If you like Knights - Lindsay Townsend

If you enjoy historical romance and like reading about knights and their brave womenfolk, you may enjoy my historical romances. Here below are the blurbs and links to my stories about knights – plus some details about some forthcoming knights!

Here, at a gallop, to celebrate READ AN EBOOK WEEK, are my knights.

A Knight’s Vow

Ever since she was fourteen, Alyson of Olverton dreamed of marrying a brave, charismatic young knight. His name was Guillelm de la Rochelle - and his marriage proposal satisfied her deepest yearnings. But her father forbade their union, prompting Guillelm to set out for the Holy Land, breaking Alyson's innocent heart. Seven years later, the valiant knight has defied rumours of his death and returned home, having no idea that nothing is the same as when he left...Back from fighting in the crusades, Guillelm is stunned to find Alyson entrenched in his father's ancestral castle - even worse she was betrothed to his father before he died. Despite this chilling fact, Guillelm finds himself struggling to resist the temptation to seduce her. Torn between intense jealousy and overwhelming desire, he shocks them both by proposing marriage a second time, justifying that it will be easier to keep her safe if she is his bride. Little do they know, however, that there is an enemy in their very midst - one who won't rest until he destroys their chance at everlasting love...

Kensington Zebra
142010361X
$3.99 Paperback
Buy link here:

A Knight’s Captive                                                               

In the year 1066, England struggles against Norman invaders and two strangers cross paths on a pilgrimage fraught with peril - only to discover a love worth any danger.

Battle-weary knight Marc de Sens has never encountered a woman like Sunniva of Wereford: beautiful, brilliant, and miles above the curs who call themselves her kin. Alas, she is promised to another and Marc's obligation is to his three orphaned nieces. But when Sunniva's circumstances suddenly change, Marc learns the truth about her "betrothal".

A rough-hewn knight so gentle with children intrigues Sunniva, who never knew a kind word or caring touch from any man until Marc rescued her from the grimmest of fates. When her loutish father and brothers are killed, Sunniva is finally free, but her troubles are far from over. Although Marc has appointed himself her protector, he has a dark secret - as well as an uncanny ability to disarm her completely...

Kensington Zebra
1420103628
$4.99 Paperback
Buy link here:

A Knight’s Enchantment

A beautiful alchemist and a valiant knight join forces to free their loved ones - and find an explosive passion...

Desperate to liberate her father who is being held prisoner by the corrupt Bishop Thomas, Joanna of Glastonbury must use her skills as an alchemist to produce an elixir for eternal life. Gold is a key ingredient, and while panning for its rare gleam, Joanna struggles to rescue a boy who is drowning - until a knight comes to her aid. When Joanna lays eyes on the handsome man, a scorching desire is sparked deep within her.

Hugh Manhill is captivated by Joanna's stunning beauty. When he and Joanna discover they share a mutual hatred of the Bishop, they devise a daring plan to save their imprisoned family members. Their common mission strengthens their undeniable bond. Soon, neither can resist their all-consuming passion as they risk all for love...

Kensington Zebra
142010697X
$5.99 Paperback
Buy link here:

To Touch The Knight                                                                 

As a pestilence sweeps medieval England, a low-born woman has only the sharpness of her wits—and the courage of her heart…

Edith of Warren Hemlet plays a dangerous game. At the knights’ tourneys across the land, among the lords and ladies, she is a strange foreign princess. But in the privacy of her tent with the other survivors of her village, she is but a smith’s widow with a silver tongue. They are well-fed, but if discovered, the punishment is death. And one knight—fierce, arrogant, and perilously appealing—is becoming far too attentive…

Sir Ranulf of Fredenwyke cares little for tourneys: playing for ladies’ favors, when his own lady is dead; feasting, while commoners starve; “friendly” combat, when he has seen real war. Still, one lady captivates him—mysterious in her veils and silks, intoxicating with her exotic scents and bold glances. Yet something in her eyes reminds him of home…and draws him irresistibly to learn her secrets…

Kensington Zebra
1420106988
$6.99 Paperback
Buy Link here:

The Snow Bride

She is Beauty, but is he the Beast?

Elfrida, spirited, caring and beautiful, is also alone. She is the witch of the woods and no man dares to ask for her hand in marriage until a beast comes stalking brides and steals away her sister. Desperate, the lovely Elfrida offers herself as a sacrifice, as bridal bait, and she is seized by a man with fearful scars. Is he the beast?

In the depths of a frozen midwinter, in the heart of the woodland, Sir Magnus, battle-hardened knight of the Crusades, searches ceaselessly for three missing brides, pitting his wits and weapons against a nameless stalker of the snowy forest. Disfigured and hideously scarred, Magnus has finished with love, he thinks, until he rescues a fourth 'bride', the beautiful, red-haired Elfrida, whose innocent touch ignites in him a fierce passion that satisfies his deepest yearnings and darkest desires.

