Dark Moon (The de Russe Legacy Book 6) Read online

  Dark Moon

  A Medieval Historical Romance

  By Kathryn Le Veque

  A Dark Sons Novel

  © Copyright 2018 by Kathryn Le Veque Novels, Inc.

  Kindle Edition

  Text by Kathryn Le Veque

  Cover by Kim Killion

  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.

  License Notes:

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook, once purchased, may not be re-sold. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it or borrow it, or it was not purchased for you and given as a gift for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. If this book was purchased on an unauthorized platform, then it is a pirated and/or unauthorized copy and violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Do not purchase or accept pirated copies. Thank you for respecting the author’s hard work.

  Kathryn Le Veque Novels

  Medieval Romance:

  The de Russe Legacy:

  The White Lord of Wellesbourne

  The Dark One: Dark Knight

  Beast

  Lord of War: Black Angel

  The Iron Knight

  Dark Moon

  The de Lohr Dynasty:

  While Angels Slept (Lords of East Anglia)

  Godspeed (Lords of East Anglia)

  Rise of the Defender

  Steelheart

  Spectre of the Sword

  Archangel

  Unending Love

  Shadowmoor

  Silversword

  Great Lords of le Bec:

  Great Protector

  To the Lady Born (House of de Royans)

  Lord of Winter (Lords of de Royans)

  Lords of Eire:

  The Darkland (Master Knights of Connaught)

  Black Sword

  Echoes of Ancient Dreams (time travel)

  De Wolfe Pack Series:

  Warwolfe

  The Wolfe

  Nighthawk

  ShadowWolfe

  DarkWolfe

  A Joyous de Wolfe Christmas

  Serpent

  A Wolfe Among Dragons

  Scorpion

  Dark Destroyer

  The Lion of the North

  Walls of Babylon

  Ancient Kings of Anglecynn:

  The Whispering Night

  Netherworld

  Battle Lords of de Velt:

  The Dark Lord

  Devil’s Dominion

  Reign of the House of de Winter:

  Lespada

  Swords and Shields (also related to The Questing, While Angels Slept)

  De Reyne Domination:

  Guardian of Darkness

  The Fallen One (part of Dragonblade Series)

  With Dreams Only of You

  House of d’Vant:

  Tender is the Knight (House of d’Vant)

  The Red Fury (House of d’Vant)

  The Dragonblade Series: (Great Marcher Lords of de Lara)

  Dragonblade

  Island of Glass (House of St. Hever)

  The Savage Curtain (Lords of Pembury)

  The Fallen One (De Reyne Domination)

  Fragments of Grace (House of St. Hever)

  Lord of the Shadows

  Queen of Lost Stars (House of St. Hever)

  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

  Highland Warriors of Munro:

  The Red Lion

  Deep Into Darkness

  The House of Ashbourne:

  Upon a Midnight Dream

  The House of D’Aurilliac:

  Valiant Chaos

  The House of De Nerra:

  The Falls of Erith

  Vestiges of Valor

  Realm of Angels

  The House of De Dere:

  Of Love and Legend

  St. John and de Gare Clans:

  The Warrior Poet

  The House of de Garr:

  Lord of Light

  Realm of Angels

  The House of de Bretagne:

  The Questing (also related to Swords and Shields)

  The House of Summerlin:

  The Legend

  The Kingdom of Hendocia:

  Kingdom by the Sea

  High Warriors of Rohan:

  High Warrior

  Time Travel Romance: (Saxon Lords of Hage)

  The Crusader

  Kingdom Come

  Contemporary Romance:

  Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Series:

  Valley of the Shadow

  The Eden Factor

  Canyon of the Sphinx

  The American Heroes Series:

  The Lucius Robe

  Fires of Autumn

  Evenshade

  Sea of Dreams

  Purgatory

  Other Contemporary Romance:

  Lady of Heaven

  Darkling, I Listen

  In the Dreaming Hour

  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

  Kindle Worlds (Kathryn Le Veque World of de Wolfe Pack):

  River’s End

  The Wedding Fountain (Bella Andre’s Kindle World)

  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.

  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.

  There is NO particular chronological order for any of the novels because they can all be read as stand-alones, even the series.

  For more information, find it in A Reader’s Guide to the Medieval World of Le Veque.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Kathryn Le Veque Novels

  Author’s Note

  De Russe and Wellesbourne Family Tree

  Epigraph

  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

  About Kathryn Le Veque

  Author’s Note

  Another book that readers have been begging for. Welcome to Trenton de Russe’s novel!

