NUNNERY BRIDES
A Medieval Romance Collection
By Kathryn Le Veque
Copyright © 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019 by Kathryn Le Veque
Kindle Edition
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Printed by Kathryn Le Veque Novels in the United States of America
Kathryn Le Veque Novels
Medieval Romance:
De Wolfe Pack Series:
Warwolfe
The Wolfe
Nighthawk
ShadowWolfe
DarkWolfe
A Joyous de Wolfe Christmas
BlackWolfe
Serpent
A Wolfe Among Dragons
Scorpion
StormWolfe
Dark Destroyer
The Lion of the North
Walls of Babylon
The de Russe Legacy:
The Falls of Erith
Lord of War: Black Angel
The Iron Knight
Beast
The Dark One: Dark Knight
The White Lord of Wellesbourne
Dark Moon
Dark Steel
A de Russe Christmas Miracle
The de Lohr Dynasty:
While Angels Slept
Rise of the Defender
Steelheart
Shadowmoor
Silversword
Spectre of the Sword
Unending Love
Archangel
Lords of East Anglia:
While Angels Slept
Godspeed
Great Lords of le Bec:
Great Protector
House of de Royans:
Lord of Winter
To the Lady Born
Lords of Eire:
Echoes of Ancient Dreams
Blacksword
The Darkland
Ancient Kings of Anglecynn:
The Whispering Night
Netherworld
Battle Lords of de Velt:
The Dark Lord
Devil’s Dominion
Bay of Fear
The Dark Lord’s First Christmas
Reign of the House of de Winter:
Lespada
Swords and Shields
De Reyne Domination:
Guardian of Darkness
With Dreams
The Fallen One
House of d’Vant:
Tender is the Knight (House of d’Vant)
The Red Fury (House of d’Vant)
The Dragonblade Series:
Fragments of Grace
Dragonblade
Island of Glass
The Savage Curtain
The Fallen One
Great Marcher Lords of de Lara
Lord of the Shadows
Dragonblade
House of St. Hever
Fragments of Grace
Island of Glass
Queen of Lost Stars
Lords of Pembury:
The Savage Curtain
Lords of Thunder: The de Shera Brotherhood Trilogy
The Thunder Lord
The Thunder Warrior
The Thunder Knight
The Great Knights of de Moray:
Shield of Kronos
The Gorgon
The House of De Nerra:
The Promise
The Falls of Erith
Vestiges of Valor
Realm of Angels
Highland Warriors of Munro:
The Red Lion
Deep Into Darkness
The House of de Garr:
Lord of Light
Realm of Angels
Saxon Lords of Hage:
The Crusader
Kingdom Come
High Warriors of Rohan:
High Warrior
The House of Ashbourne:
Upon a Midnight Dream
The House of D’Aurilliac:
Valiant Chaos
The House of De Dere:
Of Love and Legend
St. John and de Gare Clans:
The Warrior Poet
The House of de Bretagne:
The Questing
The House of Summerlin:
The Legend
The Kingdom of Hendocia:
Kingdom by the Sea
The Executioner Knights:
By the Unholy Hand
The Promise (also Noble Knights of de Nerra)
The Mountain Dark
Starless
A Time of End
Contemporary Romance:
Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Series:
Valley of the Shadow
The Eden Factor
Canyon of the Sphinx
The American Heroes Anthology Series:
The Lucius Robe
Fires of Autumn
Evenshade
Sea of Dreams
Purgatory
Other non-connected Contemporary Romance:
Lady of Heaven
Darkling, I Listen
In the Dreaming Hour
River’s End
The Fountain
Sons of Poseidon:
The Immortal Sea
Pirates of Britannia Series (with Eliza Knight):
Savage of the Sea by Eliza Knight
Leader of Titans by Kathryn Le Veque
The Sea Devil by Eliza Knight
Sea Wolfe by Kathryn Le Veque
Note: All Kathryn’s novels are designed to be read as stand-alones, although many have cross-over characters or cross-over family groups. Novels that are grouped together have related characters or family groups. You will notice that some series have the same books; that is because they are cross-overs. A hero in one book may be the secondary character in another.
There is NO reading order except by chronology, but even in that case, you can still read the books as stand-alones. No novel is connected to another by a cliff hanger, and every book has an HEA.
Series are clearly marked. All series contain the same characters or family groups except the American Heroes Series, which is an anthology with unrelated characters.
For more information, find it in A Reader’s Guide to the Medieval World of Le Veque.
Contents
Dark Steel
Nighthawk
By the Unholy Hand
Devil’s Dominion
DARK STEEL
A Medieval Romance
By Kathryn Le Veque
A Dark Sons Novel
Author’s Note
Welcome to Dane Stoneley de Russe’s story!
When I first wrote about Dane, it was as a secondary character, and the son of the heroine, in THE DARK ONE: DARK KNIGHT. Dane was a precocious but adorable seven year old, constantly getting himself (and others) into trouble. Therefore, I had to think about Dane before I started writing about him as an adult – what kind of man did he grow up to be?