Bookstrand
Buy Links here:

I also have two forthcoming ‘knight’ novellas during 2012 – ‘Midsummer Maid’ (which shows knights as  less than noble) is appearing in June from Muse it Up Publishing and ‘The Lord and Eleanor’ is appearing soon from Ellora’s Cave (details here).


Best wishes, Lindsay Townsend

Nights of mischief

In Yorkshire, where I live, Nov 4th has always been known as Mischief Night, when local youngsters traditionally attempt all kinds of mayhem. Favourites are knocking on doors and running away, lifting garden gates off their hinges and hiding them and tapping on windows with a twig while hiding in the bushes. Unlit bonfires may be set deliberately alight, or 'raided' for their workwood.

Reading this list through I'm horrified, but I do remember taking part in bonfire 'raids' and really enjoying it.

Now I write romance I prefer more elegant mischief - that of a man and woman testing and teasing each other. Below is a teasing, mischievous excerpt from my medieval historical romance, To Touch The Knight. In it the hero and heroine are sparring, 'making mischief' for each other:

Excerpt.

Ranulf recognized the jutting gray beard. "Well met, Sir Tancred."

"Sir Dew of the Moon, if you please." The older man turned on the spot, showing off a costume of loose white and silver robes smothered in pearls and silver coins. He had a cap on, too, that looked very much like a nightcap, but one that trailed more ropes of coins.

"Have you a troop of seamstresses with you?" Ranulf asked, grinning to show he meant no ill-will.

"Nay, but my lady guessed it would be unknown knights. It is a popular theme."

"Indeed." A dormant streak of mischief, long banished since he had been a squire, stirred in Ranulf. He knew very well who Sir Tancred's lady was. "Would you swap masks and costumes with me?"

There was a rustle of cloth and coins as the older knight shook his head. "I have promised to escort my lady."

"May I escort her also? We could stroll on either side: Sir Dew and Sir Jade."

"I do not think my lady would like this..."

"If you allow it, I will joust in your amour and you keep the prizes."

"Agreed!"

As they shook hands, a rattle of drums sounded and a woman robed in yellow, scarlet and blue came down the castle steps, arm in arm with a short, burly man, wearing a mask of tall, sweeping peacock feathers and a feather cloak.

"Lady Rainbow and Lord Phoenix!" roared an iron-throated herald, to a pattering of applause.

Behind these came the other ladies, gaudy in tight, long sleeved gowns of blue and scarlet, purple and gold. Ranulf saw Giles, whom he recognized by his cocksure air and costume of long blue robe and black mask - the role of sea knight, which Giles had played at other jousts - rush to escort a lady who seemed to be a sparkle of gold.

"Beauty needs no foil," he murmured. He wagered that once the ladies unmasked, Giles would be disappointed.

"And are you beautiful, sir knight?" asked a new voice behind him.

"My lady!" Sir Tancred bowed so low that a rope of coins and the tip of his headdress touched the dirt. "We looked for you, Sir Jade and myself. We did not see you come with the other damsels. Where, too, are your attendants?"

"I chose another way, my lord, a way less crowded," came the calm response. "Sir Jade?"

His heart hammering as it never did when he was about to tilt, Ranulf determined to be equally reserved. "You will know jade, my lady, being as you are from far away." He patted his moss-strewn chest. "I am the English kind. But I see you disapprove of me."

He looked down, straight into a veiled face dominated by a pair of brilliant eyes, as large as a falcon's, and as piercing.

"Sir Jade, you are mistaken." Turning away from him without more ado, the lady threaded a narrow hand deftly through Sir Tancred's waiting arm. "I congratulate you on the elegance and wit of your mask and costume, Sir Dew. This fore-noon you will dazzle us all."

She had not answered his question on her lack of servants, but the older man straightened and stroked his white robes as if they were the finest ermine. “It is because of you, my lady. You were my inspiration.”

"What do you think of mine?" Ranulf interrupted. Usually he had no time for such folly; play like this reminded him of Olwen, of what he had lost. Yet this cool veiled green damsel piqued him: perversely he wanted her to think well of him.

The cool bright eyes studied him. "I find you apt, sir. Today I am the lady of jade." She offered him her free hand. "What do you think of me?"

She stepped closer as if daring him to touch. A sweet, rich perfume rose from her as she moved.

"You are as green as Roman glass, my lady," he remarked.

"And as slippery?" she countered.

"As green as jade," Sir Dew/Tancred put in, keen not to be left out of this encounter.

"I did not say that," Ranulf answered, disliking to have thoughts assumed of him, even if they were right. "Are you always veiled?"

