The Swordsman: A Medieval Romance

Book 3: The Blackchurch Guild: The Shadow Knights

by Kathryn Le Veque

Genres: Ancient World Romance

Synopsis

It’s another exciting Blackchurch Guild adventure!

This time, master of the sword Sinclair “Sin” de Reyne has his moment to shine.

They call him The Swordsman…

Part of the powerful de Reyne family, Sin is a black sheep. A man with a mysterious past and a family he doesn’t speak of, he is one of the elite trainers at the Blackchurch Guild, the premier knight training school in England. They call Sin “The Swordsman” because of his skill with a blade, but that skill is about to be put to the test.

So is his heart.

Elisiana Maria Isabella Fernandez y de Verra is a young lady with a problem. Hailing from a very strict family with a Spanish father and a Norman mother, her entire life has been planned for her, including an impending betrothal that will strengthen family ties. Unable to live a life in chains any longer, Elisiana makes the bold move of running away from home to start a new life. That new life brings her straight into Sin’s path.

No one knows much about the new serving wench at the favored tavern of the Blackchurch trainers, but they do know she’s very pretty. Having just returned from a lengthy battle assignment north of Paris, Sin is returning to his training position when he meets the young woman with dark hair and flashing, pale eyes. She has spirit and they manage to strike up a friendship. But friendship turns to something and just as Sin is starting to feel something for her, all hell breaks loose – Elisiana’s brother locates her and the truth of her identity comes out.

Elisiana is not only of royal blood, but she’s also promised to another man.

Now, the Swordsman must make a choice – return to Blackchurch and forget the fiery lass? Or will the man with the mysterious past finally reveal his true self and fight for what he wants?

Who he wants.

Join Sin, Elisiana, the Blackchurch knights, and two factions of pirates as the battle for Elisiana’s freedom begins. It’s a wild ride through tradition, piracy, blood, battle, and the power of love in this epic Historical Romance adventure.

Numquam dedite. Never surrender.

That’s Blackchurch’s motto. For the love of Elisiana, it becomes Sin’s battle cry.


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The Blackchurch Guild: The Shadow Knights Series:
The Leviathan
The Protector
The Swordsman

 

Read more

Release date: August 22, 2024

Publisher: Kathryn Le Veque Novels, Inc.

Print pages: 313

Sample

PROLOGUE

Year of Our Lord 1221
Fremington Castle
England

“And then I shoved her face into a capon pie!”
The table erupted into laughter. Such was the result of Aristeo de Verra’s stories because
he told them so brilliantly, true or not, and they always had a moral where the man—or
woman—of his choice got their comeuppance. In this case, however, he was telling the
story of his first meeting with a woman his father very much wanted him to marry, and
Aristeo evidently shoved a pie in her face.
But everyone was laughing about it.

“Mi hijo, nay!” Adriano Celestino Fernandez y de Verra, head of the House of de Verra and
the hereditary holder of the title Conde de Pontevedra, clapped a hand to his forehead in
dismay. “Tell me you did not do this terrible thing!”
Aristeo, a genuinely handsome young man with a winning smile who had inherited the
title of Lord Fremington from his mother’s side of the family, was laughing so hard that he
was crying. “Of course I did,” he said. “It was coming out of her nose. She blew her nose and
pie sprayed all over the table.”
He made a gesture of pie shooting out of nostrils and the crowd at the table roared. All
but Adriano, his father, and perhaps Elisiana, his younger sister by two years. Neither one
of them were smiling—Adriano because he truly wanted this marriage to the House of de
Mora and Elisiana because she didn’t find her brother funny at all.
The man was a barbarian.
But no one else seemed to think so. Even Adriano got over his outrage when Aristeo
went to his father and hugged the man, kissing him on the top of his head. Aristeo’s kisses
to his father were like holy water from a priest—they absolved everything. Adriano shook
his head at his naughty son, but he was smiling at him, and Aristeo knew there would be no
punishment. As he went back to his seat, he collected another cup of wine.
“She was too ugly for me, Papa,” he said. “I cannot marry a woman who makes me want
to gouge my eyes out, can I? Would you truly condemn me to such a match?”
Adriano sighed heavily and shrugged, asking for more wine from a passing servant. It
was a lost cause, he could see, but he worried that his eldest was setting a bad example for
his two younger sons, Diaz and Esteban. They had listened to Aristeo’s story with glee and
even now were trying to shoot food out of their nostrils in demonstration. Adriano let it go