The answer was: a good one.
With Remington as his mother, and Gaston as his stepfather, he couldn’t help but grow up properly guided. He’s grown up into a thoughtful, career-oriented knight. But Dane’s problem? He’s trusting. Sometimes too trusting.
While Dane’s brother, Trenton (Dark Moon), grew up into a hardened assassin, Dane didn’t go in that direction. He’s a virtuous, chivalrous man, but he has a flaw – he lets his emotions get the better of him sometimes. Sometimes he acts before he thinks (and we saw that when he was a boy). He never outgrew it.
Enter Grier de Lara.
Smart, and rather naïve, she has the same trusting manner that Dane has, but she has a bitter streak in her as well. You�
��ll discover that. It was such a joy to write about this pair and I hope that joy shows. Now, there are a few Welsh references in this book, as it’s set on the Welsh Marches, so I’ve once again provided a pronunciation key to help as you go along:
Idloes: EEED-loys (much like the pronunciation of Eloi, from H.G. Wells “The Time Machine”)
Grier: Greer
Eolande: Yo-LAWND (her nickname is Landy, which is pronounced LAWNDY)
Moria (as in the Mother Abbess): Moriah/Mariah
That’s about all of the “odd” pronunciations in this novel, so read on and hopefully enjoy Dane’s story. It’s a very fast and thrilling adventure, so hold on for a swift ride!
Love,
Children of Gaston and Remington de Russe
Trenton (Gaston’s first marriage to Mari-Elle de Russe) married to Lysabel Wellesbourne
Dane (Remington’s first marriage to Guy Stoneley) married to Grier de Lara
Adeliza (married, has issue)
Arica (married, has issue)
Cortland (Cort)
Matthieu (married, has issue)
Boden
Gage
Gilliana
The Shrewsbury (Salop) Battle Horn
(Folk song, author unknown, melody unknown.
Thought to have been composed in the 14th century)
In days gone by
A rallying cry,
Meant for one and all.
As brave men would fight,
Deep into the night,
For the safety of those at Salop.
Heeding this cry,
A devil’s son,
Became a duke of Salop.
A man so true,
No who knew,
The pain he suffered through.
A lady fair,
No man would care,
To call upon her heart.
But the devil’s duke,
Beyond rebuke,
Loved her as none would dare.
(chorus repeat)
In days gone by
A rallying cry,
Meant for one and all.
As brave men would fight,
Deep into the night,
For the safety of those at Salop.
For the lady and her Duke of Salop.
De Russe motto: Et est spes est virtus
“In Valor there is Hope”
Shrewsbury Motto: Tantum in me, Deus, et rex fortis dominabitur
“Only God and the King shall rule me”
PROLOGUE
1519 A.D., October
Battle of Erwood Castle
Welsh Marches
The Shrewsbury horn had blared.
“Dane! Behind you!”
Sir Dane de Russe heard his brother’s cry, bending in with the plaintive cry of the battle horn, and he ducked low and tried to spin away from whatever was coming up behind him. But he wasn’t fast enough, nor was his body pressed low enough. A blow from a shield, the broadside shoved at him, caught him on the head and shoulder, and down he went over the side of the embankment.
Sliding, spinning, out of control, the weight from the armor he wore carried him down the side of the slippery slope. It was pouring buckets, the angry pewter sky above sending a deluge down to the earth as the Shrewsbury army and an angry Welsh army faced off at the base of Erwood Castle.
Water and mud ended up in Dane’s mouth as, halfway down the slope, he finally rammed a dagger into the hillside like an anchor so he wouldn’t slide all the way down into the moat. Down there, men were up to their waists in muck, struggling to not only stay alive, but struggling to kill the men who were trying to kill them in return.
It was sheer madness.
But it was worse up above. At the top of the embankment, where there was a partially destroyed wall, men were fighting with swords and pikes. But when they lost those, fists were flying. As a result, some of the battle had turned into a massive fist fight, and men were sliding down the slope and into the moat on a regular basis to the point that there was more fighting going on in the moat than on land. Dane didn’t want to make it into that moat; once men went in, they were stuck.
They were dead.
Overhead, the sky lit up with thunder and lightning, creating a brilliant display, but in the mud lands of Erwood, no one noticed. They were all trying to keep alive, caught up in their own battles as the Duke of Shrewsbury’s army tried to regain control of Erwood, a small but vital outpost along the Welsh Marches in the very southern fringes of Shrewsbury’s territory that was disputed between the English and the Welsh. Shrewsbury claimed it, and had for decades, but a resurgence of Welsh rebellion, very unusual in this day and age, was trying to gain it back.
And that was why the English were here, sliding down slippery slopes and ending up in a moat of mud and blood. Dane had managed to avoid most of it so far. As he reached the top of the embankment, he paused, catching his breath and looking out over the great mass of fighting, dying men. It was beyond chaotic, and he found himself reflecting on how he’d come to this moment in time, fighting on the Welsh Marches for a slip of a castle that everyone wanted.
