Bøger af Lily Dewaruile

AD877 - Pendyffryn has fallen to the Conqueror, Jehan-Emíl deFreveille. Though Cwmdu warriors defeated Han Chadzy's first assault, Daran Pendyffryn sends Christophe Maides-known as the Demon to the warriors he terrifies on the battlefield and the women attracted to his bed, hired killer and unrepentant predator-to protect his chosen heir. From his first sight of Cwmdu, the Demon has coveted the mountains. He had never loved, never been loved but, from his first sight of a flaxen nymph, he covets more than one night of pleasure. While Han Chadzy takes his revenge on Daran Pendyffryn's allies to the east, destroying the village and driving inhabitants to the forest, Maides recognizes the first stirrings of desire he has felt since landing on this cold island.On the chance of finding the flaxen-haired woman again and the opportunity to grasp the mineral-rich mountains surrounding Cwmdu, Maides accepts Daran Pendyffryn's commission to find and protect Heilyn ap Alun, a boy who will become the most powerful man in the region.The custom of offering a guest his wife for a night's companionship is a matter of honor for Alun Cwmdu but he refuses to offend the Demon by offering Heilyn's mother, a harridan whose sarcasm provokes men to violence. Alun's captured Saxon slave, Ingred, is another matter.The customs of his homeland prevent Maides from accepting another's wife and the mercenary has seen the woman he wants that night, a woman so beautiful she outshines the sun, offering her smile to a man who equals Maides in strength and power. Her scent is of the mountains and the forest, and lingers in Alun's bed.

With few friends to support him and more enemies than he has ever known, Christophe Maides embarks on a course of action certain to cause his closest friend, Jehan-Emíl deFreveille, to wonder if the Demon has lost his mind. Without doubt, he has lost his heart. With no guarantee he will ever benefit from the pledge he is determined to make to Caryl Gernant, Maides follows his father's reckless path. Loving a woman who will never consent to his proposal, will never accept him as her husband has condemned him to commit the crimes of his father but, like Gilles de Maides, Christophe prefers that unhappy fate to living another day without hope Caryl will, one day, change her mind.

Blaentywi, AD927Orphan and prisoner of war, hostage and bondservant, beautiful and arrogant, soft and frightened. Heledd's uncle has offered every incentive to his warriors but no man will have her... until her honor and life are threatened by the man who butchered her family. Her honor or her life, her life or her love...his choice.A woman is the last diversion Garmon Dolwyddlan expects, or wants, when he responds to an urgent message from his foster brother. Heledd Ieuan's pride sears the warrior-scholar's soul as much as her fire-brand hair sears his senses. Obsessed with the desire to lower her arrogant chin, Garmon buys her bond. Six months in Llew Talgarth's service seems a fair trade to own her-until he learns the truth. Claiming his property means breaking his word of honor but Garmon vows he will never abandon her to the vicious landowner, Meilor Gwesyn, or leave her undefended against the constant humiliations devised by her cousins.A soldier's bondwoman - no fate is worse for Heledd - until Garmon Dolwyddlan no longer wants her. Her uncle, vengeful and devious, craves she bears the disgrace of her family and pays for their betrayal for the rest of her life. When her bond is sold a second time to an old man in a distant region, Heledd lifts her chin higher to face a new life, hopeful she can escape the shame of her father's treachery.

DeFreveille, the Conqueror, is conquered. His children have the home he sought and war goes on. Now, it is time for his second son, Marshal mab Ieuan, to find his own way in the country of his heart. But to lose his heart here cannot be part of his plan.Pendyffryn: The Inheritors: Justice. Hard won. Easily lost. To prepare his daughter, Tanglwys, for a future without his protection, Meinor Hedydd contracts with Gwennan Pendyffryn to take her as an apprentice in the Conqueror's Gaer household to learn skills that will be of use to others and a source of income for her. The presence of another dependent fostered child affects Gwennan's stepson, Marshal deFreveille, in a way that is not entirely unwelcome as he begins his own training to become a soldier in his father's army.From the beginning of their acquaintance, Tanglwys and Marshal face hatred and intolerance. A fateful encounter at the river sparks more than his protective inclination toward her but, when Marshal punishes her brother and his friends for tormenting Tanglwys, their budding friendship falters. A stranger still, and hated for his valor and skill, Marshal faces the first of his most difficult challenges when he falls in love with his sworn enemy's sister. Her brother's resentment and loathing for the Conqueror's son are fierce. His violence toward Tanglwys for causing the incident at the river leads to his demotion to the lowest ranks of soldiery. In fear of her brother and to appease her mother's hatred, Tanglwys denies her growing admiration for the Conqueror's son until their false allegations threaten to destroy him.

