Ruby - Book 1 (Daughters of the Dagger Series) (25 page)

“Nothing means more to me than you, wife.
And I plan on keeping you around for a long time – forever. Because
I love you, Ruby. I know I had a hard time saying it before but I
have let go of my past and want to live with you in my future. I’ll
say it again, I love you Ruby, and I really mean it.”

“And I love you, too, Nyle.” They embraced
and kissed, then Ruby held up the dagger to admire it once again.
“This is the best present you could have ever given me.”

Just then, the baby reached out and tried to
touch the tip of the blade. Nyle’s hands shot out and took the baby
from Sapphire and pulled him into his embrace protectively. “No you
don’t, you little rabbit,” he said.

“Rabbit?” Ruby looked at him curiously. “Why
did you call him that? Does it have something to do with that pet
rabbit you lost as a child and why you can’t eat rabbit to this
day?”

“Ah, so that is why you never eat the
braised rabbit at the feasts,” said Locke. “And I’m just going to
guess, but I’d say that boy’s odd name, Tibbar sounds an awful lot
like the word rabbit spelled backwards.”

“It is!” exclaimed Ruby. “You named him
after your pet rabbit.”

Everyone laughed, and instead of getting
angry, Nyle laughed along with them. Then he added to the
explanation. “Not to mention, the day I first saw this baby he was
sucking his thumb and his nose was wriggling like a damned
rabbit.”

“I’m going to miss the little fellow,” said
Ruby, running a hand across the boy’s dark locks. “I only wish
there was some way we could keep him.” She looked down to her
dagger and gripped it tightly. This little boy reminded her so much
of her baby brother that she didn’t want to lose him too.

“Lord Sheffield? Lord Nyle Sheffield?” A
messenger of the king rode up to the bottom of the church steps. He
horse was draped with the king’s color and coat of arms, as well as
having it displayed proudly on his chest.

“I am Lord Sheffield.” Nyle descended the
steps with the boy in his arms and Ruby hurriedly followed.
Sapphire reached down and picked up the end of her long train and
straightened it for her when she got to the bottom. Ruby had a
servant to do that, but her sisters were doting over her ever since
she’d returned. Everyone crowded around as the messenger reached
into his pouch and pulled out a rolled up parchment sealed in wax
with the stamp of the king’s signet ring.

“The king made an unannounced visit to your
castle just two days ago, but you had left already.”

“I am sorry,” he announced. “Had I known he
was coming, I would have been there.”

“Your steward and knights told him where you
went, and he sent me with this missive to find you.”

Nyle handed the baby to Ruby, and she
noticed the tension lining the creases of Nyle’s mouth that he held
firm and straight. She knew he was expecting the worse in the
missive and so was she. Her heart already ached, knowing how hard
it was going to be for Nyle to give up little Tibbar and return him
to the king. She would miss him as well, as she had grown fond of
him and started to feel like ’twas their child. The three of them
had started to feel like a family, and she didn’t want to lose that
after all they’d been through.

She watched as Nyle reached out to break the
wax seal, his hands shaking in the process. She saw the bead of
sweat on his brow and the way he clenched his jaw so tightly in
anticipation that a muscle actually twitched in his neck. He slid
off the band that bound it, and dropped it to the ground. Then he
hesitated, his hand lingering, but yet doing naught to unroll the
parchment.

“Do you want me to read it?” asked Ruby.

He looked at the scroll once again and ran a
weary hand through his hair. “Nay,” he told her. “I need to do
this. And I need to accept whatever the king decides.”

“What’s this all about, Sheffield?” asked
the earl, making his way to the front of the crowd. “Read the
missive from the king aloud so we can all hear. After all, we are
now all family.”

“You don’t have to,” Ruby whispered, knowing
how hard this already was for Nyle.

“Nay, he’s right,” said Nyle. “You are all
part of my family now and you need to know.”

