
Book 4: “Bringing Claire Home” blurb:
A year ago, Paul took his sister Claire away to escape Lord
Jeffrey’s attacks on the hamlets. Mitchell and Claire were in love, but Mitchell
hadn’t asked her to marry him before she left. Now he aches for her, and goes
in search of her to bring her back to his home as his bride. But no one has
seen or heard of her, and the hamlet where she was to go is empty.
Finally Mitchell meets Ivan, who takes him into the forest where Claire and Paul, and Ivan himself, have been living for the past year. But Ivan loves Claire, too, and Claire owes him her life. Mitchell suggests he and Ivan share Claire. Can this possibly work—two men with no tie to each other and the one woman they both love? And can they survive a dangerous journey home?
STORY Excerpt from “Restoring Garnet’s Heart”.
Lady
Elinor stared at the two children in front of her. One, a girl, looked to be
about six years old and dragged a cooking pot with a few possessions inside it.
Her arms and legs were stick-thin, her hair was falling out in clumps, and her
belly was swollen.
The child
had been eating bark and leaves to try to stem her hunger, and her belly was
full of air, assumed Garnet, who was standing beside Lady Elinor among the
other sewing women of the castle.
The
younger child, which could be either a girl or boy, and was maybe three years
old, clutched the older one’s tunic in one hand, and sucked hard on its other
thumb. It, too, was painfully thin, though less bloated by starvation.
“You wish
to become my slave?” Lady Elinor’s voice was even and mild, but Garnet knew she
was shocked. Peasant men from the smallest of uncaring Lord Jeffrey’s hamlets
had begged to become slaves of the castle in return for food during this
terrible winter, but few females, and no one as young as this little child.
“Yes, Lady
Elinor. I can scare birds from the crops when they’re planted, and clean for
you. Ysabel will stay with me. I’ve always looked after her since Ma died, and
she won’t touch the seedlings. She’s a good girl, and no trouble at all. And I
will grow big, and learn to fight for you and Lord Rhys, and then I’ll kill the
men who murdered our Pa and took all our hamlet’s food,” the child finished
fiercely, almost in a shout.
Garnet
felt her eyebrows rise and forced her face not to break into a grin. It was
plain this tiny, starved child had the heart of a warrior indeed.
Lady
Elinor rested her hand on her huge belly. It was almost time for the heir to
the stronghold to be born.
“Well
then, Nerida is already learning warrior skills, and if the heir to the
stronghold is a girl, she will be a warrior, too. I see no reason why you can’t
also be a warrior, if that is your desire. What is your name, and where are the
other people from your hamlet?”
“I’m Ava,
lady, and I promise to serve you forever. Most of the people left after the
soldiers came raiding. Some have tried to help Ysabel and me, but I’d rather
work for my food.”
Garnet
watched Ava’s thin, little shoulders straighten as she spoke. At her age,
Garnet would never have dared to approach the Lady of the Castle, and Garnet
had never been a shy child. But this girl was truly a warrior born. She was
that rare being who combined the ability to think of a solution to a problem
with the courage to step outside any rules of society and do it, no matter what
the consequences may turn out to be.
Without
stopping to think, Garnet moved to stand where Lady Elinor could see her. “The
two girls may share my room, lady, and I will supervise their activities.”
“It is
decided then, Ava. You and Ysabel may join the stronghold. We will feed you,
and you will work. You will obey Garnet in all things. Do you understand?”
“Yes,
lady, thank you.”
Ava
dropped to her knees and pressed her face to Lady Elinor’s feet. Ysabel copied
her.
Garnet’s
eyes flooded with tears. Peasants always died when there was trouble in the
land, especially the very old and the very young. They weren’t strong enough to
fight back or fast enough to run away. But this child deserved to live.
Garnet’s
husband, Roldan, had been one of Lord Rhys’s soldiers, and was killed in the
battle that took the lives of Lady Elinor’s father and brothers and caused Lord
Rhys to lose his demesne to Lord Jeffrey. They had been married only six
months, not long enough for her to worry about not getting pregnant, but now he
was dead, the parents of these children were dead, and Ava was a daughter any
woman would be proud to call her own.
Berengaria Brown
http://berengariabrown.com/
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2 comments:
Thank you for inviting me here today, Gabielle.
Berengaria
Just swinging by to show support and love! Best of luck with sales. These books look great!
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