on because tonight, it was only family. His children, his wife, his wife’s brother, and his
family, plus Adriano’s mother and father all the way from Pontevedra. Abuelo and Abuela
liked nothing better than to see how lively and joyful their grandchildren had become.
Even if it was at someone else’s expense.
But, then again, this entire meal was at someone else’s great expense.
Elisiana’s.
She’d been forced to attend, just like she’d been forced to entertain her mother’s visiting
relatives since their arrival. That included her uncle’s new wife’s son, who was a knight
serving the Earl of Lincoln. His name was Adolph, of all things, because his father’s family
came from Saxony. He was tall, very fair, with a big nose and a wide forehead. He wasn’t
unkind or appalling, but more like a slice of white-flour bread soaking in a bowl of milk. He
was bland, mushy, and pale.
There was no excitement.
In fact, there wasn’t anything about Adolph de Rade that Elisiana found attractive or
even interesting, and she deeply resented her parents trying to throw her at the man. At
twenty years and one, she was considered old for an unmarried woman and knew very well
that her parents were in an increasing state of panic over it, a problem that seemed to be
solved when her uncle married the widowed Lady de Rade and the woman came with an
unmarried son.
And here they were.
But Elisiana had a plan.
She was always the girl with the plan, always the girl who looked at life as if she actually
had a choice in it. As the only daughter of a very traditional family, the reality was that her

choices in life were few. She was expected to do as her parents told her and a little more
than that, but the unfortunate fact was that Elisiana was not a young woman inclined to be
a subject to her parents’ whims. Her mother was a relatively meek woman who did what
her husband told her and Adriano believed that all women needed a man to guide them.
That was where Elisiana parted with her father.
From the day she learned to walk, Luciana had been the independent sort. She never
needed help, and never wanted help, and even if she did happen to somehow require it, she
wouldn’t ask. She figured it out herself. Headstrong and stubborn, her parents had
reluctantly sent her to foster when she was about ten years of age, which was far too old for
a young woman who had been raised in a household where she essentially did what she
wanted. Her parents had given her too much freedom and perhaps even too much
encouragement to think for herself, which came back to haunt them when they sent her
away to foster.
It had been a rude shock to Elisiana to realize that not all young women were
encouraged to think for themselves.
Fostering at Pevensey Castle with the House of de Valcourt, Elisiana entered a strange
new world. Lady de Valcourt was very skilled and taught her charges all the things that
young ladies needed to know—dancing, music, singing, painting, and other cultured
subjects. She also taught reading and, in particular, had a love of romance poetry,
something Elisiana also loved. In fact, she excelled at it because the idea of romance got into
her head. Instead of writing poetry, she started sketching out young women in scandalous
clothing because she felt that was more passionate and beautiful that a bunch of words tied

together. A talented artist, she used charcoal to draw and became very good at it, but after
being caught drawing female breasts early on, she learned to do them in secret.
Soon enough, the other young ladies wanted naughty pictures, too.
They wanted pictures of young women with big bosoms who sat at the edge of the pond
and saw their reflection in the water. Or they wanted pictures of young women and their
suitors, which was more popular. Elisiana found herself drawing different suitors for
different girls, and they all paid her quite handsomely for it. She even drew pictures of
suitors kissing the women on their breasts because one afternoon, she’d seen a soldier do it
to a serving wench and that experience had titillated her.
The naughtier, the better.
News of her talent spread. Ladies in the village had heard about her dubious talentand
they too began to pay her for beautiful pictures of beautiful women doing naughty things.
Sometimes it was nothing more than a head, long hair, a winsome expression, and a torso
with the woman’s hand holding her bare breast. She’d draw that particular picture for the
wife of the richest merchant in town, who showed it to her friends. After that, Elisiana had
more commissions than she could handle, all the while completing them under the nose of
Lady de Valcourt, who was delightfully oblivious to what her young charge was doing.
But the ignorance didn’t last forever.
Unfortunately, she and her naughty sketches were discovered and, after lectures from
the local priest as well as Lady de Valcourt, it was decided that Elisiana was incorrigible and
she was sent home in disgrace. Very rich, but in disgrace. Her father, however, fully blamed
Lady de Valcourt for exposing his virginal daughter to such experiences that caused her to
draw those images. Never had he blamed Elisiana, though he should have. She’d been