"It is the custom of my people. Women go veiled. Some men, too."

"The old and ugly," said Tancred, but Ranulf ignored him.

"Are such loose clothes also the custom?" he asked. She was a pale green shimmer, clad head to toe in a filmy, billowing sheet of something - whether robe, tunic or gown, he could not say.

"These are the clothes I wear and how I wear them when I am walking," she said. "When I am watching the joust, I will be so," and she twisted her arms.

At once the sheet about her settled snugly over her hips and became a single slender rope across her left shoulder, running cross-wise over her narrow waist and surprisingly full breasts. Beside him and around him Ranulf heard the gasps and sensed the stares - he would be gawping, too, he wagered. Beneath the green shimmer, which he could not honestly call a cloak, but then he had no other words to describe it, the lady was all but naked.

She hides her face but still wears less than a tavern wench, was his astonished thought.

Truly, she wore a tiny golden bodice or jerkin over her bosom, cut to show the tops of her arms and breasts, and stopping before the last of her ribs, so that her upper arms and her middle were bare, naked and bare. Ranulf found himself leaning in to her, almost reaching for her slender waist and copper-colored, smooth-as-silk skin. He was reminded now, crudely and starkly, that he had not lain with any woman for months. The blood thumping in his ears and more painfully elsewhere, his mind flashed to the little modest maid of the morning, who had darted off. Two different kinds of challenges.

"You are the very season for lilies, princess, "he said, making a play of breathing in slowly and commenting on her perfume because she expected him to scold or praise her costume.

"Today I am the Lady Jade," she reminded him anew, nodding to a belt of green beads wound about her hips and several bracelets of green bangles. One of the nearby knights started to say something in French, but Ranulf stared at him and the man instantly went quiet. He clasped the hand she offered, amazed that she should be wearing gloves up to her elbows.

"Have you a favor in that costume for me?" he asked, while the knights about hitched their eyebrows at her strange attire and the ladies in masks made a point of not glancing her way.

"Alas, Sir Jade! My favors are all given out."

“Your face-veil is green and we shall soon be unmasking. ‘Tis considered unmannerly to remain masked when the lord and lady are not.”

"Thank you for pointing out that custom, Sir Jade. To be sure, I did not know it."

"To be sure you did, princess." Ranulf squeezed her fingers, tempted to shake her until her bracelets and beads rattled.

"I will remove that veil when we reach the place of tourney," she replied, not in the least discomforted by his outright denial.

They were moving by this time, strolling to the jousting ground, the princess in her fantastic costume floating like a low green cloud between him and Sir Tancred.

"May I claim it?" he asked. "I am jade, as you."

"Huurph!" grunted Sir Tancred.

"Forgive me, sir, but I cannot grant your request. To do so would be to break faith with others."

"I understand completely," Ranulf replied, looking over the princess's veiled head at Sir Tancred. "We must honor our agreements."

To see the cover, blurb and buy links, please visit my blog:
http://www.lindsaytownsend.net/2008/04/to-touch-knight.html

Best wishes, Lindsay.

[Pieter Breughel's 'Children's Games (1560) sourced from Wikimedia Commons.]

How dark can a romance be?

My new Kensington Zebra, To Touch The Knight, has recently been reviewed by Romantic Times. The reviewer liked it and said Compelling characters and suspenseful moments will keep readers well entertained, but added, the dark motifs and plague plotline may be too somber for some.

Fair enough, but it set me thinking. I've set my novel against the backdrop of the 1348 plague, now known as the Black Death, a time of great hardship and terror when over a third to a half of the population of Britain died from the plague. My story does have dark moments, to reflect this. However, my romance is also a triumph of love over adversity, where a lonely, troubled man and a woman who has seen too much horror learn to care again and love. Others in their company also find love and hope and happy endings. To me, such joyous outcomes make the novel a victory for life and love and as such a true romance, whatever the other dark motifs in the story.

I am fine with the review and understand why the reviewer added such a warning, but still it intrigues me.

What do you think? How dark can a romance be?

To help you decide, the first two chapters are here.

'To Touch the Knight' now out!

My latest Kensington medieval romance is now out and available for sale in shops and at ebook stores (UK paperback due in August). To Touch the Knight is set during the time of the Black Death, when almost a third of the people in Britain died due to the plague. It was a period of massive change and terror, but also, for the survivors, a chance for a better life. You can find more, including an excerpt and buy links, here.

'To Touch the Knight' at 'Heroes and Heartbreakers'

Not long now - To Touch the Knight comes out in early July, and there's a long excerpt up today at Heroes and Heartbreakers.

And don't forget, A Knight's Enchantment still has a few days to run at $0.99c in the Amazon Kindle Sunshine Deals promotion!