Sweet Saturday Samples

Welcome back to Sweet Saturday Samples, where authors share sweet, clean excerpts from their works with you!

Last week I shared with you an excerpt from my short Christmas story, A Candlelight Courting: A Short Christmas Romance. (Click here if you haven't read it and would like to.) This week I'd like to share an excerpt from a second short Christmas story of mine, called "Caroles on the Green." This story is one of six sweet short romances included in A Timeless Romance Anthology: Winter Collection.

Here is an excerpt from my contribution to the collection, where the characters are preparing to dance a medieval Christmas carole. (Yes, that was the spelling when it was a dance.)

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Caroles on the Green

England

December 24, 1151

“We are to dance sinister, eh?”

Isabel stiffened. Amidst all the shuffling, she had not seen Lucian maneuver into position on her right. Or perhaps it was mere coincidence. He would have been on the opposite side of Ronwen had they been dancing the other direction. Ronwen certainly looked unhappy to see him take Isabel’s free hand in his. Lucian lifted her fingers lightly and gazed for a moment at the pale yellow stone. Did he remember that she preferred the deeper hues of emeralds and rubies to set off her dark coloring?

“They begin the circle to the right in the East,” he said, as he slipped her fingers into the strong grip that she remembered so well.

She felt herself recoiling ever so slightly from Sir Theo’s weak clasp on her other side and silently chastised herself. She would teach him that he need not be so diffident, once he knew that she wished to marry him.

“I do not see that it matters which direction we circle, so long as we all move in unison,” she said.

She tossed Lucian one of her haughty looks and felt a little hitch in her breath. He had recovered quite splendidly from their last encounter, when he had sported two black eyes and a swollen nose. The latter cast slightly sideways, a departure from the arrogantly straight nose she remembered in his youth and in the proud young crusader who had returned from the East. Judging from the dagger looks Ronwen threw at her, the flaw in his otherwise absurdly handsome face had not dampened her cousin’s welcome of Lucian’s courtship one whit. Then why did he not gaze at Ronwen, instead of holding Isabel’s eyes with a weighing look that she refused to break first?

The hollow thump thump thump of a drum finally broke the spell for them both. Isabel saw the confusion that flooded the circle as the music started. They surely wondered which way Sir Theo would decide to step first. She would have leaned over to him, but felt the subtle pressure of Lucian’s hand guiding her into a gentle bounce on the balls of her feet in rhythm to the beat of the drums. She fought back waves of memories at his touch, even as she watched Sir Theo’s face flame when he realized himself the center of attention. All the watching eyes seemed to freeze him into place.

Isabel’s bounce grew more impatient until at last she tugged on Sir Theo’s hand, trying to signal him to begin. Sir Theo gave a visible start and apparently thinking she wished him to move her direction, lurched so suddenly to his right that he crashed into Isabel’s shoulder and sent her stumbling into Lucian.

Lucian’s fingers fluttered around hers, as though instinct commanded he release her hand and steady her with his strong arm around her waist. Or so rose the unbidden vision to her mind. A vision which the crack of his chin against the top of her head obliterated. She heard the clack of his teeth before his chin snapped up. The blow reverberated through her skull and left her leaning against his chest, momentarily stunned. The decorative band of embroidery that ran around the breast of his deep blue tunic swam before her watering eyes.

His hand tightened on hers and he nudged her upright with his shoulder—but not before he lowered his head and murmured into her ear on a soft note of mockery, “The same old Isabel.”

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A Timeless Romance Anthology: Winter Collection contains six short, clean winter romances by Sarah M. Eden, Heidi Ashworth, Annette Lyon, Joyce DiPastena, Donna Hatch, and Heather B. Moore. This ebook is available for only $3.99 on Kindle, Nook and Smashwords. To learn more about A Timeless Romance Anthology, visit our blog and like our Facebook page.

Now click here to read more Sweet Saturday Samples by more great authors!

Short stories update

I have a few exciting bits of news to share with you! Isabel's story has finally received a shiny new title, Caroles on the Green, and will be appearing in October in a new romance anthology series called Timeless Romance. The first release will feature six sweet winter romance short stories by the following well-loved historical romance authors: Sarah M. Eden, Heidi Ashworth, Annette Lyon, Donna Hatch, and Heather B. Moore. These lovely authors were kind enough to invite me to join them. The cover has been designed and I'm excited to share it with you. Ta-dah! What do you think?

No, I didn't design it, but I admire the person who did.

Meg's story also finally has a title: A Candlelight Courting. Stay tuned. Cover coming soon!

Summary Sunday

Good news! I finished my first draft of Isabel's story this week. But here are three final new sentences to share with you before I dive into revisions:

Monday: "He wants a meek wife, not one who absconds with that ferocious destrier he brought back from the East and scrambles about in trees.”

Tuesday: “Blazes, Bel!"