completely at fault, and upon returning home to Fremington, she’d resumed her sketches
and sold them, in secret, through a woman in town who sold imported goods.
The ladies of Fremington and surrounding villages had their fantasies fed, at least for a
while, until Elisiana was discovered again. Her mother begged her to stop and her father
refused to buy her art supplies, but she bought them herself, and in secret, to continue her
craft. After years of doing it, she’d become extremely proficient at it.
She was the rage of Devon.
And her parents knew it. She’d heard them speak of it, speaking of how a husband would
settle her down and give her an outlet for her “impure tendencies.” That was exactly why
Adolph was here, to take her as his wife and force her to focus on him and forget about
everything that made her happy and creative. Elisiana was a free spirit, probably too much
of one, but the truth was that she wasn’t going to let a husband curb her talent.
More than that, she wasn’t going to stand for a forced marriage.
She wanted out.
“And you, Lady Elisiana?” Adolph said to her, jolting her from her thoughts. “Surely you
would not smash a suitor’s face into a capon pie. It seems rather extreme to me.”
Elisiana looked over at him, seeing that he was genuinely trying to be polite and bring
her into the conversation, but all she could see was a tool by which her parents trying to
assert control. The man didn’t know he was a pawn, but he certainly wasn’t resistant the
way she was. All evening, she’d been watching her uncle’s new wife whisper to him and his
eyes would always focus on her. That told her she was the subject of such conversation.
But, already, he was in over his head.

“It depends on the situation, my lord,” she replied steadily. “If he deserved it, I would not
hesitate to punish him.”
Adolph smiled, amused. “What would be so egregious that it would warrant your
punishment?”
Elisiana shrugged. “That is difficult to say,” she said. “If I feel threatened or insulted,
mayhap that would invite such a reaction. I think anyone would react in such a manner if
they felt threatened or insulted. My brother, of course, was neither threatened nor insulted.
Aristeo is an excellent knight and I do not think he is afraid of anything. He did not more as
a joke, though I do not think the lady saw much humor in his actions.”
Adolph nodded. “True,” he said, glancing at Aristeo down the table. “Jokes can be taken
too far.”
“I would agree.”
“Lisi,” Adriano spoke up, looking at his daughter. “Now that the meal is over, why not
take Sir Adolph out into the garden? The moon is full tonight. It should be a lovely walk.”
Elisiana resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her father. The man would have been less
obvious had he stood on the table and shouted.
My foolish daughter needs a husband!
Give the man any more wine and he just might do it. Elisiana smiled thinly at him before
turning her attention to Adolph.
“I am certain my lord would not be interested in a garden,” she said. “Only women
appreciate such things.”
Adolph was already on his feet. “It would be nice to take in the fresh air, my lady,” he
said. “May I escort you?”

So much for trying to discourage the man. Rising to her feet, Elisiana had to pass by her
father in order to make her way out of the hall, and she made sure to pinch him, hard, on
the back of his right arm. Adriano yelped, pretending he’d merely dropped a spoon into his
lap when those at the table turned to him curiously. Meanwhile, Elisiana had made her way
to the doorway of the small hall at Fremington’s big keep. The chamber was actually a solar,
but it was so large that the family used it for intimate dining when they only had family
meals or no more than twenty guests to entertain.
Elisiana led Adolph into the grand entry, which was a wide chamber with a low ceiling.
Iron sconces lined the walls, each with a fat-burning torch. It created a good deal of light,
but it also smelled and smoked because of the low ceilings. Stepping through the entry door
that was older than the castle itself, Elisiana led Adolph out into the inner bailey.
The moon was indeed full and the sky clear, so it was almost as if they were walking in
daylight. Elisiana made sure to stay a good arm’s length away from Adolph, who was
walking with his hands clasped behind his back. He didn’t make any moves in her direction,
but even so, she discreetly tried to move further away from him.
“You do not have to see the garden if you do not want to, my lord,” she said as she came
to a halt. “I could just as easily show you the stables. Or the outer ward. Or the gatehouse.
Surely there are other things of more interest to you.”
Adolph cocked his head. “I am more interested to know why you are unmarried,” he said.
“You know they are trying to make a marriage between us.”
He was starting out with a heavy volley. Straight to the point. She was taken aback for a
moment, but that surprise quickly turned to determination. Determination that he should