He unrolled the scroll slowly, looking at
Ruby and taking a deep breath. Then he released it, and looked at
the words written on the parchment. His eyes scanned the contents,
and he shook his head, his eyes closing for a second as he read the
missive to himself.

“What’s the matter?” asked Ruby, reaching
out her hand to rub her husband’s arm to comfort him. “What does
the king say?”

“It seems when he arrived at Sheffield they
were in the process of burning Jocelyn’s body.”

“Oh no,” she gasped. “Did he know it was
her?”

“My steward, Lewis, told him everything. How
Jocelyn hired people with the king’s money to murder my wives so
the baby would be ensured a good life with him raised as his
bastard.”

“How did Lewis even know?” asked Ruby. “I
thought you kept that part a secret.”

“There were only two people I’d told that
story to,” said Nyle, “and one of them must have had a wagging
tongue.”

“I didn’t tell the steward,” said Ruby. “I
promise you I kept that to myself.”

“I wasn’t accusing you,” he said, turning
his head and looking directly at Locke. Locke made a face and hung
his head in shame.

“I am sorry, my lord. I may have been a
little excited and spilled a secret or two but I assure you I meant
no harm.”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Nyle, continuing
to read the king’s words. “It seems the king decided ’twould be
better if he distanced himself from this whole scandal. He doesn’t
care to sully his name by it.”

“What does that mean?” asked Ruby, suddenly
feeling hopeful. She watched as Nyle’s frown slowly turned upward
into a grin. He finished reading the missive and rolled it back up
and turned to face her.

“It means my squire’s ability to gossip like
an old alewife actually did me a favor this time.”

“My lord?” asked Locke, looking up
sheepishly.

“The king said he wouldn’t raise a bastard
whose mother was a murderer, and so he wants naught to do with
Tibbar.”

“So . . . what happens to him, then?” Ruby
asked.

Nyle reached out and took the child from
her. “He wants me to raise the boy as my own and never to mention
any of this to the queen.”

“Really?” Ruby felt a wave of elation and
relief wash through her. “So we can keep Tibbar? Forever?”

“It seems so,” he answered, kissing the baby
atop the head. “It looks like we’re going to be a family after
all.”

Ruby fell into Nyle’s arms and the three of
them were brought together as the family she knew they really were.
Her sisters congratulated her and even her father accepted
everything that had happened and reached out and clasped arms with
Nyle and leaned over to kiss Ruby on the cheek.

“Lord Sheffield,” said the messenger as his
horse danced anxiously beneath him. “One last thing before I
leave.” The man reached into his pouch and pulled out something
from within. “I stopped in town on the way here to ask where to
find you, and an old, odd woman told me. She also asked me to give
this to you. When I saw what it was, I wanted to ask her why she
even had it, but when I looked up, she had already gone.”

“What is it?” asked Ruby, peering over to
see the object the man had just handed Nyle. Nyle opened his
fingers and there on his palm was his father’s signet gold ring,
shining brightly in the morning sun.

“Well, Locke, can you see this?” chuckled
Nyle. “I guess I wasn’t talking to myself in town after all, was
I?”

“’Tis your ring, my lord,” gasped Locke. “I
can’t believe it.”

“I can,” he said, looking down to Ruby and
smiling. The baby picked up the ring and tried to put it in his
mouth. “Nothing will surprise me from this day forward. After all,
my life is going to be far from dull now that I’ve married one of
the
Daughters of the Dagger – Ruby!”

From the Author:

I hope you enjoyed Ruby and Nyle’s story. The
second book in the
Daughters of the
Dagger Series
,
Sapphire
is now available, and Book 3, Amber is coming soon.

The
books in the
Daughters of
the Dagger Series
are:

Ruby
– Book
1

Sapphire
– Book
2

Amber – Book
3
(September, 2013)

Amethyst – Book
4
(October, 2013)

The books will be released one per
month, so please watch for them. And following this series will be
a Scottish series that will start with the story of their brother,
Onyx. You may also be interested in my medieval
Legacy of the Blade
Series
:

Lord of the
Blade

Lady
Renegade

Lord of
Illusion

Lady of the
Mist

Or if you enjoy a little paranormal in your
medieval romances, try my
Elemental Series
:

The Dragon and the Dreamwalker
,
Book 1: Fire
;
The Duke and the
Dryad
Book 2:
Earth
;
The Sword and the Sylph
,
Book 3: Air;
and
The Sheik and the
Siren
, Book 4: Water.

