Hellion - A Novel

Informationen zum Autor Bertrice Small  was the  New York Times  bestselling author of more than fifty novels. Among her numerous awards, she was the recipient of the RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award. She lived on the North Fork of the eastern end of Long Island, New York, until her death in 2015. Klappentext SHE WAS CALLED BELLE FROM HELL. . . . As fierce and indomitable as any man, Isabelle of Langston rules the family lands with an iron hand after her father's death. But the brazen beauty meets her match in Hugh Fauconier, bold knight and rightful Saxon heir to Langston Keep. By the king's hand, he is made her husband. Hugh's virile prowess reveals to Belle the delicious pleasures of the flesh, as their turbulent days of verbal sparring melt into nights of erotic abandon. But a treacherous plot enslaves Hugh to the evil Vivienne d' Bretagne, a sorceress whose sexual magic is as powerful as it is dark. Discovering the castle lair where her husband is enchanted, Belle is caught and rendered helpless by the twisted passion of Vivienne's brother, Guy. But not even her captor's devious ecstasy can destroy her will to free her beloved Hugh. . . . "The plot is cleverly woven into the history of the times in such a way as to make the era come to life on the written page. . . . Ms. Small once again delights and thrills." *Rendezvous An Alternate Selection of the Literary Guild(c) and Doubleday Book Club(c)Chapter 1   “You must have a wife, Hugh Fauconier,” the king said with a smile. He reached out to take his bride’s hand, giving it an affectionate squeeze. King Henry had been married just a little over a month. While the queen had been chosen for political reasons, he liked her well enough, and she him. They got on quite nicely for two people who had not known one another until the day of their marriage.   Edith, renamed Matilda to please her husband’s Norman barons, was a very pretty young woman, with her mother’s dark red hair and gray-blue eyes. And like her mother, she was a devout young woman. She had planned to enter a convent until Henry, seeking to secure his northern border while he sought to conquer Normandy, asked the Scots king for his sister’s hand in marriage. The bride was quickly sent south, for the Scots king never knew when he might need the military strength of his English brother-in-law. The fact that Edith/Matilda was also a direct descendant of the last Anglo-Saxon rulers did not go unremarked.   Those near the king turned now to look at the object of his attention. Hugh Fauconier, knight, was a Saxon. He had known the king almost his entire life. “I should enjoy a wife if she would bring me as much joy as the queen has obviously brought you,” he replied graciously, “but, alas, my liege, I have not the means to support a wife, nor lands on which to settle her.”   “You do now,” Henry replied with a small smile. “I am returning Langston to you, Hugh. What think you of that?”   “Langston?” He was astounded. All his life Langston had been but a dream. Langston was his father’s ancestral home, but he had never known his father, who, with his grandfather and two uncles, had died at Hastings. Upon hearing the news of the battle, his mother had, with incredible foresight, packed up the family’s valuables and fled west with her servants across England to her father’s home. Hugh had been born seven and a half months later. After his mother’s death, his maternal grandmother, a Norman lady distantly related to the Conqueror, had raised him. Langston had been given to a Norman knight loyal to King William.   “Circumstances have changed since my father’s time,” King Henry said softly. “Come and see me privately after the meal, Hugh. I will explain all to you then, my friend.”   The court was at Westminster celebrating the Christmas season. While the queen’s ...

Product details

• Authors: Bertrice Small
• Publisher: Ivy Books Inc.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 29.01.1997
• EAN: 9780449150382
• ISBN: 978-0-449-15038-2
• No. of pages: 448
• Dimensions: 106 mm x 170 mm x 27 mm
• Series: Fawcett Paperbacks
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature