Medieval English

Pick up almost any book on early and medieval world history and empire, and where do you find West Africa? On the periphery. This pioneering book tells a different story. Interweaving political and social history and drawing on a rich array of sources, Michael Gomez unveils a new vision of how categories of ethnicity, race, gender, and caste emerged in Africa and in global history.

Findlater Castle in the Scottish Highlands becomes a place of mystery and doom for Jamison Munro and his wife, Havilland. Traveling across the highlands one dark and stormy night, they stumble upon a lonely Host in Findlater Castle, a pathetic soul waiting for his wife to return to him. It is a terrible tale of a tragic love story that the Host tells the travelers but when Havilland becomes curious about mysterious tapping sounds that go on in the middle of the night, she soon realizes the danger that she and her husband are in.

1515 A.D. - The Lady Micheline le Bec was pledged in marriage to Edmund de Cleveley, Baron Bowland, in payment for her father's gambling debt. When de Cleveley's big Irish captain, Sir Kirk Connaught, arrives to escort Micheline to her marriage, Micheline is apprehensive but submissive. In fact, she's not the real problem; the real issue is her sister, the Lady Mara.

It's 1208 A.D. - Sir Cullen de Nerra is a knight's knight. The son of the Sheriff of Hampshire, Val de Nerra (Vestiges of Valor), Cullen has been heavily involved in the politics of William Marshal for many years, but never more involved than when the Marshal gifts his services to a powerful, but unpredictable, warlord, Preston de Lacy. De Lacy is a rich man with too much time on his hands and a great hatred for King John. Cullen’s task is to keep watch on de Lacy and pass information to William Marshal on his movements and actions.

Edmund MacGregor will do anything to save Scotland from English rule - even kidnap Lady Amelia Bell for ransom. As the daughter of a duke and the chancellor's betrothed, she's the perfect pawn in this game. But from the moment he first lays eyes on his spirited captive, he can't resist stealing a kiss.

As a child, Jackston Forbes made a promise to lovely - and pushy - Lizelle Menzies. A man of his word, Jackston never forgot that promise. Through the years of experience and growth, Jackston has become a powerful warrior, now returning to his home in the highlands to assume his place as his father's heir. But along the way he meets a young woman who will test the strength of his vow to marry Lizelle, and when he discovers the brutal and petty woman Lizelle has become, it becomes a difficult choice for him - will he remain true to a childhood vow?

On the eve of her profession as a nun, Lady Graeye Charwyck is called home to Medland by the father who disavowed her years earlier for the devil's mark she bears. Desperate to escape the convent, she agrees to wed a man she detests to provide an heir for her family's holdings. But when the king declares the Charwyck lands forfeit and awards them to their enemy, Graeye once more finds herself discarded.

The new king of Camelot wears no shining armor: Arthur and his knights have fallen and a new king rules. In the darkest forest: A scared, forsaken youth has become the most powerful - and feared - man in the world. Ruthless and unrestrained, Kerrigan has long ceased to be human. In the heart of London: A spirited peasant mired in drudgery, Seren dreams of becoming her own woman, but never expects that by fleeing her fate, she will meet her destiny.

Anya and the Dragon is the story of fantasy and mayhem in 10th century Eastern Europe, where headstrong 11-year-old Anya is a daughter of the only Jewish family in her village. When her family's livelihood is threatened by a bigoted magistrate, Anya is lured in by a friendly family of fools, who promise her money in exchange for helping them capture the last dragon in Kievan Rus. This seems easy enough, until she finds out that the scary old dragon isn't as old - or as scary - as everyone thought. Now Anya is faced with a choice: save the dragon, or save her family.

Simon the Loyal has vowed never to love, for love makes a warrior weak. His arranged marriage to a beautiful Norman heiress would be duty and no more. But more than duty stirs his blood when he first sees Ariane. She has known only coldness from men - and a betrayal so deep it all but killed her soul. Wanting no man, trusting no man, speaking only through the sad songs she draws from her harp, Ariane comes to Simon an unwilling bride.