&nb
sp; Trenton is the first son of Gaston de Russe (THE DARK ONE: DARK KNIGHT), a product of Gaston’s marriage to Mari-Elle, his first wife. Trenton was just a little boy in that book, about eight, and he had suffered through a horrible mother who had poisoned him towards his father. Gaston spends a good portion of the book trying to mend that relationship with Trenton, who really just wants to be loved. In re-reading the passages with Trenton in them, he’s such a sad little boy with a very manipulative mother and an absent father, although Gaston tries hard to make good with him. Still, Trenton is a sad boy who turns out to be very brave. That bravery carries out into his adult life.

  Several things about this book are firsts for me – firstly, it is the first book I’ve written with Henry VIII involved. Things were changing with Henry, including the coming Church of England, formal forms of address (Medieval kings were referred to as “my lord”, and in this age, we start seeing forms of “your highness”). We are essentially now in Tudor England and have passed from Medieval times around 1500 A.D., but there is still a blend of the late Middle Ages entering into the Tudor period.

  In my research about Henry VIII, I learned many things about him. Of course, we all know about his six wives and his quest to have a son and heir, but there are several things about Henry that I didn’t know – for example, he was an accomplished musician and singer. He composed many songs, including Pastime with Good Company. You can listen to it here on YouTube:

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q4sclrHTtg

  Henry was clearly more than the despot we are commonly led to believe – a man of great intellect and reading, of poetry and music, so it was interesting reading in breaking the stereotype of Henry VIII in my mind. And – and you’ll love this – I read that it was Henry who came up with the idea of getting paid every time someone used his songs, hence the term “royalties”. I couldn’t confirm this, as different sources said different things, but if it is true, then that term suddenly makes a lot of sense.

  As I sometimes do, I have provided a phonetic pronunciation guide because of the interesting names in this novel –

  Lysabel – Liss-a-bell (sometimes she is called “Lys”, pronounced “Liss”)

  Cynethryn – Sin-ETH-renn

  Brencis – basically like Francis, except “Bren” instead of “Fran”

  Alixandrea – Alex-on-DRAY-uh (not Alex-ANN-dree-uh)

  Troyes – Twah (think the French word for “three”)

  I’ve also attached a family tree of sorts, listing the children from both the heroes and secondary characters of THE DARK ONE: DARK KNIGHT and THE WHITE LORD OF WELLESBOURNE, since those two stories are so closely intertwined. Even if some of the brothers and sisters of Gaston and Remington, or Matthew, aren’t mentioned in this novel, I have listed them anyway just for reference.

  Meanwhile, this is quite a story, and a very powerful love story, but it brings up many of the questions that arose in THE DARK ONE: DARK KNIGHT. Is love more powerful than anything, morality be damned? Or do things like honor supersede it? Unfortunately, Trenton is facing his own moral dilemma, and these are all valid questions, to which I tried to find some answers. But one thing is certain – in the case of Trenton, much like his father, love is never a simple thing.

  Enjoy Trenton and Lysabel’s story!

  Hugs,

  De Russe and Wellesbourne Family Tree

  Children of Gaston and Remington de Russe

  Trenton (Gaston’s first marriage to Mari-Elle de Russe)

  Dane (Remington’s first marriage to Guy Stoneley)

  Adeliza

  Arica

  Cortland (Cort)

  Matthieu

  Boden

  Gage

  Gilliana

  Children of Matthew and Alixandrea Wellesbourne

  Lysabel

  Rosamunde

  James

  Thomas

  Emeline

  Daniel

  William

  Children of Nicolas and Skye de Russe

  Robert

  August

  Milo

  Laria

  Children of Jasmine and Antonius Flavius

  Mary (Jasmine’s daughter)

  Sophia

  Celestina

  Gisella

  Viola

  Children of Mark and Caroline Wellesbourne

  Sebastian

  Quentin

  Lucius

  Children of John and Lizbet Wellesbourne

  Adam

  Joyelle

  Cecily

  Luke

  Stephen

  De Russe motto: Et est spes est virtus

  “In Valor there is Hope”

  CHAPTER ONE

  July, 1518 A.D.

  Stretford Castle, Dorset

  Seat of Benoit de Wilde, Sheriff of Ilchester

  They could hear screaming.

  It was dark this night, a moon so dark that it was barely seen hovering over the shadowed landscape. It was an omen of what was to come, that dark moon, a harbinger of ends and the gateway of beginnings. In truth, it was a night of great foreboding and the screaming of the woman didn’t help matters. It simply complicated them.

