Jenni Fletcher - The Warrior's Bride Prize

Daughter of a slave...

...wedded to the warrior!

Livia Valeria is furious when she’s ruthlessly gambled away by her intended bridegroom. Luckily, it’s tall, muscled and darkly handsome Roman centurion Marius Varro who wins her as his bride! She must hide her Caledonian roots, but when Marius faces a barbarian rebellion at Hadrian’s Wall, Livia must make a choice: her heritage or the husband she’s falling for...

“A breath-takingly pure and beautiful tale and this story really shows just what a fine and articulated writer Ms Fletcher is … Just perfect!”

— Chicks, Rogues and Scandals on Captain Amberton’s Inherited Bride

“Fletcher takes fans on another gratifying journey through the gothic Yorkshire landscape, this time with a couple forced to wed under dire consequences.”

— RT Book Reviews on Captain Amberton’s Inherited Bride

JENNI FLETCHERwas born in the north of Scotland and now lives in Yorkshire, with her husband and two children. She wanted to be a writer as a child, but got distracted by reading instead, finally getting past her first paragraph thirty years later. She’s had more jobs than she can remember, but has finally found one she loves. She can be contacted on Twitter @JenniAuthoror via her Facebook Author page.

Also by Jenni Fletcher

Married to Her Enemy

The Convenient Felstone Marriage

Besieged and Betrothed

Captain Amberton’s Inherited Bride

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

The Warrior’s Bride Prize

Jenni Fletcher

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07413-1

THE WARRIOR’S BRIDE PRIZE

© 2018 Jenni Fletcher

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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For Helen & David

Also a big thank-you to RomanArmyTalk.com, as well as the staff at the Roman Army Museum and Chester’s Roman Fort on Hadrian’s Wall for answering my many questions so patiently.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Historical Note

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Extract

About the Publisher

One of the best but hardest things about writing a story set in the Roman era is that although we’re constantly learning more about this fascinating period, there’s still a lot that we don’t know. While this allows for greater imaginative freedom, it can also be frustrating when dealing with real-life events, such as the Caledonian rebellion of AD 197.

What we do know is that Hadrian’s Wall was built after the Roman Emperor’s visit to Britain in AD 122. Comprising forts, mile-castles, ditches and turrets, it stretched for eighty Roman miles—seventy-three modern miles—from Wallsend on the north-east coast of England to Bowness-on-Solway on the west, and took fifteen thousand soldiers six years to complete.

It had several purposes, functioning as a frontier, a military bulwark and a customs barrier, although the Romans also made several forays into the area they called Caledonia—now Scotland—even building another shorter fortification, the Antonine Wall, between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde, though this was abandoned after only twenty years in AD 163.

In spite of these efforts, the northern tribes were never completely subdued or brought under the Pax Romana and there were numerous uprisings throughout the second century AD. Matters came to a head in AD 182, when the then Governor of Britain, Clodius Albinus, proclaimed himself Emperor of the Roman Empire and took a large part of the British garrison to Gaul, where he was eventually defeated by his rival Septimius Severus.

Despite a significant bribe to maintain the peace, the Maetae tribe north of Hadrian’s Wall took advantage of the Romans’ absence by launching a series of raids and destroying large parts of the fortifications.

In AD 197 the new Emperor Severus sent commissioners north to rebuild the wall and re-establish control—although archaeological evidence shows continued fighting around this period. The exact sequence of events is unclear, but the Sixth Victorious Legion was based in York—the Roman city of Eboracum—at this time, and the Emperor himself finally came to Britain to suppress the uprising in AD 208.

Hadrian’s Wall wasn’t abandoned by the Roman Empire until the early fifth century. Consequently, although we know that there was a Caledonian rebellion, and it affected the real forts of Coria—Corbridge—and Cilurnum—Chesters—which feature in this story, all the specific incidents and characters are fictionalised.