Lady Of Fire
Authors: Tamara Leigh
Tags: #Medieval Britain, #Knights, #Medieval Romance, #love story, #Historical Romance, #Romance, #Knights & Knighthood, #Algiers, #Warrior, #Warriors, #Medieval England, #Medievel Romance, #Knight
LADY OF FIRE
A “clean read” rewrite of
Pagan Bride
, published by Bantam Books, 1995
TAMARA LEIGH, USA Today Best-Selling Author
DANGEROUS
Believing only death will prevent him from returning to England, Sir Lucien de Gautier answers his king’s call to arms. When he is captured and his family refuses the ransom demand, he finds himself bound to the oars of a galley. Enraged and embittered, he has no hope of escape—until a rich merchant’s wife offers him freedom. In exchange, he agrees to smuggle a virtuous young woman out of a harem and onto a ship bound for England, unaware the real danger lies in the bond forged between him and his fiery charge. But when he learns she is as much his enemy as those who enslaved him, can he forgive her? More, can he forget her?
IMPETUOUS
Determined to wed her childhood friend, a betrothal her English mother will go to any length to break, Alessandra refuses to abandon the only life she has known in Algiers—even if it means compromising her faith. But when she is entrusted to a new bodyguard whose scarred face and soul draw her to him, she soon discovers the bold Englishman is only playing a part, biding his time until he can fulfill his end of a treacherous bargain. Desperate to turn him from his course, she reveals her identity, but only succeeds in gaining his contempt. Now that he knows the truth, will he ever feel for her all she feels for him? And will it be enough for her to forsake her world to live in his?
TAMARA LEIGH NOVELS
INSPIRATIONAL HISTORICAL TITLES
The Feud: A Medieval Romance Series
Baron of Godsmere:
Book One, 01/15: Amazon
Age of Faith: A Medieval Romance Series
The Unveiling:
Book One, 08/12:
The Yielding:
Book Two, 12/12:
The Redeeming:
Book Three, 05/13:
The Kindling:
Book Four, 11/13:
The Longing
: Book Five, 05/14:
CLEAN READ HISTORICAL TITLES
Dreamspell:
a medieval time travel romance
,
03/12:
Lady At Arms:
a “clean read” rewrite of the 1994 Bantam Books bestseller
Warrior Bride
, 01/14:
Lady Of Eve:
a “clean read” rewrite of the 1994 Bantam Books bestseller
Virgin Bride
, 06/14:
Lady Of Fire:
a “clean read” rewrite of the 1995 Bantam Books bestseller
Pagan Bride,
11/14: Amazon
INSPIRATIONAL CONTEMPORARY TITLES
Southern Discomfort Series
Leaving Carolina,
RandomHouse/Multnomah, 2009
Nowhere, Carolina,
RandomHouse/Multnomah, 2010
Restless in Carolina,
RandomHouse/Multnomah, 2011
Stand-Alone Novels
Stealing Adda, 05/12
(ebook edition)
Stealing Adda,
NavPress, 2006 (print edition)
Perfecting Kate,
Multnomah, 2007
Splitting Harriet,
RandomHouse/Multnomah, 2007
Faking Grace,
RandomHouse/Multnomah, 2008
OUT-OF-PRINT GENERAL MARKET TITLES
Warrior Bride,
Bantam Books, 1994
*Virgin Bride,
Bantam Books, 1994
Pagan Bride,
Bantam Books, 1995
Saxon Bride,
Bantam Books, 1995
Misbegotten,
HarperCollins, 1996
Unforgotten,
HarperCollins, 1997
Blackheart,
Dorchester Leisure, 2001
*
Virgin Bride
is the sequel to
Warrior Bride
Pagan Pride
and
Saxon Bride
are stand-alone novels
LADY OF FIRE (a “clean read” rewrite of the 1995 Bantam Books bestseller
Pagan Bride
) Copyright © 2014 by Tammy Schmanski, P.O. Box 1298, Goodlettsville, TN 37070,
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, incidents, and dialogues are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.
ISBN-10: 0-9853529-9-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-9853529-9-8
All rights reserved. This book is a copyrighted work and no part of it may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photographic, audio recording, or any information storage and retrieval system) without permission in writing from the author. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or any other means without the author’s permission is illegal and punishable by law. Thank you for supporting authors’ rights by purchasing only authorized editions.