  They couldn’t take the screaming into account.

  They had a job to do.

  Slapping sounds and more screaming. Four men, heavily armed and dressed in black, were on the darkened grounds of Stretford Castle, which was more of a manor house than an actual fortress, and the sounds coming from the second-floor window above their heads were distressing. A woman was being thrashed; that much was clear. She was being beaten within an inch of her life and they’d been listening to the sounds since they’d made their way across the clogged moat on a raft they’d brought with them.

  The sounds, however, had worked to their advantage because the soldiers on duty were also distracted by the noises. Lured by them, in fact. They’d seen one man on the wall walk, his attention turned towards the window where the screams were coming from as he’d rubbed at his groin, stimulated by the sound. That stimulation had been the last thought on his mind before a silent arrow had slammed into his back, taking him down as the four men used a grappling hook to pull themselves over Stretford’s sand-colored walls.

  With the wall sentry out of commission, the men had stowed their raft and slinked across the side yard, through the garden, and to the walls of the manor itself. They were prepared to enter any window in order to reach their target, but they suspected their target was the very man beating the woman on the second floor. Rumor had it that de Wilde was a brute, a nasty bastard that the king despised, so they rightly assumed that their best option in finding this man was directly over their heads.

  Follow the sounds of the screaming woman and they would find him.

  “I shall go first.”

  A very big man with smoky gray eyes and a square jaw hissed the words. Clad in black leather from head to toe, he was protected against weapon strikes for the most part, but the nature of his job prevented him from wearing the technology of the day, the heavy plate armor that knights currently wore. In fact, he preferred the outdated chain mail, which he wore around his neck and shoulders. For this job, he needed to move swiftly and silently, and he couldn’t do that in clanging plates of steel.

  Crouched next to him was a younger man in much the same dress. He watched the big man gather the rope on the grappling hook they’d used to mount the wall.

  “Why should you go first?” he whispered. “Let me go in first and catch him off-guard. Then you can come in after me and capture the man while I have him occupied if, in fact, this is the man we are looking for. It could very well be someone else, you know.”

  The man with the gray eyes cocked a dark eyebrow. “The man up there is in that room beating a woman to death,” he said. “You know de Wilde. You know his brutality; we have all heard rumors of it and, now, we hear the reality. The world will be a better place without him, so shut your lips and let us get on with it. Henry is waiting for him.”
/>   But the second man shook his head. “Trenton, listen to me,” he said, grasping him by the arm as if he were about to tell him something life changing. “Let both of us go up at once. He cannot fight off both of us at the same time. Timothy and Adrian will bring up the rear.”

  Sir Trenton de Russe eyed the young, eager knight who had been his partner in crime for the past six years. Sir Anthony de Witt was a brilliant egotist who sopped up glory and excitement like most men sopped up gravy from a trencher – the man literally fed off of the thrill of an operation like the one they were in the process of performing. As agents for the king, this was their vocation – the king commanded, and they fulfilled. If the king told them to remove an enemy, that was exactly what they did.

  And they did it without an army.

  Only their wits, skill, and cunning.

  Like tonight. They’d been sent to capture Benoit de Wilde, the Sheriff of Ilchester and a strong opponent of the king’s agenda. De Wilde held his position by legacy, meaning his father and his father before him had held the post, and de Wilde had been a thorn in Henry’s side long enough. He made it no secret that he thought the King of England to be a vile piece of work, and Henry had enough of the man when de Wilde had stolen a mistress away from the king.

  Literally, spirited the woman away so Henry couldn’t get to her.

  Perhaps that didn’t seem like a deadly offense to most, but to Henry VIII, it was a clear sign of disrespect and disrespect would lead to retaliation. At this time in his life, he was almost ten years into his reign and he’d already established himself as a strong king who didn’t tolerate opposition.

  That was where Trenton de Russe came in.

  God, but he was deadly.

  A deadly man from a long line of deadly men, his father being the deadliest of all. At least, that was the general opinion until Trenton grew into adulthood and came into his own. Because his father, Gaston de Russe, had served Henry VII for many years, Trenton and Henry’s son, the future Henry VIII, had grown up with one another. Trenton was several years older, but young Henry looked to Trenton as the older brother he’d never really had – powerful, intelligent, respectable, and talented. He’d long admired the man and when he became king, Trenton had been offered a most special post—

  The Crown’s Own Agent.