A Warrior's Heart Read online

  Five Passionate Tales of Historical Romance

  from Five Award-Winning and Best-Selling Authors

  Table of Contents

  Rogue Knight by Regan Walker

  Scottish Rose by Elizabeth Rose

  The Angel and the Prince by Laurel O'Donnell

  The Highlander's Challenge by Madeline Martin

  The Rover Betrayed by Anna Markland

  Table of Contents

  Quick Start

  ROGUE KNIGHT by REGAN WALKER Title

  Copyright

  Praise for Medieval Warriors

  Author's Note from Regan Walker

  Map

  Characters of Note

  Excerpt from The Wanderer poem

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Epilogue

  Author's Bio - Regan Walker

  Books by Regan Walker

  SCOTTISH ROSE by ELIZABETH ROSE Title

  Copyright

  To My Readers

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  From Elizabeth Rose

  About Elizabeth Rose

  Bonus Excerpt - Aidan

  THE ANGEL AND THE PRINCE by LAUREL O'DONNELL Title

  Copyright

  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

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty One

  Chapter Thirty Two

  Chapter Thirty Three

  Chapter Thirty Four

  Chapter Thirty Five

  Chapter Thirty Six

  Chapter Thirty Seven

  Chapter Thirty Eight

  Chapter Thirty Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty One

  Chapter Forty Two

  Chapter Forty Three

  Chapter Forty Four

  Chapter Forty Five

  Chapter Forty Six

  Epilogue

  About Laurel O'Donnell

  More Books by Laurel O'Donnell

  THE HIGHLANDER'S CHALLENGE by MADELINE MARTIN Title

  Copyright

  Bio of Story

  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

  Thank You from Madeline Martin

  Connect with Madeline Martin

  Books by Madeline Martin

  About Madeline Martin

  THE ROVER BETRAYED by ANNA MARKLAND Title

  Copyright

  Dedication

  More Anna Markland

  Death

  Keeping Vigl

  Call to Arms

  Betrothal

  Plans Laid

  Theodoric

  The Wagon

  A Wedding

  Damsel in Distress

  Small Comfort

  Corpus Domini

  Wishful Thinking

  Full of Surprise

  No Choice

  Constant Preoccupation

  Longsword

  The Duke Visits

  Homeward Bound

  Montreuil

  Rouen

  Getting to Know You

  No Easy Answers

  The Pig

  Gathering Eggs

  The Poultice

  Sailing Down the Seine

  Maelstrom

  Black Cows

  Homecoming

  Daughters

  The Moon and the Tides

  Mementos

  An Altar Cloth

  Needle and Thread

  Loyalty in Question

  Do You Trust Me?

  Savory and Sweet

  The Archbishop's Visit

  King Louis

  Examination

  Peace Treaty

  Good News and Bad

  Emissaries

  Assassins

  You Have Murdered Me

  Flight

  Teetering on a Precipice

  Night Riders

  The Boy Duke

  Wedding

  Bedding

  Epilogue

  Fact or Fiction

  About Anna Markland

  ROGUE KNIGHT

  REGAN WALKER

  COPYRIGHT

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, business establishments or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  ROGUE KNIGHT

  Copyright © 2015 Regan Walker

  All rights reserved. Unless specifically noted, no part of this publication may be reproduced, scanned, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the author. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or by any other means without the permission of the author is illegal and punishable by law. Participation in the piracy of copyrighted materials violates the author’s rights.

  Ebook ISBN: 978-0-9968495-0-0

  EPUB Edition

  Praise for Medieval Warriors:

  “This series captures the medieval era perfectly, creating the true sensation of traveling back in time to experience epic, riveting love stories that ignite the imagination. Beautifully written, perfectly paced and action-packed… What more can you ask?”

  —The Book Review

  The Red Wolf’s Prize

  “An exciting tale and a passionate love story that brings to life England after the Conquest—medieval romance at its best!”

  —Virginia Henley New York Times Bestselling Author

  Rogue Knight

  “Rogue Knight is yet another brilliant novel from Regan Walker. She is a master of her craft. Her novels instantly draw you in, keep you reading and leave you with a
smile on your face.”

  —Good Friends, Good Books

  Rebel Warrior

  “… beautifully layered with true historic figures, facts and authentic history of Scotland woven into a creative and intriguing fictional story. A spectacular, riveting adventure!”

