The Red Lion
The Highland Warriors
of Munro #1
by Kathryn Le Veque
Release Date: October
3rd, 2016
Publisher:
Dragonblade Publishing
Genre: Medieval
Romance
Blurb
1288
A.D. - Sir Jamison Munro is a Highland warrior known as The Red Lion. Big and
burly, with a crown of wavy red hair, as the son of the chief of Clan Munro,
Jamison's path in life was more unconventional than those of his clansmen. His
father is a progressive thinker, knowing that in order to survive his clan must
become allied with the English. When Jamison is involved in an offense against
a neighboring clan, George Munro has no choice but to send his greatest son
south into England to protect him.
Jamison
finds himself serving the House of de Lohr, old allies of his father. When the
call goes out to defend a de Lohr garrison against a Welsh attack, Jamison
rides to the siege and finds himself caught up in a nasty battle. With the
gatehouse breached, he charges in to defend the occupants only to be attacked
by one occupant in particular. What he first believes to be a small and slender
knight, he soon finds out differently. He is met with ferocity by a skilled
lady warrior.
Lady
Havilland de Llion is the daughter of the lord of Four Crosses Castle.
Part-Welsh, her family is nonetheless loyal to the English and to de Lohr. When
she sees the big Scotsman, she assumes he is siding with the Welsh and goes
after him with a vengeance. Even upon discovering his loyalties, she doesn't
believe him and their fight goes on long after the battle itself is finished.
But soon enough, the contention between them turns to something else.
Politics,
battles, loyalties, and roaring passions play out in a story of high emotion
and high adventure. To the big Scots knight known as The Red Lion, nearly
everything in his life has come at a price, but in the battle for Havilland's
affections, there is no price too high that he will not pay.
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Link: Amazon
EXCERPT
The
portcullises began to grind open, chains groaning under the substantial weight.
Jamison was in the process of calling his men back to the walls when he caught
movement out of the corner of his eye. By the time he turned around, he caught
the glint of a blade and something moving very quickly down near the ground. It
took him a moment to realize the woman had slid underneath the lifting
portcullises and was very close to him with a sword in her hand. He barely had
a chance to jump back as she took a very swift strike at his head.
Jamison
couldn’t believe it. She’d actually come quite close to his face with the swing
of that blade and he instantly unsheathed his broadsword, a weapon that was far
bigger than hers. But she was fast, this one, and she was angry, which made her
both determined and slightly reckless. As the de Lohr troops watched with some
amusement and, truthfully, some horror, the woman charged Jamison with her
small but well-made sword. When he lifted his weapon to fend off her attack,
she fell to her knees, sliding in the mud with her momentum, and brought her
sword up underneath him. Only Jamison’s lightning-fast reflexes prevented her
from making contact with his ankles.
It
was actually an impressive tactic; she had been aiming for his Achilles’ heel.
When Jamison realized that she was genuinely trying to hurt him, he took the
offensive. He had little choice unless he was prepared to willingly submit to
her aggression. The woman was just regaining her feet as he came down upon her,
hard, in a broadsword stroke that would have been difficult for a strong man to
handle much less a woman. She lifted her sword, preventing he blow from cutting
through her midsection, but the power behind the strike was much more forceful
than anything she had ever experienced. The blow sent her onto her back and she
had to roll out of the way, quick as a flash, to prevent him from seriously
injuring her when he brought down a second strike.
Unfortunately
for the woman, Jamison didn’t give her time to recover. If she was going to try
to hurt him, then he was going to disable her before she had the chance. So he
went after her in full battle mode, preventing her from gaining her footing,
watching her as she rolled and crawled through the mud, now struggling to avoid
his blade.
But
avoid she did, at least for a few minutes as he clearly tried to kill her, but
that grace period soon ended. At one point, the woman’s hair became untangled
from her mail and as she tried to get away from Jamison, her braid dragged in
the mud. Jamison seized on the opportunity and stepped on her hair, bringing
her to an instant halt as she screamed in pain. Reaching down a massive hand,
he grabbed her by the hair on her scalp, yanking her head back as he brought
the sword down, aiming it right for her neck. He stopped short of cutting her
head off, however, as the blade rested on her pale, dirty skin.
