The Warrior Series
ISBN 0-06-050910-4 Avon Books, January 2003
me, writing as Denise Hampton
Here is my third and final Warrior. I had more fun writing about Michel and Ami. I mean, what's not to love? Michel is a man who paints his mail black to hide the blood stains and is tired of having to maim or kill the foolish noble lads who challenge him because he's a commoner turned knight. As for Ami, she's a woman who won't be dominated, not by any nobleman or woman or even by her king. She surely isn't going to let some common, knighted Frenchman get the better of her, no matter how much her body thinks this might be a good idea. Follow this link if you'd like to read a bit of the book.
Here's your blurb:
Dark haired, gray eyed Michel de Martigny is a very uncommon knight. His mother was the proud, prejudiced daughter of a French baron forced into marriage with a merchant for monetary reasons, who hated her husband and her sons. Wanting to advance his common blood, Michel's father gives Michel to his brutal, noble grandfather to be trained as a knight. Michel's skill with a sword and his knighting doesn't change his status in the eyes of the nobility. They despise him as an upstart commoner, all except for England's devious and untrustworthy king, John. Michel is one of John's favorites, mostly because Michel's very presence at court enrages John's English nobles. When John offers Michel a wife from among his wards, the widows and maidens who live in the king's household, Michel chooses the single woman who cannot resist him or the disparagement their marriage will do her: the widow, Amicia de la Beres. All Michel expects from Amicia is her scorn. All he needs from her are the children she can bear him, and he'll take her against her will if necessary, to get them.
Amicia de la Beres has been a ward of King John for four years. During that time she's become an effective player in the schemes and games that permiate the king's court. There are only two things that frighten Ami: the possibility of King John forcing her into his bed and the possibility of being forced into marriage with one French mercenaries John prefers over his English subjects. But of all the mercenaries John keeps at his side the one Ami despises most deeply is the handsome but common Michel de Martigny.
What neither Michel nor Ami realizes is that John uses them both as pawns, as he dares his nobles, who have already threatened rebellion, to rise against him.