Suzanne Barclay - The Champion

Cover Page

Excerpt The voice was hauntingly familiar Blinking furiously, Linnet made out a figure hunched over her. “Sweet Mary, I have died,” she whispered. Dimly she was aware of gentle pokes and prods as he examined her arms and legs. “I do not think anything is broken.” The man sat back on his haunches. “Can you move your limbs?” “Simon?” Linnet murmured. He cocked his head. “You know who I am?” “But…you perished….” “Nay, though I came close on a few occasions.” Joy pulsed through her, so intense it brought fresh tears to eyes that had already cried a river for him. He leaned closer, his jaw stubbled, his eyes shadowed by their sockets. “Do I know you?” A laugh bubbled in her throat, wild and a bit hysterical. She cut it off with a sob. She had been right. He did not even remember her or their wondrous moment together….

Dear Reader 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. Simon of Blackstone, a knight returning from the Crusades, is one of those characters. He’s the valiant hero in Suzanne Barclay’s latest medieval novel, The Champion. This is the first book in our new connected minisenes, KNIGHTS OF THE BLACK ROSE, about a handful of English knights who come home from the horrors of the battlefield to new lives and new loves. Simon returns to confront the father he never knew…and finds himself and his lady love the prime suspects in a chilling murder. Don’t miss this reunion romance with unparalleled twists! Wolf Heart is the fascinating, timeless hero from Shawnee Bride, an emotion-filled Native American romance by Elizabeth Lane. It’s about a white Shawnee warrior who falls in love with the young woman he rescues from river pirates. In By Queen’s Grace by Shari Anton, Saxon knight Corwin of Lenvil heroically wins the hand and heart of his longtime love, a royal maiden. Antoinette Huntington is the unforgettable heroine in The Lady and the Outlaw, a new Western by DeLoras Scott. After her husband’s murder, Antoinette flees England and has a romantic run-in with an outlaw on a train headed for the Arizona Territory. Enjoy! And come back again next month for four more choices of the best in historical romance. Happy holidays, Tracy Farrell Senior Editor

Title Page The Champion Suzanne Barclay www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dedication To the talented ladies who created the Knights of the Black Rose: Shari Anton, Laurie Grant, Sharon Schulze, Ana Seymour and Lyn Stone. What fun we had brainstorming this terrific series. Let’s do it again sometime.

Prologue

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

Epilogue

Copyright

Blinking furiously, Linnet made out a figure hunched over her. “Sweet Mary, I have died,” she whispered. Dimly she was aware of gentle pokes and prods as he examined her arms and legs.

“I do not think anything is broken.” The man sat back on his haunches. “Can you move your limbs?”

“Simon?” Linnet murmured.

He cocked his head. “You know who I am?”

“But…you perished….”

“Nay, though I came close on a few occasions.”

Joy pulsed through her, so intense it brought fresh tears to eyes that had already cried a river for him.

He leaned closer, his jaw stubbled, his eyes shadowed by their sockets. “Do I know you?”

A laugh bubbled in her throat, wild and a bit hysterical. She cut it off with a sob. She had been right. He did not even remember her or their wondrous moment together….

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.

Simon of Blackstone, a knight returning from the Crusades, is one of those characters. He’s the valiant hero in Suzanne Barclay’s latest medieval novel, The Champion. This is the first book in our new connected minisenes, KNIGHTS OF THE BLACK ROSE, about a handful of English knights who come home from the horrors of the battlefield to new lives and new loves. Simon returns to confront the father he never knew…and finds himself and his lady love the prime suspects in a chilling murder. Don’t miss this reunion romance with unparalleled twists!

Wolf Heart is the fascinating, timeless hero from Shawnee Bride, an emotion-filled Native American romance by Elizabeth Lane. It’s about a white Shawnee warrior who falls in love with the young woman he rescues from river pirates. In By Queen’s Grace by Shari Anton, Saxon knight Corwin of Lenvil heroically wins the hand and heart of his longtime love, a royal maiden.

Antoinette Huntington is the unforgettable heroine in The Lady and the Outlaw, a new Western by DeLoras Scott. After her husband’s murder, Antoinette flees England and has a romantic run-in with an outlaw on a train headed for the Arizona Territory.

Enjoy! And come back again next month for four more choices of the best in historical romance.

Happy holidays,

Tracy Farrell

Senior Editor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To the talented ladies who created the Knights of the Black Rose:

Shari Anton, Laurie Grant, Sharon Schulze, Ana Seymour and Lyn Stone.

What fun we had brainstorming this terrific series. Let’s do it again sometime.

England, May 10, 1222

They rode north on the road from York to Durleigh, six Crusader knights in worn gray tabards with a black rose stitched over the heart, a babe scarce a year old and Odetta, a goat that was more trouble than the Saracens they had faced in the East.

Thick gray clouds obscured the noonday sun. The raw breeze that harried their backs carried a hint of rain that discouraged lingering on the trail.

Not that Simon of Blackstone was inclined to linger. He’d set a brisk pace since rousting his comrades from their blanket rolls in the darkness of predawn, and he meant to be in Durleigh by midafternoon. Ignoring the discomfort, as he had so many other unpleasant things life had flung at him, he concentrated on the muddy track ahead. His thoughts, his entire being, were focused on reaching the town a half day’s journey north.

Durleigh, where he’d been fostered and knighted in the household of Lord Edmund de Meresden. Durleigh, seat of the great cathedral presided over by Bishop Thurstan de Lyndhurst.

The man who had sired him.

Simon’s jaw set tighter, and the heat of anger rose to counter the damp chill. Three long years he had waited to confront the priest who had given him life, but never bothered to acknowledge him. Three years of living with the bitter knowledge that his whole life had been a lie.

“We need to call a halt,” muttered Guy de Meresden, riding at Simon’s right.

Stop then, but I will not. Not till I’ve seen the mighty bishop and extracted a penance for his sins.

The words stuck in Simon’s throat. Two hundred men had ridden out from Durleigh four years ago bound for the East. Only six had come back alive, and Simon’s five comrades were as precious to him as the family he never had.