The Longing
Authors: Tamara Leigh
Tags: #Medieval Romance, #Warrior, #Romance, #Medieval England, #Knights, #Historical Romance, #love story
The Longing
Age Of Faith [5]
Tamara Leigh
Tamara Leigh (2014)
Rating: ****
Tags: Historical Romance, Knights, Love Story, Medieval England, Medieval Romance, Romance, Warrior
In The Unveiling, The Yielding, The Redeeming, and The Kindling, the lives of the formidable Wulfrith family unfold during Duke Henry's battle for the English throne and his succession. The fifth book in the series, The Longing, belongs to the last Wulfrith brother, the enigmatic Sir Everard, and the much maligned Lady Susanna de Balliol.
THE ONE HE CAN NEVER FORGIVE...
For years, Lady Susanna de Balliol has borne the blame for betrayal - well-earned, though not as believed by the man she can never forget. Now her nephew must prove his legitimacy or lose his claim to his father's lands. When Susanna is forced to flee with the boy following an attempt on his life, will the one man who knows the truth of her nephew's birth grant them sanctuary within his walls?
More, will he aid the woman whom he believes cost him the love of his life?
THE ONE SHE CAN NEVER FORGET!
Eleven years - a long time to have loved and lost. Certain he will not love again, Everard Wulfrith has committed his life to the command of Wulfen Castle. But when the girl whose betrayal he can never forgive appears to him as a grown woman and demands he atone for his sins, can he lay bare his past to aid her nephew?
And what of his unexpected feelings for the scandalous Susanna de Balliol whose indiscretions may very well put his own to shame?
CONTENTS
THE LONGING
Book Five in the Age of Faith series
TAMARA LEIGH, USA Today Best-Selling Author
In
The Unveiling,
The Yielding, The Redeeming,
and
The Kindling
, the lives of the formidable Wulfrith family unfold during Duke Henry’s battle for the English throne and his succession. The fifth book in the series,
The Longing
, belongs to the last Wulfrith brother, the enigmatic Sir Everard, and the much maligned Lady Susanna de Balliol.
THE ONE HE CAN NEVER FORGIVE
For years, Lady Susanna de Balliol has borne the blame for betrayal—well-earned, though not as believed by the man she can never forget. Now her nephew must prove his legitimacy or lose his claim to his father’s lands. When Susanna is forced to flee with the boy following an attempt on his life, will the one man who knows the truth of her nephew’s birth grant them sanctuary within his walls? More, will he aid the woman whom he believes cost him the love of his life?
THE ONE SHE CAN NEVER FORGET
Eleven years—a long time to have loved and lost. Certain he will not love again, Everard Wulfrith has committed his life to the command of Wulfen Castle. But when the girl whose betrayal he can never forgive appears to him as a grown woman and demands he atone for his sins, can he lay bare his past to aid her nephew? And what of his unexpected feelings for the scandalous Susanna de Balliol whose indiscretions may very well put his own to shame?