know the truth so he knew exactly where he stood. If he was going to be honest, then so
was she.
“I do,” she said. “I am sorry if they are forcing your hand. Surely that was not what you
expected when your mother married my uncle.”
He shrugged. “Are not all parents trying to marry off their children?” he said. “My
mother is trying to break me away from a woman I wish to marry, you should know.”
“Oh?” Elisiana said, thinking that maybe there was hope that he’d leave her alone after
all. “Why is she trying to separate the two of you?”
“Because the woman has no property,” he said. “In fact, she is the daughter of a merchant
in the town where we live. I’ve known her many years and we have always planned to be
married, but then my mother heard about you. And here we are.”
He didn’t seem terribly averse to marrying her, but he also didn’t seem completely
agreeable. Maybe he was only interested because she came with money and property. Why
not marry her and keep the woman he truly wanted to marry as a mistress? That was a
horrible thought. Elisiana was trying to determine how to respond, but it didn’t matter in
the end. All that mattered was what she felt.
She was going to make that plain.
“You should know that I have no intention of marrying anyone I do not approve of,” she
said. “My parents are in a panic because I have seen over twenty years and have not yet
married, but I’ve not yet met anyone I could imagine spending my life with. No offense, my
lord, but I do not intend for my marriage to be a one-sided affair.”
“No offense taken, but what do you mean?”

“I mean that I intend that my husband and I should be equals,” she said as she began to
walk toward the garden she had tried to discourage him from seeing. “I want a husband
who will let me do as I please. One that will not tell me what to do. A husband who
understands I am a woman of means and does not treat me like a brainless nymph.”
“I see,” Adolph said, walking next to her. “You want a husband who will share power
with you.”
“I suppose I do,” she said, peering at him. “Do you think that is asking too much?”
He shrugged. “I suppose that depends on what you bring to the marriage.”
She came to a halt. “I bring a good deal,” she said. “I bring an enormous dowry, of which
you have probably already been informed.”
Adolph was grinning at her. “I was,” he said. “I just wanted to hear it from you.”
She was annoyed by that. “What else do you want to know that you have not already
been told?”
“I want to know about these indecent drawings you do.”
She wasn’t shocked that he knew about that, but she was irritated that he’d been told. It
wasn’t something she ever discussed, and certainly not with a stranger. She began to walk
again, the walled garden looming before them in the moonlight.
“I do not know what you mean,” she said. “Were you told that I fostered at Pevensey
Castle?”
“And were sent home in disgrace? I heard.”
“I was not sent home in disgrace,” she said. “It was simply time for me to return home.”
“I was told that a priest deemed you incorrigible.”

They were at the gate now, a big iron panel that Elisiana jerked open because it liked to
stick.
“Clearly, you have been told untrue versions about me,” she said. “I suspect there is
nothing more I can tell you because I refuse to defend myself.”
He chuckled softly as he followed her into the garden, cast in silver from the moonlight.
“You needn’t defend yourself,” he said. “I rather like a girl with spirit. But I would like to see
some of your drawings.”
“Impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because it is.”
“Then you do admit to them.”
“I admit to nothing.”
He continued to chuckle, but he was coming closer as she stood near the small fishpond
that was at the edge of the garden.
“Come, my lady,” he said, lowering his voice. “You needn’t pretend with me. I find the fact
that you sketch lewd drawings completely fascinating. That shows talent and vision. It also
shows that beneath that proper exterior beats an impetuous heart.”
She didn’t like that he was coming closer, so she moved away. “And how would you
know that?” she said. “You’ve only heard what others have told you, things that may or may
not be true. You do not know me at all.”
“But I would like to,” he said, moving closer still even as she stepped away from him.
“Here we are, in this lovely garden, and it is very romantic. Your parents sent us out here
for a reason. Shall you disappoint them?”

