Author name: Lindsay
Townsend
Book Title:
Midsummer Maid
Publisher: Muse it
Up Publishing
Website/Blog: http://www.lindsaytownsend.net
Please tell us
about yourself with the following favorites:
Food? Tomatoes,
soft cheeses, bananas, dates, pasta.
Drink
(non-alcoholic)? Cranberry juice. Ginger beer.
Flower? Roses,
marigolds, lilies.
Day of the week?
Friday.
Time of day to
write? Mornings.
Place to write?
Anywhere but usually at my computer in the study.
Season? All of
them. To me they all have their delights.
Holiday? Christmas and Easter.
Color? All of
them, especially pink.
Animal? All of them, apart from slugs.
Hobby? Reading,
listening to music. Walking.
Sport? Watching
sport, yes. Playing it, I’m not good at sport. I quite like swimming.
Song? Ode to Joy.
TV show? Lie to
Me.
Movie? LA
Confidential.
Book? I can’t choose!
There are so many wonderful books!
Author? Again, I
love so many.
Word? Love.
Quote? ‘I used to be Snow White but I
drifted.’ (Mae West)
Now some easy
one-word answers:
Coffee or tea?
Tea.
Veggies or fruit?
Fruit.
Cat or dog? Cat
one week, dog the next.
Plot or not?
Plot.
Desktop or
laptop? Desktop.
Pencil or
pen? Pen.
Rain or sun? Rain
at night, sun in day.
Mountains or
ocean? Both.
Plane or train?
Train.
Car or
motorcycle? Car.
Run or walk?
Walk.
Casual or dressy?
Casual.
Indoors or
outdoors? Both.
Reading: EBook or
paperback? Both.
Reading: Short
story or novels? Novels.
Theater or
rental? Rental.
Vampire or
shifter? Shifter.
Horror or
romance? Romance.
Tell us about
your new/latest release:
Title: Midsummer
Maid.
Genre: Historical
Romance
Blurb: He is a
woodsman, a forester, a good man but cursed with the mark of the devil on his
face and shunned by many.
She is a dairy-maid, caring and brave, who feared no one.
Drawn to each other on a long and fateful Midsummer Day, can Haakon and Clare overcome the superstitions of their village and the brutal, lecherous knights to break out of their bonds of class and custom and to strive for a better life – together?
She is a dairy-maid, caring and brave, who feared no one.
Drawn to each other on a long and fateful Midsummer Day, can Haakon and Clare overcome the superstitions of their village and the brutal, lecherous knights to break out of their bonds of class and custom and to strive for a better life – together?
"My lady." To her surprise and secret delight, he
strode to her and knelt at her feet. Now he looked up and a quiver of laughter
furred his deep voice. "It will be my pleasure."
Clare
bit her lip, aware that at this moment, birthmark or no, every maid in the
village envied her. Impulsively, she brushed his broad shoulders with the
oxlips she carried. "A lady's blessing," she said aloud and knew she
had done right when she heard a sigh from the older matrons. She tucked a bloom
behind his right ear, realizing that his color was suddenly more than the
devil's mark: he was blushing.
At
once she felt her own cheeks begin to burn. Had she been too bold?
"Thank
you," he said softly and lifted her straight off her feet into his arms,
sweeping her into the carrying chair an instant later. Clare closed her eyes at
the giddy speed, feeling like a tumbling swift but also very safe, and then was
sorry again once his warm, strong hands had left her.
He
bowed and turned to Father Peter. "I shall walk with you, father."
"That
is as it should be," the priest began. A loud cry made him break off, and
the priest frowned at the vulgar interruption.
Squire
Edwin and a group of young men-at-arms rode into the churchyard, whooping and
yelling. One, a lusty youth with a thatch of badly-cut hair, lunged at one of
the village girls, tearing at her headdress, but Edwin rode at Clare.
"Fetch
me the little nut-brown dairy maid!" the young man bawled, spurring his
horse closer. "She will do
well for our revels!"
Clare
stood, her heart pounding, ready to scold the brutes roundly, to shame and
scald them with her tongue. What else could she and a few unarmed villagers do
against trained men on horseback?
But
Haakon was already before her, a living shield between Clare and the surging
mass of riders. "Stop!" he shouted, throwing his arms wide.
"Would you defile a holy place and a holy day? This is the eve of the
festival of Saint John, and this maiden is his!"
Still
Edwin plunged on, intent, it seemed, on riding him down, but Haakon seized the
reins with one hand and with the other grabbed the squire. Bracing himself
against the wheeling horse, he yanked Edwin out of his saddle and pitched him
face down into the dust.
"Off
with you!" he roared at the others, planting his booted foot into the
middle of Edwin's back. Then he whispered softly to the whickering horse,
holding the beast steady until it snorted, and pranced, and began to calm.
Down
in the dirt at his feet, the squire cursed in Norman French and writhed like an
adder, but he could not throw him off.
"I…will…have
you!" He panted, trying to sneer, though he was pallid and wide-eyed with
fear.
"Not
today," replied Haakon, keeping his boot resting firmly on his captive,
"and you shall not take any maid here for your wenching."
Clare
felt a sickening chill as he spoke. If Edwin had seized her, she knew, he and
all his companions would certainly have "enjoyed" her. She had
encountered him before, in the castle bailey: a lanky, pox-marked youth with
slimey, too-eager eyes and a thin slash of a mouth.
They
might have killed me with their wenching!
"Peasants!"
Edwin tried to lift his head, clearly incensed that none of his companions had
stirred to help him. "Dirt-shifters!"
"We
are all dust," Haakon agreed, "and equal before the saints with
you." He must have pressed harder with his foot, for Edwin's sweating,
sallow face smacked into the dirt again, and his sneering mouth was stopped
with earth.
The
other squires fled, Clare realized, and she told Haakon so. "But they may
return," she warned, "and with more of their kind."
"Let
them." Haakon gave Edwin a final shove with his foot, pushing him aside,
released the horse and walked to the poles of her carrying chair. "As for
others, none of those fancy knights-to-be will want to admit they were bested
by a woodsman."
As
he passed her again, Haakon winked at her with a sparkling green-blue eye, and
Clare felt warmed by it. She heard the murmuring of the villagers but as if at
a distance. In that moment, it was as though only she and Haakon were present
in the world—like Adam and Eve, before
their fall from grace, she thought, and then was startled by her
own feeling.
Buy links:
Amazon com:
Muse it Up
Publishing:
No comments:
Post a Comment