"Five Yules" by Keena Kincaid. Excerpt from the ONE YULETIDE KNIGHT anthology

Five Yules by Keena Kincaid. A novella in the "One Yuletide Knight" Medieval Christmas Romance

Collection.

BLURB

Waleran de Marche promised he wouldn’t marry her, but it was a promise he couldn’t keep. Cateline de Armiens has the land and coin he needs to distance himself from his father and the coming war in England.

Cate is through with broken promises and betrayal. When Wal vows to keep her safe and secure, she ignores his promise and welcomes his departure on a royal errand. In his absence, she creates a home without him, and finds his return each Yule an annoyance, not a joyful homecoming.

But when the king’s enemy takes her hostage, she will learn just how far her husband will go to keep his word to protect her—but will he reach her in time to save her life and their marriage or will this be their last Yule?

EXCERPT

Clutching the bundle close, Cate walked toward the ramp. Her heart felt as if it dragged a plow. She didn’t want to go. Couldn’t go. Once she stepped onto that ship, she would be gone. Lost forever. Papa was dying, and he’d die alone if she left.

She stopped, swallowed a sob, turned back. The soldier stood in her way.

“Keep going.” His eyes were an unnaturally clear, bright blue that reminded her of a summer sky when it peaks between clouds at dusk.

“I cannot.” She looked down the road. At the end of it was her father’s donjon. There would be a warm fire in the hearth, music, and stew made from last night’s roast beef. “My father—”

“Did this for you.” He put his hands on her shoulders, turned her around. “Go.”

At first, shock stilled her tongue. He’d touched her. He had no right to lay hands on her! “Lâche-moi!”

“I will unhand you when you go.”

“I order—”

“Servants do not order me,” he said as he marched her up the ramp. “I order them. Now, move.”

She whirled to glare at him. “I am the daughter of James de Armiens, the niece of Robert of Beaumont and betrothed to Richard of Brinklow. I may be masquerading as a servant, but I am not one. Who are you to speak to me thus?”

“Move on, Wal!” someone shouted behind them. “We have horses to load.”

Wall was a good name for the man who blocked her path. He was as obtuse as he was large.

He smirked down at her. “You may be daughter and niece, as you claim, but Brinklow died last summer, so you are no one’s betrothed. Now move. You have work to do.”

Keena's Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Keena-Kincaid/e/B008J6GRHM/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0