TAMARA LEIGH NOVELS
INSPIRATIONAL HISTORICAL TITLES
Age of Faith: A Medieval Romance Series
The Unveiling:
Book One, 08/12:
Amazon
,
B&N
,
iBooks Store
,
Kobo Books
The Yielding:
Book Two, 12/12:
Amazon
,
B&N
,
iBooks Store
,
Kobo Books
The Redeeming:
Book Three, 05/13:
Amazon
,
B&N
,
iBooks Store
,
Kobo Books
The Kindling:
Book Four, 11/13:
Amazon
,
B&N
,
iBooks Store,
Kobo Books
The Longing
: Book Five, 05/14: Amazon, B&N, iBooks Store, Kobo Books
CLEAN READ HISTORICAL TITLES
Dreamspell:
a medieval time travel romance
,
03/12
Amazon
,
B&N
,
iBooks Store
,
Kobo Books
Lady At Arms:
a “clean read” rewrite of the 1994 Bantam Books bestseller
Warrior Bride
, 01/14:
Amazon
,
B&N
,
iBooks Store
,
Kobo Books
Lady Of Eve:
a “clean read” rewrite of the 1994 Bantam Books bestseller
Virgin Bride
, Summer 2014: Amazon, B&N, iBooks Store, Kobo Books
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)
Amazon
,
B&N
,
iBooks Store
,
Kobo Books
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
THE LONGING Copyright © 2014 by Tammy Schmanski, P.O. Box 1298, Goodlettsville, TN 37070,
[email protected]
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: 0-9853529-6-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-9853529-6-7
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: Kim Van Meter, KD Designs
Special thanks to beautiful reader, Barefoot Believer, who took to heart Everard and Susanna’s story and inspired me with these scriptures:
“My beloved is mine, and I am his… This is my beloved, and this is my friend… Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death…”
~ Song of Solomon 2:16, 5:16, 8:6 (KJV)
CHAPTER ONE
Cheverel, England
April, 1160
His name was Judas. Not Judas of the Bible, but a Judas all the same—or so his father believed.
Lady Susanna de Balliol knew better.
Though the blood spoken between the boy and her claimed him as her nephew, the hearts upon which the name of the other was written made them as near to mother and son as they might come. However, for as well as their bond had served her brother all these years by keeping his son out from underfoot—at inopportune times, ensuring the boy was nearly invisible—Alan de Balliol had scorned them both. Or worse.
Now, in the failing light of day but a month following her brother’s burial, Susanna slowly inhaled and more slowly exhaled as she and Judas awaited the announcement of whether it was a boy or a girl born to the departed baron’s fourth wife.
A boy.
She did not have to be told it in words, for the joy shouted down from the birthing chamber announced it well enough. Feeling herself begin to fold where she sat clasping her hands so tightly she could no longer feel them, she forced herself back in the chair and looked up at Judas where he perched on its arm.
He was but ten years old, though one would not know it to stand him alongside his peers who would fall short by inches. More, they would not know it to look in eyes that were cursed with a greater depth of experience than they ought to be. Alan was to blame for that, though there were others as well. And she did not exclude herself, certain that if she had tried harder, she could have preserved more of her nephew’s innocence.
“I have a brother,” Judas murmured, no joy in the statement, nor animosity. He was simply wary of how the babe’s arrival changed things.
In spite of one hope after another being trampled beneath the ruthlessness of Alan de Balliol, Susanna allowed herself the smallest hope that things would not change for the worse. After all, her brother was dead, and his second son by his latest wife was just that—second. Regardless of Alan’s suspicions, he had waited to learn the sex of the child before doing what he had surely longed to do for years. Thus, Judas remained heir.
An obstacle between the newborn son of Lady Blanche and the barony,
the voice of worry pecked at Susanna and threatened to upset her sensitive stomach. Such an obstacle would not suit the lady. More, it would not suit the woman’s mother who made not the slightest pretense of having a care for Judas.
That loathsome, beak-nosed harpy would wish
her
grandson to inherit the barony, an expectation she had carried high upon her haughty chin since the announcement of her daughter’s pregnancy months past. And that made the situation quite possibly dangerous.
“It does not bode well,” Judas said.
How she hated that his thoughts were so familiar with her own when they ought to be racing with those things upon which other boys of his age indulged—swords and riding and running and wrestling and all manner of mischief for which he absolutely must be chastised on his journey toward manhood. But for Judas de Balliol, those things were a distant second to survival.
Susanna pulled her hands apart and laid one upon his where it gripped his thigh. “It changes naught, Judas. You are your father’s heir.”
He raised his eyebrows. “For how long, Aunt Sanna?”
Until it could be proven otherwise. But it could not. Could it?
She squeezed his hand. “I am sure the king will acknowledge you soon.” Rather, Queen Eleanor, who acted as regent while her husband was occupied with his lands in France as he had been for nearly two years. “And then you will be Lord of Cheverel. Thus, we continue on as always. We stay the course.”