The
fight was over as swiftly as it had begun. Jamison stared down into her face,
seeing that her eyes were a deep shade of green, with long dark lashes all
around. Her beauty was without compare but he refused to think such thoughts of
this woman who had tried to hurt him. He glared at her, his jaw flexing
furiously.
“Now,”
he growled, “ye attacked me and failed. Tell me why I shouldna end yer life
right now.”
The
woman was breathing heavily but, to her credit, there was no fear in her eyes.
She gazed back at him with defiance. “I cannot give you a reason,” she said,
her voice hoarse because he had her head pulled back so far and there was a
strain on her neck. “Do as you must.”
Jamison
didn’t want to kill her; he really didn’t. He was just trying to scare her
because she had been bold and reckless. But he was coming to think that she
couldn’t be scared. He could see it in her expression, in everything about her.
She was brave, this one. A seedling of respect grew.
“Do
ye want tae die, then?” he asked.
Something
in her eyes flickered, a whisper of fear, perhaps. “Of course not,” she said.
“But I lost the fight. It is your right to do to me as you will.”
His
red eyebrows drew together; he couldn’t help it. “How would ye know about the
rules of engagement?” he asked. “Moreover, why do ye dress as a warrior? Does
yer husband allow such things?”
She
swallowed, hard. “I am not married.”
“Then
yer father allows this?”
She
didn’t respond right away, trying to lower her gaze but unable to for the way
he was holding her. “My father has no say in what I do,” she said. “This is my
home. I defend it as necessary, any way I deem necessary.”
Jamison
was feeling some exasperation. “I told ye I am with de Lohr,” he said. “I am
here tae help ye. Do ye not understand that, lass?”
Something
in her eyes flared as she looked at him. “Do not call me a lass!”
“I
would call ye by yer name but I dunna know it.”
“And
I’ll not tell you.”
He
cocked his head. “Ye have an unruly mouth in the face of a man holding a sword
tae yer neck,” he said. “Are ye truly so foolish? For certain, that is all I
have seen from ye since the beginning.”
She
sighed, the frown returning to her features. “If you are going to kill me, then
get on with it.”
Jamison
stared at her a moment longer. Then, he swiftly removed his sword and dropped
it to the earth. Before the woman could utter a word of protest, he went down
on one knee and, still holding on to her hair, put her straight across his
thigh. Letting go of her hair, he held her down with that arm across her back
as the other arm extended and, without hesitation, proceeded to spank her. His
big hand against her backside resounded off of the stone walls. The woman began
to howl.
“Beast!”
she screamed, fighting and twisting. “How dare you take a hand to me! You will
be punished for this – ouch!”
Jamison
whaled on her buttocks, through the mail coat and through the breeches she was
wearing. It probably hurt his hand more than it hurt her backside, but that
wasn’t the point. She was terribly mannered and it was clear no one had ever
disciplined her. He was, therefore, pleased to be the first. It gave him a
fiendish satisfaction to do so. He whacked her a few more times before pushing
her off his knee, straight into the mud.
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Link: Amazon
Author Info
KATHRYN
LE VEQUE is a USA TODAY Bestselling author, an Amazon All-Star author, and a #1
bestselling, award-winning, multi-published author in Medieval Historical
Romance and Historical Fiction. She has been featured in the NEW YORK TIMES and
on USA TODAY's HEA blog. In March 2015, Kathryn was the featured cover story
for the March issue of InD'Tale Magazine, the premier Indie author magazine.
She is also quintuple nominee (a record!) for the prestigious RONE awards for
2016.
Kathryn's
Medieval Romance novels have been called 'detailed', 'highly romantic', and
'character-rich'. She crafts great adventures of love, battles, passion, and
romance in the High Middle Ages. More than that, she writes for both women AND
men - an unusual crossover for a romance author - and Kathryn has many male
readers who enjoy her stories because of the male perspective, the action, and
the adventure.
On
October 29, 2015, Amazon launched Kathryn's Kindle Worlds Fan Fiction site
WORLD OF DE WOLFE PACK. Please visit Kindle Worlds for Kathryn Le Veque's World
of de Wolfe Pack and find many action-packed adventures written by some of the
top authors in their genre using Kathryn's characters from the de Wolfe Pack
series. As Kindle World's FIRST Historical Romance fan fiction world, Kathryn
Le Veque's World of de Wolfe Pack will contain all of the great story-telling
you have come to expect.
Kathryn
loves to hear from her readers.
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