Cover Design: Ravven
Algiers, 1454
Not even chains could make him look the slave.
Wearing loose-fitting chausses and a sleeveless, tattered tunic that was more ribbon than garment, the towering, broad-shouldered man was dragged to the platform to stand before the astonished crowd. Those who struggled to hold him scowled and grunted as he roared curses understood only by those who knew his language.
An Englishman
, Sabine silently rejoiced.
An enraged one.
She had not expected to encounter such a fine specimen. Though he could not be noble, for he would surely have been ransomed, he had the bearing of one of high birth.
She gripped the arm of the chief eunuch who had accompanied her to the auction. “That one, Khalid.”
His eyes widened. “Mistress, he is not a eunuch.”
True. The auctioneer had not prefaced the summons to bid with that information, but it did not matter. This was the one she had been waiting for these two months, and she would not allow him to slip through her fingers.
“He is the one,” she said sharply.
Khalid leaned down from his great height. “Only a eunuch is allowed within the walls of a harem.”
“None need know,” she said as the bidding commenced.
Khalid shook his head. “This man is fit only for the quarries. There will be others better suited to your purpose.” Of which only he, her confidant these past ten years, knew.
“The time that remains to me is swift-footed,” she said, a creak in her voice. “Do not deny me this. It may be my only chance.”
The corners of his mouth tightened. “Upon his arms and through the tears in his tunic, can you not see the stripes laid to him?
Of course she saw them, the recently acquired ones livid and swollen.
“He has been beaten and often,” he continued. “That is a bad sign.”
“And yet he is alive,” she countered. “It means he is strong and determined.
That
is a good sign.”
Khalid’s shoulders rose with the breath of patience. “Mistress, a man as valuable as that is not beaten so viciously without cause. He is dangerous.”
Regardless, she would have him, for she had seen none worthier to carry out her plan. “Only a fool or one too apathetic to rise up again would be devoid of such anger,” Sabine retorted, “and neither of those I seek. Now buy him.”
Noting the bidding had turned fierce among those who sought to acquire the Englishman for their mines and quarries, she watched the struggle that alternately lined and smoothed Khalid’s face. He longed to aid her, but had good cause to weigh his loyalty against fear for his life. If the English slave could not be reasoned with…if he seduced the women of the harem…if it was revealed he was not a eunuch…
But if I lose him to another, I could lose that which is most precious to me,
she excused herself for what she demanded of her old friend. “Do you not bid, Khalid, I shall.”
His nostrils flared. “He will cost much, mistress.”
She pulled the gold bracelet from her wrist and thrust it into his hand, then began to work a ring from her finger. “I care not what he costs.”
Khalid stayed her desperate gesture with a hand to her shoulder, and grudgingly stepped forward.
Watching through the gossamer veil that hid her face, Sabine anxiously smoothed her fingers down her black cloak. Draped from the crown of her head, the garment fell straight to the ground, concealing the colorful finery beneath. It was the same for all respectable women who went out in public in this place far removed from the world she had been born into.
As the bidding escalated, Khalid adding his voice to the shouts, the slave continued to struggle against his captors.
From what well does he draw strength? Sabine wondered. What sustains his spirit?
In the next instant, he broke an arm free and slung the chain stretched between his manacled wrists into the face of one of his captors. The man shouted, stumbled back, and fell to the platform where he groped at his bloodied mouth. His companion also sprayed blood upon the air, but when he fell, he took the Englishman down with him.
As the crowd rumbled with alarm, those nearest the platform—save Khalid—hastened back as slave and captor wrestled to subdue one another.
Hands to her chest, beneath which her heart beat frantically, Sabine acknowledged that Khalid had been wise to discourage her from purchasing such a man. After all, she was no longer the young woman of twenty years ago. Had she three more years left in her, she would see the age of forty.
When it became evident the Englishman would not be easily put down, Khalid leapt onto the platform, wrenched the slave off his opponent, and brought his knee up between the Englishman’s thighs.
The man threw his head back, but no sound issued from his lips. Then he dropped.
A cheer rose from the crowd as the formidable, dark-skinned eunuch relinquished the Englishman to the others who had been reluctant to come to the aid of their comrades. Then Khalid turned and searched out his mistress. Eyes lighting upon her, he frowned.