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  STARLESS

  A Medieval Romance

  By Kathryn Le Veque

  Book Three in the Executioner Knights Series

  © Copyright 2019 by Kathryn Le Veque Novels, Inc.

  EPUB Edition

  Text by Kathryn Le Veque

  Cover by Kim Killion

  Edited by Scott Moreland

  Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.

  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:

  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 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

  The de Lohr Dynasty:

  While Angels Slept

  Rise of the Defender

  Steelheart

  Shadowmoor

  Silversword

  Spectre of the Sword

  Unending Love

  Archangel

  Lords of East Anglia:

  While Angels Slept

  Godspeed

  Great Lords of le Bec:

  Great Protector

  House of de Royans:

  Lord of Winter

  To the Lady Born

  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

  Lord of the Shadows

  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 Promise (also Noble Knights of de Nerra)

  The Mountain Dark

  Starless

  A Time of End

  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.

  Author’s Note

  Welcome to Achilles and Susanna’s story!

  This is a very interesting story in that it marks something I’ve never done before – writing the love story of a couple who had their “first meeting” in another tale. Part of writing a romance novel includes the first meeting and then developing the story from there, but Achilles and Susanna met in The Mountain Dark, Book Two of the Executioner Knights series, and readers were begging for a continuation of their story from the outset.

  So, here we are!

&nb
sp; This novel essentially picks up right after the last chapter of The Mountain Dark, but instead of Kress de Rhydian and Cadelyn of Vendotia’s story, we continue on with Achilles and Susanna. You don’t need to read The Mountain Dark to understand this tale, but it helps. It gives it much more dimension.

  Interestingly enough, originally I hadn’t meant Susanna for Achilles. He had an entirely different story planned, but after the (several) combative encounters these two had, I knew I couldn’t give Achilles any other heroine. Susanna was made for him. And that makes this story a heck of a lot of fun.

  This series originally started off as just a trilogy – the stories of Maxton of Loxbeare, Kress de Rhydian, and Achilles de Dere, men known as the Executioner Knights: The Unholy Trinity. However, the series is growing the more I introduce cool new characters. Now, the Executioner Knights is beginning to encompass the entire stable of knights that serve William Marshal as special agents and spies – and this would include characters like Sean de Lara (Lord of the Shadows) and Garren le Mon (The Whispering Night) among others. The Unholy Trinity is the “original” three of this series – the OG knights – Maxton, Kress, and Achilles. Characters like Alexander de Sherrington are close friends of the Unholy Trinity, but not official part of them. They do, however, all work together.

  In the first three books in the series, knights have rotated in and out – knights we have met in previous books – Gart Forbes, Christopher de Lohr, David de Lohr, Bric MacRohan, Dashiell du Reims, Cullen de Nerra, and Sean de Lara to name a few. This particular book happens to have Kevin de Lara, brother to Sean de Lara who played a major secondary role in Archangel, also playing a major secondary role here as well. This book also contains a major plot point for Lord of the Shadows, by the way. It’s part of Sean de Lara’s backstory. Like an Easter egg, you’ll need to find it!

  So many books are related to the Executioner Knights series, books that aren’t actually part of the series but connected to it. Those titles are Rise of the Defender, Steelheart, Archangel, The Promise, Godspeed, and High Warrior to name a few. The heroes all serve William Marshal within the same twenty-year time frame, so they rotate in and out of these tales. It’s a small world in my early 13th century England universe.

  Fun things to note – since I have quite a universe of characters and locations, I want to point out to readers that Susanna’s ancestral home of Aysgarth Castle first appeared in the novel Fragments of Grace. That’s one more book to tie in to this series! That de Tiegh family comes about ninety years after this one, descendants of Susanna’s brother.

  Now on to Achilles – he’s got a lineage in the Le Veque Universe! His parents are Tyren and Valeria from Of Love and Legend. Surprise! If you haven’t read that novella, make sure you do. It gives you a little insight into Achilles’ parents. His older brother is none other than Brickley de Dere, a major secondary character in the de Lohr novel, Steelheart. Achilles is the baby of the family, born several years after his eldest brother, Brick (whom I loved in Steelheart). I didn’t list the offspring of Valeria and Tyren when I wrote the novel, so here it is:

  Antonia

  Cecelia

  Brickley – (served the Earl of Canterbury, Lyle Hampton, later served the Earls of East Anglia – father of Dashiell du Reims)

  Benedict

  Tobias

  Achilles

  Richmond Castle in Yorkshire plays a role in this tale and I must say that Richmond is one of my all-time favorite castles. If you ever have a chance to visit it, or use Google Maps to see it, do. It’s absolutely enormous – and beautiful – and has quite a history, some of which is part of this storyline.

