WINTER OF SOLACE
A Medieval Romance
By Kathryn Le Veque
The Executioner Knights Series
© Copyright 2020 by Kathryn Le Veque Novels, Inc.
Kindle Edition
Text by Kathryn Le Veque
Cover by Kim Killion
Edited by Scott Moreland
Reproduction of any kind except where it pertains to short quotes in relation to advertising or promotion is strictly prohibited.
All Rights Reserved.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
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Kathryn Le Veque Novels
Medieval Romance:
De Wolfe Pack Series:
Warwolfe
The Wolfe
Nighthawk
ShadowWolfe
DarkWolfe
A Joyous de Wolfe Christmas
BlackWolfe
Serpent
A Wolfe Among Dragons
Scorpion
StormWolfe
Dark Destroyer
The Lion of the North
Walls of Babylon
The Best Is Yet To Be
De Wolfe Pack Generations:
WolfeHeart
The de Russe Legacy:
The Falls of Erith
Lord of War: Black Angel
The Iron Knight
Beast
The Dark One: Dark Knight
The White Lord of Wellesbourne
Dark Moon
Dark Steel
A de Russe Christmas Miracle
Dark Warrior
The de Lohr Dynasty:
While Angels Slept
Rise of the Defender
Steelheart
Shadowmoor
Silversword
Spectre of the Sword
Unending Love
Archangel
A Blessed de Lohr Christmas
Lords of East Anglia:
While Angels Slept
Godspeed
Great Lords of le Bec:
Great Protector
House of de Royans:
To the Lady Born
The Centurion
Lords of Eire:
Echoes of Ancient Dreams
Blacksword
The Darkland
Ancient Kings of Anglecynn:
The Whispering Night
Netherworld
Battle Lords of de Velt:
The Dark Lord
Devil’s Dominion
Bay of Fear
The Dark Lord’s First Christmas
Reign of the House of de Winter:
Lespada
Swords and Shields
De Reyne Domination:
Guardian of Darkness
With Dreams
The Fallen One
House of d’Vant:
Tender is the Knight (House of d’Vant)
The Red Fury (House of d’Vant)
The Dragonblade Series:
Fragments of Grace
Dragonblade
Island of Glass
The Savage Curtain
The Fallen One
Great Marcher Lords of de Lara
Dragonblade
House of St. Hever
Fragments of Grace
Island of Glass
Queen of Lost Stars
Lords of Pembury:
The Savage Curtain
Lords of Thunder: The de Shera Brotherhood Trilogy
The Thunder Lord
The Thunder Warrior
The Thunder Knight
The Great Knights of de Moray:
Shield of Kronos
The Gorgon
The House of De Nerra:
The Promise
The Falls of Erith
Vestiges of Valor
Realm of Angels
Highland Warriors of Munro:
The Red Lion
Deep Into Darkness
The House of de Garr:
Lord of Light
Realm of Angels
Saxon Lords of Hage:
The Crusader
Kingdom Come
High Warriors of Rohan:
High Warrior
The House of Ashbourne:
Upon a Midnight Dream
The House of D’Aurilliac:
Valiant Chaos
The House of De Dere:
Of Love and Legend
St. John and de Gare Clans:
The Warrior Poet
The House of de Bretagne:
The Questing
The House of Summerlin:
The Legend
The Kingdom of Hendocia:
Kingdom by the Sea
The Executioner Knights:
By the Unholy Hand
The Mountain Dark
Starless
The Promise (also Noble Knights of de Nerra)
A Time of End
Winter Solace
Lord of the Shadows
Lord of the Sky
Contemporary Romance:
Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Series:
Valley of the Shadow
The Eden Factor
Canyon of the Sphinx
The American Heroes Anthology Series:
The Lucius Robe
Fires of Autumn
Evenshade
Sea of Dreams
Purgatory
Other non-connected Contemporary Romance:
Lady of Heaven
Darkling, I Listen
In the Dreaming Hour
River’s End
The Fountain
Sons of Poseidon:
The Immortal Sea
Pirates of Britannia Series (with Eliza Knight):
Savage of the Sea by Eliza Knight
Leader of Titans by Kathryn Le Veque
The Sea Devil by Eliza Knight
Sea Wolfe by Kathryn Le Veque
Note: All Kathryn’s novels are designed to be read as stand-alones, although many have cross-over characters or cross-over family groups. Novels that are grouped together have related characters or family groups. You will notice that some series have the same books; that is because they are cross-overs. A hero in one book may be the secondary character in another.
