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| Photo by Susan Coventry |
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| It's always a good time for a bit of the Bard. |
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| Even more true after passing the horrid "Big Beautiful Bill" |
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Excerpt from The Stone Soldier and the Lady
The Stone Soldier began life as The Phantoms Voices of Lark House. But as the story progressed, I realized what was intended as Regency Gothic #13 was turning into a Regency Romance with strong elements of Adventure and the Paranormal, and I started searching for a new title. The introduction of the Phantoms, however, changed very little, except to be moved to the very beginning of the book. (And provide an excellent example of "Tell" instead of "Show" - except for the snippet at the end).
Prologue
The Phantoms of Lark House
Harald
Harald Sigurdsen, Viking raider and would-be farmer, gazed in awe at the ring of towering stones jutting skyward from a stark, flat, plain and knew this was the place the gods had chosen. Here he would settle, as close to the standing stones as he could find soil that was more than skin deep. Here he would raise a family, mixing his blood with those who had trod this plain before. Perhaps, gods willing, with the descendants of the beings who had created the massive circle of stones.
Fortunately, as Harald rode east across the flat sea of stunted grass, a shadow rose in the distance, a shadow that gradually revealed itself as a curved copse of good-sized trees. Trees that marked the spot where inhospitable chalk gave way to arable soil—perhaps not as rich as Harald would like, but enough for a Viking farmer to grow crops and feed his family, certain that whatever gods created that ring of stones would assure success in his new land.
Alice
Three hundred years later, Alice, Lady St. Aubyn, retired to the falling-to-ruin Viking farmhouse on the land where trees still formed a sheltered homesite. Alice had stood fast as chatelaine of her husband’s modest castle during the years he followed Richard the Lionheart on Crusade. When her lord never returned, she continued to keep a firm grip on the estate. Until, that is, her son was grown and married the upstart daughter of a new-made baron who thought she now reigned!
Alice decamped in a huff to the ancient farmhouse on the edge of the castle grounds, refurbished it to properly suit her station, and in a defiant bout of the sulks against the daughter-in-law who set her merlin to hunting the glorious-voiced larks in the neighborhood, renamed the cottage “Lark House.”
Thomas
The thatched cottage and small farms around it remained tranquil and undisturbed until Thomas Desborough, Lord Rossiter—a handsome, charming, quick-witted courtier at Queen Elizabeth’s court—caught his monarch’s eye. His advancement was steady, resulting in an earldom and a vast tract of land near Salisbury Plain. In the process of building a grand country house near the ruins of a Medieval castle, he tore down the thatched cottage sheltered by a curved stand of trees and replaced it with a relatively small but impressive redbrick dwelling, which he designated the dower house for his burgeoning estate.
He did, however, keep the name: Lark House.
Avery
The Reverend Lord Avery Desborough came to Lark House at the turn of the eighteenth century. A reluctant, and frequently hesitant, vicar, he had never been comfortable with the role dictated for a third son and retired as soon as his eldest brother became Marquess of Brynthorpe. Lord Avery and Chester, his valet—men of a similar persuasion—enjoyed a quarter century of quietly happy and uneventful years at Lark House, while Avery’s brothers added three lively sons to the Desborough line—one, the great-grandfather of Major Lord Lucian Desborough, husband of Victoire, the now-widowed Marchioness of Brynthorpe.
Spring, 1816
There’s darkness 'round his head, Harald, the Viking grumbled, peering down at the small boy on a pony.
Around our lady as well, Thomas, the Elizabethan courtier, pointed out, staring at the boy’s mother, who was quietly observing her son’s riding lesson.
Darkness closing in. No escape! wailed Avery, the reluctant vicar.
Lady Alice, one-time Medieval chatelaine, proclaimed. We must warn her!
Tonight, Harald decreed. Together, we tell her.
Murmurs of assent whispered through the rafters as the phantoms of Lark House continued to keep eternal watch over the small portion of Wiltshire each had once called home.
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THE STONE SOLDIER AND THE LADY
A soul-wounded soldier and a widowed marchioness tread a rocky road to romance.
When the uncle of a six-year-old marquess threatens to take him from his widowed mother, as well as urge her to marry his rakish son, Victoire, Marchioness of Brynthorpe, hires a war-weary band of ex-soldiers as bodyguards. The resulting clash reverberates from Wiltshire to London as Captain Fox, the Stone Soldier, turns out to be far more than his military rank implies.
Violent conflict, an unexpected and rocky romance, close-held secrets—all to the tune of comments and advice from five resident phantoms. Yet even when our hero and heroine see sunny skies at last, one more problem rears its ugly head.