Wednesday:  “Let us go down to the green.”

Thank you so much for following along!

Summary Sunday

I'm coming down the home stretch with Isabel's story. Here are a few new sentences from this week:

Monday: Lucian had found himself a more docile love to fit his temper.

Tuesday: A man who cared more for his hose than his lady should be easy enough to govern in marriage. 

Wednesday: (busy vacation day, didn't get any writing in)

Thursday:  It took a deal of bouncing, swiveling and swishing of her skirts to arrange herself into a sitting position of some modesty.

Friday: "Don’t make me come up there and get you.”

Saturday: “I don’t need you, Lucian,” she repeated, though something cracked in her heart as she said it.

Summary Sunday

I'm out of town visiting my sister this week so my writing time is limited, but I have squeezed a little writing in nonetheless. Here are a few new sentences from Isabel's story:


Monday: (a traveling day)


Tuesday: "I knew you would remember I wear a topaz signet ring and hence know that this…” he rubbed his thumb across the yellow stone… “came from me."


Wednesday: “This is not what I had in mind when I agreed to a moonlight tryst.”


Thursday: One man is very like another, she had said to Agnes, but dancing with Lucian had exposed those words for the lie they were.


Friday: (traveling most of the day)


Saturday: “It troubles me only that I might displease you,” he said with a promptness that should have gratified her, had she not been hoping for another answer.

Summary Sunday

My new sentences are all from Isabel's story this week:

Monday: Neither blandishments nor threats had ever convinced Marjory to leave raisins out of Isabel’s apple tart.

Tuesday: Sir Yves gave a visible start and apparently thinking she wished him to move her direction, lurched so suddenly to his right that he crashed into Isabel’s shoulder and sent her stumbling against Lucian.

Wednesday: Isabel had studied carefully the way the serfs danced on the green and had made up her own steps for this tune, which she would have whispered into Sir Yves’ ear for him to repeat to the others had Lucian’s unexpected appearance at her side not so disrupted her thoughts that she had forgotten her plan. 

Thursday: Lucian bowed with so buoyant a grin that Isabel found herself trilling a mirroring laugh as she sank into a curtsy.

Friday: It had not seemed so ill a trade before she had danced the caroles.

Saturday: Hope turned to a sour puddle in her stomach.

Summary Sunday

As I mentioned in my last post, I finished my first draft of Meg's story this week, and started a second story about a woman named Isabel...so of course, for now, I'm calling it Isabel's story. :-) Here are a few new lines from each for this week:


Monday: The reliquary hit the floor with a great clatter of metal and wood, tottered, and fell on its side, jarring the lid loose and tumbling out its contents. (Meg's story)


Tuesday: Like the sideboards set up for her father’s men and the meddlesome neighbors he had invited, the high table was still strewn with the remains of an extravagant Christmas feast, including the picked off head of a wild boar that must have come from Burthred’s hunting chase and the browning core of the apple which she knew had been stuck in the poor beast’s mouth. (Meg's story)


Wednesday: She wondered if this was the expression he had worn when he had defeated three knights at once. (Meg's story)


Thursday: “It frightened me, Isabel, to see you weep so.” (Isabel's story)


Friday: “I would not flitter so if you would give me something more amusing to do than embroider more shirts for Father.” (Isabel's story)


Saturday: It had appalled her, however, to discover Ronwen so insecure in the knight’s budding devotion as to feel the only way to secure him safely and permanently was to see Isabel married to another man. (Isabel's story)

What Am I Writing Now?

I finished my first draft of Meg's story (official title still to be determined) this week, and found a whole new cast of characters already clamoring to have their turn on the page. Since my life is a little topsy-turvy at the moment, making it difficult for me to concentrate on writing long forms (like, oh, say, another novel), I've decided to focus on a few short medieval stories over the next few months. My first two will be Christmas stories...well, more or less. Meg's a little less. My new story, which I'm currently calling Isabel's story, is a little more Christmassy. Or I hope it will be when I finish it, anyway.

I wanted to find some pictures of my two new heroines to share with you, but apparently these women only exist in my head because none of the pictures I found quite match my imagination. But here's a little tidbit for you. Meg's story revolves around a reliquary box. What is a reliquary? It's a container for holy relics, usually objects associated with the Catholic saints. Many reliquaries were quite elaborate, such as this one, currently housed in the Louvre.

Meg's reliquary is somewhat simpler, made of carved wood instead of gilded over in gold. Hers does have a cross carved on the top and some other scrolling around the sides, but instead of the figures decorating the four corners, Meg's reliquary has a jewel in each corner in this order:

Top left: jasper

Top right: a sardonyx stone

Bottom left: an emerald

Bottom right: an amethyst

My hero, Burthred, guessed the meaning of the first three, though not the fourth. Can you guess what each stone represents, too?