The Warrior Series
ISBN 0-380-81548-6 Avon Books, February 2002
me, writing as Denise Hampton
You know how you really fall in love with some of the secondary characters in the books you read? Well, that's what happened to me with Josce FitzBaldwin, the bastard son of the host of the wedding in Warrior's Damsel. In that book it seemed he might wind up with Amicia de la Beres, but I found another girl perfect for Josce. As for Ami, well, she had to wait for Warrior's Game to find her true love.
Here's your blurb:
Elianne du Hommet is the third daughter of the sheriff of Knabwell, the child fated to care for her father in his dotage. It doesn't promise to be a pleasant experience for Elianne and not just because her father is a bad-tempered man who doesn't like women. Reiner du Hommet has debts. Elianne struggles to feed their household through the winter months even though her father is sheriff of the shire. Reiner has tried everything he can think of to repay what he owes, even selling Elianne's sisters into marriages with well-to-do peasants willing to pay good English silver for the gentle blood that runs in the du Hommet veins. Because Elianne knows she'll never marry and can only look forward to becoming a lay sister at the convent that educated her, Elianne has never once let herself feel attraction for a man. That is, until she meets the grieving Josce FitzBaldwin, whose father, Lord Baldwin of Haydon, and two sisters, were murdered by thieves while on the road to Knabwell. But, how can she feel anything for the man who has vowed to take her father's life, should Reiner du Hommet fail to find the theives who killed his father?
(Author's aside)I really enjoyed writing this book. At least I enjoyed it until the last few chapters when I had to struggle to end it, maybe because I enjoyed writing it so much. Anyway, I felt it really needed a Hollywood ending, so I tried a few versions and finally settled on the car chase, only, of course, Josce and Elianne are on horseback instead. Oddly enough, the character I enjoyed the most in this book was the villain, Adelm. I think I have an affinity for some of my villains, perhaps because they are so flawed and I know they're not going to get the happy ending that my hero and heroine will.