My Lady Midnight

“I am yours, my lord,”

Claire declared with all the tenderness she could muster.

Alain raised his head from hers and their gazes locked. “You are, aren’t you?” he said wonderingly. “You are mine—my lady…”

She blinked, startled. “L-lady? I am no lady, L-lord Alain,” she stammered, wondering if somehow he knew. “I am just a serf…”

His lips curved upward. “You may have been born but a serf, but there’s a core in you of the finest gold. During the day you move among the humble folk of Hawkswell, but at night, when you come into my arms, you are every bit as fine as the proudest of Norman ladies—my lady,” he told her, his voice deep and husky with feeling. “My Lady Midnight…”

The phrase hung on the air, caressing her soul like velvet warmed before the fire…

Dear Reader,

Known for both her medieval novels and her Westerns, Reader’s Choice Award winner Laurie Grant is back this month with her new medieval tale, My Lady Midnight. This intriguing story features a Norman widow who becomes a political pawn when she is forced to go undercover as a governess in the home of the baron she believes responsible for the death of her best friend. Don’t miss this dark and wonderful tale.

Award-winning author Miranda Jarrett’s new Sparhawk book, Gift of the Heart, is a touching story set in the wilds of the New York frontier where a woman, abandoned by her no-good husband, discovers happiness in the arms of a fugitive haunted by his past.

Beauty and the Beast, a Regency tale about a troubled nobleman who is badgered into health by an interfering young neighbor, is the third book by March Madness author Taylor Ryan. And from hugely popular contemporary author Dallas Schulze comes her new Western, Short Straw Bride, the heartwarming tale of two people who marry for practical reasons, and wind up falling head over heels in love.

We hope you’ll keep a lookout for all four titles wherever Harlequin Historicals are sold.

Sincerely,

Tracy Farrell

Senior Editor

Please address questions and book requests to:

Harlequin Reader Service

U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325. Buffalo, NY 14269

Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

My Lady Midnight

Laurie Grant

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

ACKNOWLEDGMENT (#ulink_faf6bf14-52b3-58ff-a1bc-c531e6ac8198)

With grateful thanks to Sherrilyn Kenyon, my “medieval lifesaver,” and Ann Bouricius, critiquer and friend

LAURIE GRANT

combines a career as a trauma center emergency room nurse with that of historical romance author, she says the writing helps keep her sane. Passionately enthusiastic about the history of both England and Texas, she divides her travel time between these two spots. She is married to her own real-life hero, and has two teenage daughters, two dogs and a cat.

If you would like to write to Laurie, please use the address below:

Laurie Grant

P.O. Box 307272

Gahanna, OH 43230

To Maryanne Colas, for checking my French And always, to Michael

Prologue (#ulink_4793f030-86d6-5a89-9abf-a8090bef55e2)

Coverly Castle, England

January 1135

“Is he handsome, your betrothed?” Claire asked her best friend, Julia, who was also a distant cousin.

“I suppose so,” the older girl said with a sniff, tossing her silver-gilt curls, “if you care for a swarthy sort of man.” Her expression said that she did not. She examined a minor smudge on her gown of green silk. She reached over and twitched the end of one thick, golden braid at Claire’s nose teasingly.

Claire laughed. “But Julia, he is a baron! Haimo is but a knight, and a second son at that.”

“Bah! I had hoped for an earl,” Julia informed her, her nose wrinkling in a way Claire found unattractive, though she never would have told Julia so. “And Hawkswell Castle looked cold and forbidding when we visited last week for the betrothal. ’Tis nothing like Tinchley. But with King Henry like to die at any moment and leave his daughter the throne, Father says it would be well to have an alliance with a noble known to be loyal to the empress, no matter that Father would prefer to see Stephen on the throne.”

“But you’ll soon make it a warm and welcoming keep, I’m sure of it,” Claire assured her friend. “I hope so, for I’m going to beg Haimo to bring me for a visit just as soon as we are wed.”

“Hummph. I don’t see why your father won’t bring you to the wedding this spring.”

Claire sighed. It was still a sore point with her, too. “He says it falls too close to my betrothal to Haimo d’Audemer, and that there is apt to be unrest in the realm as soon as the old king breathes his last, for there are many who do not want to see his arrogant daughter crowned.”

“Men!” Julia said with a snort. “They don’t give a fig for our wishes, do they? I’ve already heard rumors about my husband to be, and they please me not.”

“Rumors? What rumors?” asked Claire curiously. Julia narrowed her eyes and shrugged. “I heard his servants whispering, that’s all. It seems my future lord was quite the womanizer, when he was newly knighted. They said he’d sired a bastard.”

“What of it? Many young bachelors do so, I believe,” Claire said, trying to keep her tone light, though inwardly she was dismayed for her friend and cousin. She was certain Haimo, whom she was to marry, would never do such a thing.

Julia’s laugh was brittle, her gray eyes wintry. “Indeed! Men may do as they like, and women have naught to say about it, have you not noticed?”

Claire reached out a sympathetic hand. “I’m certain ’twas but a youthful indiscretion, and one he repents of already, now that he’s to wed you, cousin. You’ll see, he’ll love you dearly, and he’ll have no need of a leman with you as his wife. And you’ll give him children—legitimate children, sons who can inherit.”

“Mayhap.” Julia sighed, and tossed her silvery blond curls again.

Chapter One (#ulink_5efc2388-efb7-545a-9a6e-36d180ec16bf)

Coverly Castle

May 1140

“I might have known I’d find you out here with the serf brats, Claire.”