An Anglo-Saxon noblewoman overhears a conspiracy plot in the castle and goes to the Norman sheriff for help, but his voice sounds suspiciously like one of the conspirators.
As a blind woman seen as a flawed commodity, Lady Lynnet is used to the idea that she’s unlovable. But her parents’ plan to force her into a loveless marriage is too much. Wandering, upset and lost in the cellars of the King’s castle, the darkness doesn’t frighten her, but the murder plot she overhears chills her to the bone. Worse, no one believes her, and the only one she can turn to is a Norman sheriff whose voice sounds disturbingly like one of the conspirators.
Basil, Sheriff of London, is battle-hardened, fiercely loyal—and torn apart. He’s falling in love with the Saxon beauty, and he longs to show her she is worthy of lovedespite her physical limitation.
But the very corruption she is helping him root out may implicate his own half brother. How can he turn his back onfamily—for an Anglo-Saxon woman?
Excerpt
At a cross corridor, out of long-standing habit, she turned in her favorite direction—right. After a few steps, she stopped to listen. In the distance, she heard muffled voices.
“God’s mercy.”
Relief passed through her, making her aware her knees had been trembling. She had not realized how fearful she’d become until her anxiety fled.
Lynnet hurried toward the voices, remembering to trail her fingertips along the chiseled corridor wall. When close enough to distinguish the words spoken, she reined herself abruptly to a standstill. The shiver that traveled along her spine had nothing to do with the cellar’s cold air.
“Destroy the vile Saxon hellspawn,” said a man with a slight northern accent.
“Crush them once and for all.”
“…chaos…kingdom…” a second man said in a whiny, nasal voice.
“…king’s brother…malleable…murder.
The cultured voice of the third man belied the evil in the words spoken.
Alarmed, Lynnet turned around and headed back the way she had come. Her heart pounded loudly in her ears and pressure built in her forehead.
Near these Normans is no place for an Anglo-Saxon.
Professional Reviews
Coffee Time Romance
“OUT OF THE DARK is a definite keeper and one I completely recommend.”
Blending Southern Gothic mystery romance, fantasy, theater, dance, music, and flashes of humor, tells the story of a pair of lovers in two separate time periods who find themselves battling an evil fifty years apart.
