Shawnee Bride
English Heart, Shawnee Soul Wolf Heart had long since accepted his path in life.Born of one world, raised in another, he'd known the pain and loneliness of being different for as long as he could remember. Until he discovered Clarissa Rogers fighting for survival in a savage land and claimed her for his bride.Torn from a life of comfort, Clarissa had braved the brutal gauntlet and won the right to live among her captors as an equal. But the future was up to her. Would she choose to return to a world of privilege or embrace the freedom of her new life - and accept the love of the warrior who had claimed her heart… ?
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Table of Contents
She was free
But she could not thank him. She could not even say goodbye.
“Clarissa.”
At the sound of her name, she spun back toward him. Her heart leapt, then dropped like a stone as she saw that he was holding the parfleche, extending it toward her with both hands.
Fighting tears of anguish, she walked slowly back toward him. His face was in full sunlight now, the jaw set, the blue eyes narrowed against the glare. What colossal, stubborn pride he had! If only he would speak, or even look at her…
As she reached out to take the rawhide case, their fingers brushed. The light contact of skin to skin blazed like a flash of gunpowder through her body. Struck by the sudden, searing heat in his eyes, Clarissa let the case fall.
In the next instant he had caught her in his arms…
Dear Reader,
What a perfect time to celebrate history-the eve of a new century. This month we’re featuring four terrific romances with awe-inspiring heroes and heroines from days gone by that you’ll want to take with you into the next century! Wolf Heart is the fascinating, timeless hero from Shawnee Bride by Elizabeth Lane. Fans of Native American stories will absolutely love this authentic, emotion-filled love story about a boy who was orphaned at eleven and adopted by the Shawnee Now a fierce Shawnee warrior, both in his heart and mind, Wolf Heart falls in love with a beautiful white woman whom he rescues from river pirates. Will their love transcend the cultural barriers? Will she live as his Shawnee bride, or will she return to the white man’s world? Don’t miss this wonderful story!
In By Queen’s Grace by Shari Anton, Saxon knight Corwin of Lenvil heroically wins the hand-and heart-of his longtime secret love, a royal maiden. Antoinette Huntington is the unforgettable heroine in The Lady and the Outlaw by DeLoras Scott. Here, the English Antoinette has a romantic run-in with an outlaw on a train headed for the Arizona Territory.
Simon of Blackstone will steal your heart in The Champion by Suzanne Barclay, the launch book in the KNIGHTS OF THE BLACK ROSE miniseries. Simon returns from war to confront the father he never knew…and finds himself and his lady love the prume suspects in his father’s murder.
Enjoy! And come back again next month for four more choices of the best in historical romance.
Happy holidays,
Tracy Farrell
Senior Editor
Author Note by Elizabeth Lane
Before writing Shawnee Bride, I did extensive research on Shawnee history and customs. Even with the best of intentions, however, it is difficult to know everything about a culture that is not one’s own. If anything I have written here is found to be erroneous or offensive, I offer my apologies to the reader and to a people for whom I have nothing but the deepest respect.
I owe a special debt of gratitude to James Alexander Thom, whose fine biographical novel Panther in the Sky inspired the setting and background for Clarissa and Wolf Heart’s story.
Elizabeth Lane
The Valley of the Ohio, 1747
Seth Johnson bolted through the underbrush, terror fueling the strength of his eleven-year-old legs. Brambles clawed at his threadbare clothes. Roots and vines clutched at his ankles. His heart hammered in anguished fire bursts as he ran.
Behind him, the silence of the forest was even more terrible than his father’s screams had been. Pa would be dead by now, God willing, and even if he wasn’t, there was nothing that could be done for him.
The marauding black bear had come out of nowhere, jumping Benjamin Johnson as he crouched to reset one of his beaver traps. Seth had flung sticks and rocks and screamed himself hoarse in a frantic effort to distract the monster, but none of his boyish racket had been of any use. In the end, he had been left with no choice except to run for his life.
Was the bear coming after him now? If he paused to listen, would he hear it crashing through the undergrowth as its great black nose smelled out his trail? Seth could not risk stopping to find out A charging bear, bent on killing, could run down the fastest man alive.
His bare feet, already large and rawhide tough, splashed into a shallow creek. He plunged upstream, praying the water would carry away his scent. His lungs burned. His breath burst out in labored gasps as he toiled uphill against the icy current.
Seth stifled a cry as his left foot slipped on a mossy stone, wrenching the ankle. Pain lanced his leg-a sharper pain, even, than the hot, flat sting Pa’s belt had caused last night when Seth had dropped a jug of whiskey into the river. For what it was worth, at least Pa would never beat him again.
Grimacing, Seth stumbled out of the water, crumpled against the overhung bank and curled there like a clenched fist. He could not see or hear the bear. All the same, he felt the hair prickle on the back of his neck, a sure sign that danger was close by, and he knew there was nothing he could do.