There is NO reading order except by chronology, but even in that case, you can still read the books as stand-alones. No novel is connected to another by a cliff hanger, and every book has an HEA.
Series are clearly marked. All series contain the
same characters or family groups except the American Heroes Series, which is an anthology with unrelated characters.
For more information, find it in A Reader’s Guide to the Medieval World of Le Veque.
When Caius d’Avignon is sent north at the request of a relation of William Marshal to help in a dispute between neighbors, he couldn’t have imagined how his life would change.
Caius is one of The Marshal’s premier knights, a man who served in The Levant with many of The Marshal’s agents. But he had one distinct difference – he’d been branded The Britannia Viper by the Saracen commanders for his hard strike. There is no one fiercer in battle. Therefore, William Marshal has great confidence that Caius will solve the situation – if not by diplomacy, then by the sword.
But Caius is caught off-guard by the situation when he arrives. The Marshal’s relation is an unscrupulous and cruel man who has all but decimated his neighbors and demands they be destroyed. When Caius speaks to the neighbor, the first thing he sees is a woman of astounding beauty.
Emelisse de Thorington is that woman.
Caius is drawn into the feud whether or not he wants to be. He comes to discover that The Marshal’s relative is wicked and has harassed a noble family for years while telling William Marshal something quite different. The man is a thief and a liar.
But Caius can’t tell The Marshal that without jeopardizing his relationship with the man or jeopardizing the safety of The Marshal’s niece, who is married to him. There’s also the not-so-small fact that he’s fallen in love with the strong but battered Emelisse.
Will the seasoned knight choose love over his career?
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Here we are – Cai’s story, finally!
Britania Faybr.
The Britannia Viper.
The House of d’Avignon is a relatively new house in my world. We first saw it pop up in Devil’s Dominion in a secondary character, and then in Vestiges of Valor when that was the heroine’s maiden name.
Originally – a very long time ago – it was the name of the hero in ShadowWolfe before it was ShadowWolfe – way back then, when I wrote the first ten chapters and put it aside for twenty years, the hero’s name was Curtis d’Avignon and the name of the novel was originally Walls of Babylon – which I liked so much, I used on another de Wolfe Pack novel. Curtis was replaced by Scott de Wolfe and the story was rechristened ShadowWolfe.
Crazy how that all works, eh?
But I digress. I’m really excited to have a d’Avignon now heading up his own story because it was one of my original houses, and as I was writing this book, I kept saying to myself – Self? Wow, this is a hell of a story!
On to some super-fun trivia. A young William de Wolfe makes his appearance in this novel and we find out who he was named for. William was something of an unruly youth, as has been hinted at in some of the de Wolfe Pack books. Things about William and Paris and Kieran and the trouble they got into in their youth at Kenilworth Castle. I loved tying the House of de Wolfe into this series in this book because Edward de Wolfe – who has thus far been removed from William Marshal mostly – makes an appearance as the Earl of Wolverhampton.
Much of this story involves a place called Hawkstone Castle – that’s the prize. Although the castle is fictional, the location is not. Hawkstone Hall really does exist (it’s a boutique hotel with a history dating back to the 15th century) and it sits on lands called Hawkstone Follies, which is the basis for the holdings described in this book. It’s a very cool place to visit in real life and you can Google it to see what it’s all about – limestone caves, hiking, monuments, and other awesome things. It also has a tearoom named after my heroine’s brother – or is it the other way around? In any case, Caspian’s Tea Room exists. But to be perfectly transparent, it’s really named after Prince Caspian in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe because the story was inspired by the Hawkstone Follies.
Since this is an Executioner Knights tale, I usually try to include several of the EK knights in the opening scene, and a few throughout the story. Not all of the EK knights can be in all of the stories. In this case, Maxton of Loxbeare, who has been removed from a few books in the series, makes a strong secondary character in this tale, which I love. We also meet a couple of new EK knights – Morgan de Wolfe, who is a cousin to William and a nephew to Edward, as well as Gareth de Llion, the son of Bretton and Allaston from Devil’s Dominion. Gareth makes a brief appearance, but it’s a good foundation to establish his character. He’s the grandson of Ajax de Velt (The Dark Lord), so you just know he’s going to be a badass.