Or my
Greek Myth Fantasy
Series
as well.

Please visit my website at
Elizabethrosenovels.com
to read excerpts and receive updates as I have at least one new
book being released every month, sometimes more. Make sure to
subscribe to my email list. You can also read excerpts from any of
my novels on my website as well as get sneak peeks at covers of
upcoming books. And please remember that there are other authors by
the same name, but my novels can be identified by the rose on every
cover.

I’d like to leave you now with excerpts from each of the series
I’ve mentioned. Thank you all for your wonderful reviews, as it
gives me the motivation to keep bringing you new novels.

Elizabeth Rose

Excerpt from
Sapphire
– Book 2

(Daughters of the Dagger Series)

Lady Sapphire pulled the hood of her mantle
lower to hide her face as she entered the
Bucket of Blood
behind her stable boy, Dugald. She knew she shouldn’t be in town
this late at night and amongst commoners, but she was trying to
escape her husband, Lord Wretched. That is, the baron. People had
no idea what a horrible man he really was. And if he found out
she’d ever been here, he’d take his fist to her, she was sure.

She only wished the marriage had not been so
rushed, and that her father and sisters would have been present.
Perhaps her father would have stopped the marriage, since the baron
was not an original part of the negotiations he’d made with Roe
Sexton’s late father, Robert, who died just before her arrival. But
she’d been convinced by her dead betrothed’s uncle who was also
Robert’s brother, Lord Henry Sexton, that this was the proper thing
to do and not to jeopardize the alliance between Blackpool and Rye.
So she’d done the deed, to ensure safety to her father’s lands, and
especially her younger twin sisters, Amber and Amethyst back
home.

Sapphire didn’t regret for a moment coming
to the Bucket of Blood pub, searching for answers. After all, there
was nowhere else to go since her own bed was occupied with one of
her husband’s latest women. Since he found her body not planted
with his seed, his impatience won out and he went on to sample any
woman in the castle he could get his hands on. Still, none of them
had been impregnated by him.

She was grateful he hadn’t touched her now
in over two months, as she wanted nothing to do with the vile man
ever again. No woman would ever bear him an heir no matter how many
he sampled. God was obviously punishing him for not only bedding
every woman in the castle - be she a noble or merely a servant -
but also for beating the women when they did not conceive. She’d
had her share of bruises from his punishing hand, and knew this is
not what she should encounter in a marriage or coupling.

She stopped in the doorway, glancing at the
patrons in the dimly lit pub. The Bucket of Blood was a favorite
gathering place for sailors and fishermen since it was so close to
port. And with Rye being one of the Cinque Ports, she knew she’d
find many honorable men here who had vowed to protect the channel
for their king. Men of the sea filled the tables and wooden benches
and stood at the drink board that served as a counter. The
innkeeper handed them ale, wine, brandy, and drinks of many kinds
in large tankards made of metal or wood with a large curved handle
on the side. Women of the night clung to the men, wearing their
low-cut-bodice gowns, working the room, and trying to earn a
living.

The large burly man guarding the door, the
bouncer, held out his hand and growled in a low voice. “

“Ye know the charge. A hay-p’ny for each o’
ye. Now pay up.”

Like most pubs, there was a petty charge at
the door to cover any damages of broken bottles or benches should a
patron get rough. And in a place like this, chaos was always
evident.

Sapphire slipped two halfpennies to the boy,
and Dugald handed them over to the bouncer. The man held out his
board of wet wood and one at a time bounced the coins atop it to
make sure they were real and not made of lead. Satisfied, he nodded
and grunted.