TUDOR ENGLAND, STEWART SCOTLAND

Queen's Courier is now available in paperback as well as on Kindle. Here's the blurb and an excerpt for your enjoyment:

TUDOR ENGLAND, STEWART 

SCOTLAND

The courageous Dowager Queen of 

Scotland works to preserve the throne for her daughter Mary against the machinations of Henry Tudor and greedy Scottish nobles.

Meg Douglas, twenty-eight and still 

unmarried, prays that uncle Henry will finally relent and give permission for Mathew, Lord Lennox, to travel south and marry her before it is too late and her guilty secret is discovered.

Matho Spirston, newly appointed courier to Lord Wharton, 

sets out on a mission north of the border believing it will give him the opportunity to bring south his beloved Phoebe. Unhappily for them all, disaster threatens when war breaks out between the two countries.

EXCERPT:

"The Dowager Queen of Scotland sat at a small card table set on the raised dais in Stirling’s Great Hall and tapped her toes in time to the music. For once her courtiers smiled at one another, and in the centre of it all, the blushing bridal couple seemed dazed with happiness.

In contrast, Arran perched on his stool like a black crow sitting out a rain shower and stared down at his cards.

“Be of good cheer, my lord Governor,” Marie urged him. “It is not every day one of my ladies celebrates her wedding.”

Arran grunted. “Aye, that’s true enough. The Treasury gives thanks for it.” His gaze hovered accusingly at the level of her chin. “Madam, we cannot go on spending on such frivolities.”

Marie smiled, stretched across the card table and patted his hand. “I cannot resist. They are such happy occasions. But you may take comfort in the thought that there will be no more weddings among my ladies in the coming months.”

She turned to observe the dancers. Candle and firelight glimmered on pearls and gems, slid across silks and brocades. Gold frozen into heavy chains gleamed against rich velvets of the gentlemen’s attire, adding colour and depth to the scene.

“Your servants constantly wish to marry, madam.”

He made it sound like a reproach. Could the man not enjoy the beautiful sight of couples executing the intricate steps of the dance without thinking of money? Rarely did Scotland remind her of the French court, but tonight there had been a hint of a similar grandeur and beauty in the great hall. Now Arran’s meanness threatened to spoil the evening."

and here's the link:

http://tinyurl.com/gqfz3en or US 

http://tinyurl.com/jo93rr6

Queen's Courier by Jen Black

New release 31st July 2016

Q

Against a background of political intrigue and Tudor violence, love is not easy to find or sustain. The Queen Dowager of Scotland repudiates it and for both Matho and Meg the struggle is made more difficult by an outbreak of war between England and Scotland. Disaster looms for them all.....

It has taken a while, but this story is now available on Amazon Kindle.

While it continues the story of Matho, Meg and the Queen Dowager of Scotland, it isn't a sequel in the sense that you need to read Abduction of the Scots Queen, or Fair Border Bride, where Matho first appears.

In Queen's Courier Matho undertakes his first solo mission for Sir Thomas Wharton and sees an opportunity to complete his business and then bring his chosen Scots bride south to his home. The complicated feuds of the Scots entangle him in the siege of Lord Lennox where he is recognised and imprisonment awaiting an interview with the Queen Dowager follows; she sees an opportunity to use him to her advantage.

Meg rides south to the court of Henry Tudor in expectation of Lord Lennox joining her. As the weeks roll by without him, she begins to wonder if she will ever marry, or if she will bear a bastard child and face Henry's wrath alone.

EXCERPT:

“Harbottle? What in God’s name d’ ye want to go there for?” A goblet of wine half-way to his mouth, Archibald Douglas, sixth Earl of Angus, stared at his daughter as if she were an imbecile.

“I want to see where I was born.” Meg took her place at table beside her father. “Why is that so silly?”

“The place is stuck in the middle of nowhere, lass, that’s why. There’s a sad excuse for a castle perched above a rocky burn and  a hell of a long ride to anywhere. It’ll be raining,” he added morosely. “It was ever raining when I was there.”

Meg chose to ignore the steadily increasing flesh that had all but buried the handsome bones of his face. Loving him did not mean, however, that she agreed with everything he said and did. “As I understand it, you weren’t there very long.”

Angus banged the goblet on the table, anger in his drawn brows, but before he could speak, Meg followed up her attack. “You can’t deny you left your wife there to bear a child and rode off to further your own concerns.”

“Your mother was as hare-brained then as ye are today. Who do ye think had to safeguard what property we had and talk sweetly to Henry of England?” Angus roared his displeasure. “Not your mother, even though Henry was her brother. She expected everything to happen as she wished.”

“Well, why not?” Meg lifted her chin.

“Och, aye.” His eyebrows rose, causing furrows in his forehead. “I didna notice ye an’ James were on such good terms. It’s no’ that simple, Meg. Use your head for a change.”

He had a point. Her half-brother Jamie had never truly accepted her, no matter how much she tried to win his friendship. She softened her tone. “I don’t see what harm it can do, to visit the place where I was born. I’m curious, that’s all.”

“Ye’ll put yersel’ on a platter for the rabble that infests the Borders.” Angus waggled a warning finger under her nose. “If they snatch ye, a demand for ransom won’t be the worst thing ye face. Most sensible folk would take an escort and head for Berwick.”

“I shall be perfectly safe, Father. When you join the Dowager’s train tomorrow, I shall also leave. The English Warden will meet me at the border and escort me south. A courier has gone on ahead. It is all arranged.” She leant forward, and laid her hand on the velvet of his sleeve. “Don’t worry about me. After all, I am half-English and the king’s niece.”

http://tinyurl.com/gqfz3en or US

http://tinyurl.com/jo93rr6