  —Tartan Book Reviews

  King’s Knight

  “A sweeping tale that pulls you in at the very beginning and doesn’t let you go. It’s medieval romance at its finest. Well done, Regan Walker! Very, very well done!”

  —The Reading Cafe

  AUTHOR’S NOTE FROM REGAN WALKER

  The love story of Sir Geoffroi de Tournai and Emma of York is set in England in 1069-70 during what became known as William the Conqueror’s Harrying of the North. While I have used minor artistic license to fit the story, most of the events in Rogue Knight actually occurred as I have described them.

  At the time of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, Northumbria in the north was a very different place than Wessex in the south. At one time it was the capital of the Danelaw where the laws of the Danes governed from the 9th into the 11th century. Even after Northumbria was incorporated into England in 954, it was governed by powerful earls and thegns who operated somewhat independently from the king.

  In its language and culture, Yorkshire was Anglo-Scandinavian not Saxon. Almost every street in the city of York had the Old Norse suffix “gata” or “gate” meaning “street” and most of the personal names would have been Scandinavian.

  It is not surprising, then, that in 1068 when William the Conqueror came north and built his first castle in York (as told in The Red Wolf’s Prize), the people resented his presence and that of his French knights. They did not consider William their king any more than they had the Saxon Harold Godwinson before him. The situation was made worse by the despicable way the Normans treated the people.

  Maerleswein, the former Sheriff of Lincolnshire and Emma’s father in my story, was a real historic figure and a rich English thegn of noble Danish lineage. He did not fight against William at the Battle of Hastings, but by 1068, he’d had enough of William and his egregious taxes and joined the rebellion.

  In 1069 when my story begins, York was the largest city north of London and an important center of commerce with as many as 15,000 residents. It was a city William very much wanted under his control. But it was not to come to him easily.

  One indication of the seething resentment of the Northumbrians for the Norman invaders is seen in the fact that the great families—both English and Danish—that had been feuding for hundreds of years, came together in 1069 to fight against William. Given York’s history, it was natural for the rebels to look to the Danes for help.

  William’s vengeance on the North for the ensuing rebellion was so horrible that for decades thereafter, the land between York and Durham remained untilled and no village was inhabited. It would take the North centuries to fully recover.

  Orderic Vitalis, the English chronicler and Benedictine monk, said of William’s actions, “I dare not commend him. He leveled both the bad and the good in one common ruin by a consuming famine…he was…guilty of wholesale massacre…and barbarous homicide.”

  Indeed he was.

  William of Jumièges, a monk and contemporary of William the Conqueror, said that “from the youngest to the oldest” most of the population of York was killed.

  The wolves would have had a great feast on the bodies left lying in the woods where they fell.

  It was enough to turn any noble knight rogue.

  CHARACTERS OF NOTE

  (BOTH REAL AND FICTIONAL)

  Sir Geoffroi de Tournai

  Emma of York

  At Talisand:

  Sir Renaud de Pierrepont, Earl of Talisand

  Serena, Countess of Talisand

  Maugris the Wise, a seer

  Maggie, cook and housekeeper

  Mathieu, squire to Sir Geoffroi

  Sir Alain de Roux (“the Bear”)

  In York, the Northumbrians and their allies:

  Maerleswein, Emma’s father, Danish nobleman and former Sheriff of Lincolnshire

  Cospatric, Earl of Bamburgh, former Earl of Northumbria, and cousin to King Malcolm of Scotland

  Magnus, Emma’s Irish hound (in modern terms, a wolfhound)

  Inga, Emma’s friend

  Feigr, sword-maker and Inga’s father

  Finna and Ottar, twins, Emma’s adopted children

  Artur and Sigga, Emma’s servants

  Edgar Ætheling, Saxon heir to the throne of England

  Waltheof, Earl of Huntingdon, cousin to King Swein, King Harold and Earl Cospatric

  The Normans in York:

  William I, King of England, Duke of Normandy

  William Malet de Graville, Sheriff of Yorkshire

  Richard FitzRichard, Castellan of York (1st castle)

  Gilbert de Ghent, Castellan of York (2nd castle)

  William FitzOsbern, Earl of Hereford

  Robert, Count of Mortain, half-brother to William the Conqueror

  Sir Eude de Fourneaux

  The Danes:

  King Swein of Denmark

  Osbjorn, brother to King Swein

  The Scots:

  King Malcolm of Scotland

  Margaret of Wessex, sister to Edgar Ætheling and betrothed to Malcolm

  Where now is the warrior? Where is the warhorse?

