~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
London
1654: Kit Lovell is one of the King’s men, a disillusioned Royalist
who passes his time cheating at cards, living off his wealthy and
attractive mistress, and plotting the death of Oliver Cromwell.
Penniless
and friendless, Thamsine Granville has lost everything. Terrified, in
pain, and alone, she hurls a piece of brick at the coach of Oliver
Cromwell, and earns herself an immediate death sentence. Only the
quick thinking of a stranger saves her.
Far
from the bored, benevolent rescuer that he seems, Kit plunges
Thamsine into his world of espionage and betrayal – a world that
has no room for falling in love.
Torn
between Thamsine and loyalty to his master and King, Kit’s
carefully constructed web of lies begins to unravel. He must make one
last desperate gamble – the cost of which might be his life.
Excerpt
:
(Thamsine
and Kit)
Every
time the door to the taproom opened, Thamsine looked around. It had
been a week since she had last seen Kit Lovell, and as the other men
slipped into the private parlour, she knew tonight he would come. She
felt her heart skip a beat with anticipation.
Nan
passed her with two full jacks of ale.
‘You’re
like a she-cat on heat,’ she remarked. ‘He’ll be here soon
enough. In the meantime, go and make yourself useful. There’s
tables to be wiped and those ’prentices over yon could do with some
female company.’
Thamsine
cast a glance at the table of rowdy ’prentices and shuddered. If
they required female company, they could look elsewhere. Instead she
tightened her apron strings, pulled the grimy rag from the pocket and
began the task of wiping down the long oak table.
‘Well,
well, I hardly recognized you.’
At the
sound of Kit’s voice she looked up, unable to stop the smile that
crept to her lips.
He stood
back and looked at her with a critical eye. ‘The black eye is now a
fetching shade of yellow. As for the clothes, the bodice is perhaps a
little immodest and the petticoats a little short, perhaps, but you
pass.’
Thamsine
looked down at the clean, serviceable, but faded cloth of the
petticoats and tugged at the gaping bodice.
‘The
twins found them for me. The previous owner was a little shorter and
rather fuller of figure,’ she said ruefully.
‘Well,
Lovell.’ Jem Marsh sauntered over and placed a hand on Thamsine’s
shoulder. ‘Quite a little find you dropped on my doorstep. Broken
just about every dish in my kitchen and dropped more jacks of ale
than I can count, but she has one redeeming feature.’
Kit
raised an eyebrow. ‘And that is?’
‘Voice
of an angel.’ Jem waved a hand around the crowded taproom. ‘See
this crowd? All thanks to her.’
AUTHOR
Bio and Links:
Award
winning Australian author, Alison Stuart learned her passion from
history from her father. She has been writing stories since her
teenage years but it was not until 2007 that her first full length
novel was published. Alison has now published 6 full length
historical romances and a collection of her short stories. Her
disposition for writing about soldier heroes may come from her varied
career as a lawyer in the military and fire services. These days when
she is not writing she is travelling and routinely drags her long
suffering husband around battlefields and castles.
BUY
LINKS
Kindle:
US Store:
http://www.amazon.com/Kings-Man-Guardians-Crown-Book-ebook/dp/B013AI1HVE
iBooks:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/the-kings-man/id1024910529
For all
other BUY links:
http://www.escapepublishing.com.au/product/9781760378141
Links
Website:
http://www.alisonstuart.com
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/AlisonStuartWriter
Twitter:
@AlisonStuart14 https://twitter.com/AlisonStuart14
Thank you for hosting
ReplyDeleteSounds like a really good book, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting me today :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the giveaway. The book sounds interesting! ;)
ReplyDelete