Now, the standard pronunciation guide to help you navigate the names:
Emelisse – our heroine. The closest pronunciation I can come up with is Emma-liss (which my Spellcheck kept trying to change to “Emulous”. HUH????????)
D’Avignon – DAV-in-yawn (“a” in dav – as in the word “at”)
So, curl up with a good book – this one – and enjoy Caius and Emelisse’s epic tale. As I said – it’s a hell of a story!
Hugs,
House of D’Avignon motto
Fides et virtute
“Faith and Courage”
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Kathryn Le Veque Novels
About the Book
Author’s Note
Epigraph
Cave Percutiens Viperae (Beware the Strike of the Viper)
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Epilogue
Author’s Afterword
Excerpt from By The Unholy Hand
Excerpt from The Mountain Dark
About Kathryn Le Veque
CAVE PERCUTIENS VIPERAE
(BEWARE THE STRIKE OF THE VIPER)
PROLOGUE
Year of Our Lord 1213 A.D.
The Pox Tavern, London
“The next one is going to take him down. He cannot take another one.”
“How much do you wish to wager?”
“Whatever you wish. I know I am right.”
“You are wrong. This man is holding his own against Cai, who can drink a man into the ground. He’ll go at least one more round.”
“A pound says you’re wrong.”
The pair shook hands. In the noisy, crowded common room of a smelly tavern filled with the vomit of humanity, it was one wager in a night that had literally seen hundreds of them. Sir Bric MacRohan, a massive Irish knight and Sir Kevin de Lara, a powerful English knight, had just made the bet regarding one of their comrades. Their faith in their brother-in-arms’ alcoholic abilities had them placing wagers against the man’s opponent.
Sir Caius d’Avignon was that man.
A mountain of male flesh with a vast and mysterious propensity towards holding his drink better than most, perhaps because of a hollow leg that everyone spoke of. Or perhaps it was just his great size that quickly dispersed whatever drink he managed to consume. Whatever the case, Caius was able to better hold his drink than most men in England, so if there was a wager to be made regarding such a thing, Caius was the man to bet on.
Which is exactly what Bric and Kevin had done.
Caius sat at a table with a warrior from the House of de Wrenville, with Bric and Kevin on one side of him and three more comrades on the other. Bric passed knowing glances across the table with Dashiell du Reims, heir to the Earldom of East Anglia, and Peter de
Lohr, son of the Earl of Hereford and Worcester. They were cousins, each a powerful knight in his own right, but they, much like Bric and Kevin, were supervising not only the drinking game, but the two knights who were supplying the drink.
They were newer knights to the spy ring of William Marshal.
But their newer status did not diminish their skills in any way. Even the newer knights held an elite status that separated them from the rest of the rabble. They all served the House of Marshal – William Marshal to be precise. Caius, Bric, Kevin, Peter, Dashiell, and newcomers Morgan de Wolfe and Gareth de Llion were part of the stable of specialized knights, warriors, assassins, and spies for England’s greatest warrior and statesman, as were a few of the men standing on the other side of the table.
Morgan was the one who had started this whole thing. He was a de Wolfe, from one of the finest fighting families in England, and held the de Wolfe air of battle about him. He was nothing to be trifled with. I’ll wager your man cannot outdrink Caius, he’d said, and the next they realized, there was a drinking game between Caius and the de Wrenville knight.
But it wasn’t any knight. There were whispers that it was the de Wrenville heir himself. But it was of little matter. The man could drink and that was all anyone cared about. Since The Pox catered to the many nationalities of men coming in from the sea, they had a better selection than most of cheap to fine ales and wine from far and exotic places.
The drinking game had started because de Wolfe had purchased a bottle of Portuguese wine that had such a punch to it that within two cups of the stuff, he was fairly drunk. It was delicious wine, warm and strong, and everyone else who’d had it was also well on their way to being sotted except for Caius. He’d laughed at his fellow knights and their inability to hold their wine and de Wrenville men from a few tables away heard him. One thing led to another and the contest was on.
Four bottles of that powerful wine sat on the table between Caius and the de Wrenville heir and three of them were empty. They were starting on the fourth, but the de Wrenville heir was so drunk that he had to hold on to the table to keep from falling over while his men held the cup up to his lips.
Money was flying fast and furious that the next drink would topple him.
“You shall not win,” de Wrenville said, spittle dripping from his lips because in his inebriation, he forgot to swallow. “Have my men not told you that I can outdrink anyone? No man can defeat me.”