  Bestowal of treasure, and sharing of feast?

  Alas! The bright ale-cup, the mail-clad warrior,

  The prince in his splendor—those days are long sped

  In the night of the past, as if they never had been!

  From the Anglo-Saxon poem The Wanderer

  CHAPTER 1

  York, England, December 1068

  The Minster bell tolled loudly as Emma hurried down Coppergate, gripping her green woolen cloak tightly to her chest against the winter chill. The deep folds of her hood hid her flaxen hair. Only the huge gray hound striding beside her told the merchants who it was that passed their open stalls.

  A glance at the nearly white sky warned her nightfall would bring snow. She hastened her step. There were things she needed for Christmastide and neither the ominous weather nor the risk of encountering one of the dreaded Normans would keep her from town this day.

  Townspeople on either side of her hurried along, their steps displaying the same urgency of last minute tasks.

  Nearing her destination, she heard raised voices in French. Normans. Her stomach clenched. Where the French knights went, wickedness always followed. They treated the people of York—even the thegns—worse than serfs, freely taking what they wanted often as not. It was why, even with Magnus at her side, she was grateful for the deadly seax at her hip. Both the hound and the knife had been gifts from her father.

  She slowed as she approached the altercation and slipped into the shadows in front of the goldsmith’s shop, leading the hound with her.

  Across the street, four knights wearing mail hauberks crowded around Feigr’s stall where the best swords in all of York could be found. At the rear of his shop, smoke billowed from the forge, open to the air.

  As was the Norman custom, the knights wore no beards and their hair was shorter than any man of York would deign to wear.

  She watched as one of the knights abruptly lifted a sword from those Feigr displayed and strode away, clutching his prize.

  Feigr chased after him shouting his protest against the knight’s failure to pay.

  The three knights who remained laughed.

  Emma inwardly seethed, her brows pressing into a frown at yet another incident of treachery from the garrisoned knights. One among many that had angered the people of York. Feigr worked hard for the living he provided for himself and his daughter, Inga. He could ill afford to give away his fine swords.

  One of the knights directed a leering gaze at Inga where she stood next to the stall. Garbed in the simple rust-colored tunic she wore when helping her father, Inga was s
till an appealing young woman, her delicate features and golden hair only adding to her slim body.

  And she was now alone with only an old servant.

  Magnus moved slightly forward, lowered his head and stared straight ahead at the three knights, a low growl rumbling from his throat. Emma knotted her fingers into the coarse fur of the hound’s neck, feeling the tension in his body. Something was about to happen.

  The leering knight suddenly reached for Inga, his powerful hand clutching the girl’s delicate arm.

  Inga shrieked in terror.

  Magnus’ growl grew louder as his dark eyes narrowed on the Norman who held Inga.

  The knight pulled Inga to his chest.

  Attempting to break free, Inga tugged her arm back, but she was a frail thing and provided little resistance to the muscular knight.

  “I’ve seen the one who will warm my bed this night,” the knight confidently announced in French to his two companions.

  “Yea, a fair one,” one of the knights tossed back.

  Emma gripped the hilt of her seax, her body tensing to move. Beneath her other hand, Magnus tightened his muscles to lunge. She caught the edge of his ear between her fingers and hissed a caution under her breath. The hound quivered but obeyed, remaining by her side. The tall Irish hound was more a threat than she was, for his sharp teeth had brought down more than one wolf in the forests of Yorkshire, but she would not yet let him enter the fray.

  The knight who held Inga lifted her long plait of dark golden hair, letting it run over his hand.

  Inga let out a wail and then a whimper as tears streaked down her face. “Please, no.”

  Emma could stay her hand no longer. Anger, building as she had watched the Norman’s ill treatment of her friend, now compelled her away from the shadows. She took a step toward the street, Magnus moving with her.

  A hand reached out, staying her progress and tugging her back. A familiar voice spoke from behind. “Nay, my lady, leave it be. See, her father returns. The knight must have paid him for the sword.”

  Recognizing the voice, she guided Magnus back into the shadows. ’Twas Auki, the goldsmith, whose shop had been her destination. She shifted her eyes to where Auki pointed to Inga’s father hurrying down the street toward his stall.

  Facing Auki, she pulled her arm free. “I cannot let them treat Inga so.”