Christophe Maides has conquered Cwmdu and the flaxen-haired woman bred of the valley. The mountains that surround his new home pose no threat, nor does Morgan Cwmdu whose venom has tormented his beloved wife, Caryl Gernant, for months yet he cannot conquer the dreams torturing his nights and separating him from the only woman he has ever loved.With the appearance of three hunters, Christophe is catapulted into a past life he has striven to forget and sees in the eldest hunter the man he might have been, the man his wife deserves. The pain of his young manhood has driven him to live apart, to conceal his heart even from his closest friend. Reluctance to confront the truth drives him to an act of violence fueled by jealousy that costs him all he has fought to win.The eldest of the hunters claims to be Christophe's younger brother and the two boys to be his nephews, the sons of brothers Christophe knows to have died before reaching manhood. Caryl Gernant has always known in her heart that Rizah Izberec loved Christophe's father and is eager to hear Rizah's youngest son's story despite her husband's resistance and discomfort. Christophe, to make reparation for his violence, faces his past and listens without protest to the story of his father and mother's life together. Though he denies there can be any truth in the tale this hunter tells, Christophe cannot deny the resemblance he shares with all three of the hunters, a physical similarity that links them all to his father, Gilles de Maides.Jedeh Maides, the fifth son of Rizah and Gilles, was born six months after the death of his father. He was raised in the village of his mother's birth, with his elder brothers in the shadow of the one brother most like their father, the only brother who was not raised in the safety of their family home.Throughout Jedeh's life, Rizah grieved for the loss of her beloved husband and for the son she could not save as she had her three eldest sons. He and his nephews have traveled from Haiastan to find Christophe, learn from him and reassure his mother that Christophe lives and is well.

"The best of men...the most treacherous of lovers."There are many ways a woman can be foolish. Gwennan has proven all but one of them. Her husband has one goal; hers is not so different they cannot find a compromise. Her heartbreak does not necessarily mean she is defeated. His betrayal does not necessarily mean she has lost everything.If Ieuan Emyr was less of a man, if she did not love him, she could easily find it in her heart to end his life for what he has done. There are many ways a woman can be foolish. Gwennan has proven all but one of them. Her husband has one goal; hers is not so different they cannot find a compromise. Her heartbreak does not necessarily mean she is defeated. His betrayal does not necessarily mean she has lost everything.Disappointment does not kill a man. Disinterest. Submission. Less than all he had thought he had gained, grueling day after day of war and Gwennan's cold indifference dismay him. Her happy laughter had once filled him with hope that his gamble had won him a home and the love of woman he had risked the lives of his children to wed. Her friends, a beautiful day, a reckless venture to escape her anguish bring Gwennan face to face with the evil her husband once served. Betrayal is not always about love.

"You will know the man..."One woman stands against the INVASION of her home. One man holds her life in his hands. And... "he was not a man who needed a lot of women. He was a man who needed a lot of one woman. This woman."Gwennan will only inherit her family's ancestral land if she has a child of her own. Her father has rejected all the men who have asked for her. When he tells her that her most recent suitor has one redeeming quality, she decides to act on her own behalf. She chooses her own husband with unexpected results. Her childhood friend and first love proves to be no better choice. When her home is invaded by the hired killers of an ancient enemy, she meets a man even her father could approve, though he is also a man determined to destroy everything in his path to get what he wants - whether it is Gwennan or her rich estate - nothing has the power to stop him.