Truthfully, he didn’t want to be here.
But he had little choice.
Dane had assumed control of one of his father’s outposts along the Marches not quite a year ago, and what a glorious year it had been. Blackmore Castle had become his, along with the lordship, and for the first time in his life, Dane had been in complete control of something that was his very own.
Not that he minded serving his father, the Duke of Warminster. In fact, he’d loved serving his father as the captain of his army, but a man wanted more in life than to be subservient to a parent. His father knew that, as did his mother, so when Gaston de Russe had purchased Blackmore Castle from the king, he’d given it to Dane with the provision that Dane remain loyal to the Dukedom of Warminster.
That hadn’t been a difficult task.
Taking a younger brother with him, Dane and Boden de Russe had set out for Blackmore Castle with four hundred de Russe troops and another knight, William Wellesbourne. It had been a great adventure for the de Russe brothers, and the Wellesbourne knight, but when they got to their destination, they’d discovered Blackmore Castle to be a rather dilapidated bunch of stones.
Still, it didn’t matter; to Dane, it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen and a scant year later, Blackmore was mostly rebuilt thanks to hard work and de Russe money. Dane had built friendships and alliances among the border lords, including the elderly Duke of Shrewsbury, which was how he found himself here.
Aye… he remembered well how he got to Erwood.
Shrewsbury.
Old Garreth de Lara, Duke of Shrewsbury and Lord of the Trinity Castles, knew Dane’s father and had taken an immediate liking to Dane. Shrewsbury wasn’t far from Blackmore, only a half-day’s ride, and Garreth came to visit Dane and Boden and William nearly every other week. He brought men with him, men he’d given to Dane to plump up his army of four hundred into an army of seven hundred, and he’d brought gifts and horses and food with him. He even brought his captain, Sir Dastan du Reims, a god of a man who had women falling all over him in spite of the fact that he was married. They would all sit together at night, feasting and telling stories. Garreth loved Dastan, but he loved Dane more. He showered the man with gifts.
It was as if Dane had a rich uncle who had suddenly died and left him everything.
Only Shrewsbury wasn’t dead, and being that he was in good health, he wasn’t even close to meeting death. He was simply a lonely old man with no sons and an only daughter who was off in a convent somewhere. He took great delight in Dane and his brother, and in William Wellesbourne, whose family was so close to the House of de Russe that he was considered family, too.
Family…
That part of his family was here, fighting in this mess, and thoughts of William and Boden shook Dane from his reflections. Those two were around here, somewhere, as was the duke, and Dane was com
ing to think he needed to locate the pair sooner rather than later. With all of the chaos going on, he wanted to make sure they were well.
He wanted to make sure Garreth was well, too.
The old duke had no business in a battle but because it was his property, he had insisted on coming. Dastan had tried to stop him, as had Dane, but Garreth wouldn’t be dissuaded. He had a contingent of bodyguards that he kept with him. But for Dane’s own peace of mind, he wanted to make sure the old warrior was in one piece. The battle had been particularly brutal, especially with the Welsh involved, so something told him to find Garreth and ensure the man’s safety even though he was fairly certain Dastan hadn’t let the old duke out of his sight. Still, Dane might even be able to talk him into returning to camp, but something told him that wasn’t a possibility.
Heaving himself up from the muddy slope, Dane went on the hunt. Almost immediately, he could see Boden over by the keep. His brother was whole and sound, shouting to some Shrewsbury men, so Dane didn’t worry any more about him. Now, he turned his attention to the twin baileys, faced with a writhing mass of men.
One man found, two to go.
The castle, as a whole, was perched on the top of a hill, one that had been leveled off to build the structure, but the entire thing sloped downward, so as Dane walked from the inner to the outer bailey, he found himself slipping and sliding in the very wet mud as he went. By the time he’d reached the outer bailey, he’d slipped so much that he’d nearly fallen, twice, and with his broadsword in hand, he charged into the melee in the outer bailey.
Quickly, he spied William Wellesbourne, the fiery youngest son of Sir Matthew Wellesbourne. He was called Willie, or Dimwit, or anything else his family and friends could hurl at him because William had a wild and reckless streak in him a mile long. He’d come with Dane at Matthew’s request – something about wanting his son to grow up – but so far, William hadn’t done much growing up. He was still the same loveable, brilliant imp. He was too much fun to punish and too foolish to believe at times, but it was all part of the man’s charm.
Dane spied William as he hacked away at a Welshman who wasn’t very skilled, but who was very strong. He had a shield he kept up and William was slashing away at him. Dane suspected that the Welsh warrior was simply waiting for William to wear himself out so he could strike a deathblow, so Dane charged at the pair, the dark steel of his sword swinging at the Welshman and catching him off guard. Dane caught the man across the chest and shoulders with the sharp end of his blade, wounding him badly. As the Welshman fell away, William turned to Dane.
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