  A few things to note – real places versus fictional:

  Real:

  Richmond Castle

  Skipton Castle

  Whorlton Castle (and the family that owned it is the actual family in this novel, de Meynell. Whether they held the views expressed in this novel are purely a figment of my imagination for plot purposes)

  Fictional:

  Aysgarth Castle

  And, the usual pronunciation guide:

  De Tiegh – duh TEEG

  De Dere – duh DARE

  Aysgarth – ACE-garth

  De Meynell – duh mayNELL

  And to answer your questions, YES – Alexander (Sherry) and a new character introduced in this book, Caius d’Avignon, will be having their own stories told soon. I will also be working in a story for Kevin de Lara – finally, Sean’s little brother will have his own tale.

  Whew! That was a big author’s note. This is a fast-paced story, and very different from most I write, so I sincerely hope you enjoy it. Achilles and Susanna are a total match made in heaven.

  Love,

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Kathryn Le Veque Novels

  Author’s Note

  Epigraph

  Partial Excerpt of the First Meeting

  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

  Epilogue

  About Kathryn Le Veque

  “I suppose we all hope to meet that one person who makes us spark.”

  – Lady Susanna de Tiegh to Achilles de Dere from Book Two, The Mountain Dark

  PARTIAL EXCERPT OF THE FIRST MEETING

  From the novel, The Mountain Dark

  May, Year of Our Lord 1206

  ~ First encounter between Susanna de Tiegh and Achilles de Dere ~

  William Marshal had told them that Lady Cadelyn had a female bodyguard, he suspected who the woman was.

  “You are the bodyguard The Marshal told us of,” Kress de Rhydian said to the woman. “Susanna de Tiegh, is it?”

  Susanna nodded. “Aye, my lord.”

  “Where are you from?”

  “My father was Baron Coverdale of Aysgarth Castle in Cumbria.”

  “I have heard of it,” Kress said, his gaze lingering on her. “But you… a lady bodyguard? How did this come about?”

  Susanna met his gaze steadily and Kress found himself looking into fine features and eyes the color of a sapphire. She wasn’t unattractive in the least, but her hair was uncombed and her dress slovenly. She almost had a masculine way about her, tough and seasoned in a world of men who would not accept that from a woman.

  Any woman.

  If Kress could guess, the woman had to be closed to thirty years of age, and obviously unmarried. No husband would permit his wife to assume duties that Susanna had assumed, and if he did, then he would be a poor excuse of a man.

  She was quite an oddity.

  “My father had two children, twins,” Susanna said, breaking into his train of thought. “My brother and I were inseparable. Anything he did, I did, and that included fostering. We both went to Exelby Castle to foster years ago, but I did not want to learn what fine ladies learn. I wanted to do what my brother was doing. Lord de Geld, the lord of Exelby, was not a very firm man. He let me do as I wished, against the advice of the knights. As it turned out, I was better than most of their recruits.”

  She was making a statement of fact, without gloating in her manner, but the distaste the men felt at the thought of a woman thinking she could possibly be as skilled as they were was evident. Achilles de Dere, part of Kress’ contingent and seated next to her, spoke up.

  “Then Exelby must have had a good many weak men parading as warriors,” he said, doubt in his voice. “Were you knighted?” />
  Susanna turned to look at him, a warrior who was a good deal younger than his bald head would suggest. “Nay,” she said, lifting an eyebrow. “Were you?”

  Kress fought off a grin at her saucy reply but he could see that Achilles found nothing humorous about it.

  “By men better than anything you have ever stood against,” he growled. “A woman who does not know her place in life is an insult to every man who has ever lifted a sword.”

  To her credit, Susanna didn’t openly react to his offense. She kept her composure. “I would be happy to demonstrate just how much of an insult I am,” she said. “Say the word and I shall meet you with my sword wherever, and whenever, you wish.”

  Achilles’ eyes narrowed. “I would not lower myself to such a thing.”

  Susanna shrugged. “As you wish, my lord,” she said, returning her attention to Kress. “Do all of your men fade from such a challenge? Mayhap they are not up to the task of escorting Lady Cadelyn to her betrothed. That task requires men of courage.”

  Before Kress could reply, Achilles was going for his sword and Susanna, seeing his movement in her periphery, vaulted from the bench and ended up several feet away, her skirts up around her waistline to reveal that she was wearing leather breeches and a broadsword strapped to her waist underneath. Her hand was on the hilt of her sword and the gemstone eyes were fixed on her opponent.

  (And with that, the stage was set…)

  CHAPTER ONE

  ET TU MORIERIS IN GLADIO (You shall die by the sword)

  The Horse’s Arse Tavern

  Skipton, North Yorkshire

  Three Months Later

  “Are you well? Do you need anything to make you more comfortable?”

  The words sounded rather anxious, coming from Achilles as he spoke to Susanna. She was dressed just like him, wearing clothing that suggested she was far more a warrior and far less a lady. Over her heavy mail coat she wore a tunic with the blue and black shield of the House of de Winter, while Achilles wore the yellow and green split shield of the Earl of Pembroke, William Marshal. It was one of the most recognizable standards in all of England.

  But to his concerned words, she eyed him impatiently.

  “I do not need anything,” she assured him. “If I do, I will ask.”