Her Christmas Knight
A knight to protect her – this YuletideBy order of the English King, Alice of Swaffham searches London nobility for the traitor dealing information to the Scots. Little does she know that the mysterious spy she seeks is the man she once loved and thought she’d lost forever…If Hugh of Shoebury felt unworthy of Alice before, as the Half-Thistle spy, he can never claim her heart. Now he must fight not only to keep his dark secrets – and Alice – safe from a vengeful king…but also his burning longing for her at bay!Lovers and LegendsA clash of Celtic passions
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A knight to protect herâthis Yuletide
By order of the English king, Alice of Swaffham searches London nobility for the traitor dealing information to the Scots. Little does she know that the mysterious spy she seeks is the man she once loved and thought sheâd lost forever...
If Hugh of Shoebury felt unworthy of Alice before, as the Half-Thistle spy he can never claim her heart. Now he must fight to keep not only his dark secretsâand Aliceâsafe from a vengeful king...but also his burning longing for her at bay!
âDo you want to dance?â
Alice stopped tapping her foot and turned to Hugh, who had caught her unawares.
His appearance was startling to her every sense. It still seemed impossible that he had returned to Swaffham. And after all this time it should have been impossible to be so affected by him. And yet she was.
Tonight his clothes were as fine as any noblemanâs. But none of them softened the hard slant of his jaw or his piercing storm-filled gaze.
âWhich dance?â Her eyes strayed to the lock of hair that fell loose and soft over his forehead.
There was a quirk to his lips. âThe one that is beginning now.â
Aware of eyes on their exchange, Alice carefully chose her words. âYes, I would like to dance.â
âThen let us begin,â Hugh said, taking her hand in a sure grip.
His palm pressed to hers and their hands entwined, his callused fingertips brushing her wrist. He drew her closer as they joined the other dancers, holding her for longer than the dance provided. It was a dance she knew well, but for the first time somehow she didnât know it at all.
Finally Hughâs story is being told! How can he possibly be the hero of Book Six, when he first appeared in The Knightâs Broken Promise, which was Book One in the Lovers and Legends series? Well, Iâm not writing these stories chronologically. In fact, as stand-alones, they can be read in any order.
But that doesnât explain why it took me this long, so Iâll tell you. Hughâs past is so tormented that his story was difficult to write. Add in the fact that at the end of Book One he was committing treason, and I wondered what heroine could possibly understand him?
Thatâs when I found Alice, who has been valiantly trying to save Hugh since she was six years old. The only problem? Alice has the King of England threatening her life...
NICOLE LOCKE discovered her first romance novels in her grandmotherâs closet, where they were secretly hidden. Convinced that books that were hidden must be better than those that werenât, Nicole greedily read them. It was only natural for her to start writing themâbut now not so secretly.
Books by Nicole Locke
Mills & Boon Historical Romance
Lovers and Legends
The Knightâs Broken Promise
Her Enemy Highlander The Highland Lairdâs Bride In Debt to the Enemy Lord The Knightâs Scarred Maiden Her Christmas Knight
Visit the Author Profile page at millsandboon.co.uk.
To my brother.
Thank you for teaching me the value of kindness, the virtue of perseverance and the worthy ability to tie my shoes. Youâre the absolute best.
Contents
October 1296, London
She wasnât going to make it.
Heat prickled down her back. Her hands, clutching a seal to her chest, grew damp. Alice stopped running, pressed her back against the stone wall and let out a steadying breath.
She was going to make it. She had to. She had come too far. It was the labyrinth of passageways that was making her anxious. She didnât know where she was going.
It was the dark...which was more heavy and cold than the stone she rested against.
How long had she been running? She should never have agreed to the gameânever agreed to visiting Court in the first place.
As if sheâd had a choice. King Edward needed gold and her familyâwealthy wool merchantsâwere being heavily taxed for it. To soften the blow, the King often invited her family to Court. Beyond delighted, her father had always taken the trips alone. This time round, however, the King had formally invited her. And one could not avoid a direct royal command.
But she could have avoided the seal-seeking game. Noting that the King wasnât in residence, she had tried to avoid the game. But someone had put her name in the bowl and it had been pulled. Then she and the others had been shoved into various darkened hallways to find a seal and solve the riddle.
Which should have been easy. Even if she didnât know and couldnât see where she was going, sheâd thought she could depend on her ears to hear the lapping of the Thames or the running of the other seal seekers. But her ears had failed her. All was dead silent.