Elisiana frowned. “How can I disappoint them?”
“By not letting me kiss you.”
She had a feeling where he was leading, so she took a big step back and extended her
arm to put obvious distance between them.
“Stay where you are,” she said firmly. “Coming out here was not my idea and it certainly
is not an invitation for romantic interludes. You can put that from your mind.”
He wasn’t deterred. Smiling, he stepped forward so that he was against her outstretched
arm. “I kiss very well, I’m told,” he said. “If our parents are going to force us together, we
may as well make the best of it.”
She gave him a shove backward. “Stay away from me,” she said. “I do not want you to
kiss me. Frankly, I find you repulsive, so you may go back and tell my uncle what I said.
There will be no marriage between us.”
He laughed softly. “You may find me repulsive now, but you will not when you realize I
have a cock the size of a rutting stallion’s,” he said. “It will bring you pleasure such as
you’ve never known. Many a maiden can attest to that.”
Shocked, she scowled. “That is a disgusting thing to say,” she said. “I am going to tell my
father.”
“Go ahead,” he said seductively, moving one of his hands down to his breeches to rub
himself, trying to bring his manhood to life. “But you should see what you are running from.
You may even wish to touch it. I would not mind.”
He was moving closer again and she was beginning to feel threatened. He was a big man
and stood between her and the garden gate. She could see him rubbing the crotch of his

breeches and was genuinely fearful that he might force her into a compromising position.
He might even try to hurt her.
But not if she hurt him first.
Her scowl turned into a smile.
“Very well,” she said, moving toward him. “Mayhap I should see what I am running from.”
His smile broadened. “Good,” he said. “I like a woman with an adventurous heart.”
“A wicked heart is more apt.”
“Wicked?”
She was standing in front of him now. Reaching out, she put her hands on his hips,
watching him lick his lips lasciviously. But his pleasure was only momentary. Before he
could draw another breath, she rammed her right knee, as hard as she could, into his semi-
erect manhood. When he howled and doubled over, she stood back and kicked him for good
measure. As Adolph folded himself in two, yelping in pain, Elisiana gave him a good shove
and pushed him right into the fishpond.
“That is what I think of your vulgar behavior,” she shouted. “Next time you will think
twice before trying to seduce a woman who finds you repulsive!”
As Adolph struggled in the fishpond, Elisiana ran for the keep. She knew her parents
were going to be furious, and her uncle as well, but she didn’t care. This was the last straw
in a bale that had been full long ago. Little by little, however, the straws had been pulled for
various offenses, all of them perpetrated by her parents.
She simply couldn’t take it any longer.
No more straws.

The problem was that if she remained, not only would she be forced to apologize to
Adolph, but she would more than likely be forced to marry him right away. The price
Adolph would have to pay for her large dowry and a castle in Cornwall was a few days of
bruised bollocks and a bruised ego. In fact, he could use it against her to force her into
doing things she didn’t want to do.
She had to get out.
Rushing into the keep, she managed to not catch the notice of anyone in the small hall.
They were all still eating and drinking. No one saw her rushing to the stairwell. Once she
was up the stairs, she moved very quickly. Grabbing a traveling satchel, she shoved clothing
into it, combs and such, and all of her coin. Everything she’d earned drawing pictures. It
was money to give her a new life, possibly a new identity, and most definitely a new hope.
Let Adolph marry someone else.
It wasn’t going to be her.
By the time Adolph made it back to the keep, soaking wet and roaring with anger,
Elisiana had managed to slip herself and a sturdy pony from the postern gate, already on
the road beneath the full, bright moon.
The road to a destiny that would be more adventurous, and dangerous, than she could
have possibly imagined. ...