Morgan de Wolfe, cousin to Edward de Wolfe, earl of Wolverhampton (and father of William de Wolfe of The Wolfe), finds himself the perfect man for an Executioner Knight’s job. Assuming the identity of a dead man, he makes his way to the Welsh border to infiltrate his way into a castle stolen by a Marshal enemy. His task is to use the dead man’s identity to reclaim the castle. What he didn’t count on was a woman who could quite possibly ruin his mission. And possible even his life.

The last thing Roberta Harcourt needs is to be trapped on a ship with pirates. After she is separated from her father, Roberta finds herself the unwilling guest of sinfully handsome Captain Dominic Grey. He gives her two choices: to share his bed and maintain her life as a lady, or she can sleep on the floor of his cabin and live the life of a cabin boy. Refusing to be seduced by a pirate, she dresses in breeches and assumes duties on board his ship among the men, but each night, she begins to wonder if letting him kiss her again might be a rule worth breaking...

The reign of King John means dark days for all of England. Not one man, woman, or child lived without fear. Magnifying this fear is the man they call The Lord of the Shadows - a terrifying figure who sits at the right hand of the King, manipulating the royal moves like a puppet master. The Lord of the Shadows has been known to tear men apart with his bare hands and can, with a snap of his fingers, alter the future of anyone he chooses.

Anno Domini 1040. Christianity has swept unstoppably across Scandinavia, leaving few enclaves of the old ways clinging on to their fading world as King Olof of Sweden works to convert his people. A young warrior, Halfdan, has witnessed the ‘mercy' of the Christian lords, watched his people attacked, his village burned and the Odin stone toppled as heretical. Watched his father cut down by an ambitious Christian jarl and his zealous priest. Among the ashes of his world, he vowed an oath of vengeance before all the gods.

Rhiann knows that demons walk the night. She has been taught to fear them. But from the moment Cade is dragged before her father's throne, beaten and having lost all of his men to her father's treachery, he stirs something inside her that she has never felt before. When Cade is revealed to be not only Arthur's heir but touched by the sidhe, Rhiann must choose between the life she left behind and the one before her - and how much she is willing to risk to follow her heart.

Achilles de Dere is a stubborn knight prone to fighting - anywhere, anytime. If there is a punch to be thrown, it's usually from Achilles. When he first met Susanna de Tiegh, the sparks flew - and not in a good way. Susanna, an accomplished warrior in her own right and an agent for William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, refused to take Achilles’ bullying behavior. Friends feared they would kill one another. But an abject hatred of each other soon turned into something else. Now, Susanna is all Achilles can think of, even as he goes about his duties for William Marshal.

Paris de Norville (The Wolfe) and Jemma Scott Hage (The Wolfe) find love in their sunset years...with each other? It seems like an impossible suggestion. Paris and Jemma first met in The Wolfe in a fiery explosion of temper and taunting. Her temper mostly, because he was taunting. Handsome and arrogant in his youth, Paris was a powerful knight, second in command to the great William de Wolfe, and he found great sport in taunting a Scots captive named Jemma Scott.

Dark, sultry, with a hint of fire in his blood from his Visigoth ancestors and a spark in his eye that betray his killer instincts, Thorington “Thor” de Reyne is the son of the Earl of Ashington and one of the greatest knights England has ever seen. His talent is unmatched, so much so that the king himself has demanded Thor’s service.

After a failed courtship in an ally kingdom, 21-year-old Princess Alessandra returns home to a land torn apart by mutual hatred between the humans and the dark-elves. The "Beast Princess", as Aless is known by courtiers, confidently sets her mind to ways of making peace, but her father has already decided for her: She is to marry one of the mysterious and monstrous dark-elves to forge a treaty. While she intends to preserve the peace, the Beast Princess has plans of her own.

The Lady Elizabeau Treveighan is the illegitimate daughter of Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany. Elizabeau was sent to foster at a very young age, her identity known only to herself and the earl who fostered her. When her half-brother Prince Arthur is murdered and rumors begin to fly that the opposition to King John intends to marry her to a Teutonic prince and supplant her and her new husband as the rulers of England, she suddenly becomes a very hot, and very dangerous, commodity.