An unexpected seduction…
Catherine Linwood is amongst the favored of Tudor Queen Mary–until her physician father dies mysteriously. She’s distraught, shunned and desperate for answers. Catherine’s only ally is Sir Brandon FitzAlan...who is willing to risk his life to protect hers. While the handsome stranger’s courage and wit soon capture her heart, his true allegiance and purpose is uncertain.
Brand is well used to the lies and shadows of court. Yet nothing prepares him for his sizzling attraction to innocent Catherine, or the deadly plot she is tangled in, for her father took a secret to his grave that could tear Catholic England apart. With one chance at salvation, Brand and Catherine begin a cross-country journey that reveals the shocking truth...and a burning passion that could save or destroy them both.
One Forbidden Knight
an Entangled Scandalous novella
Nicola Davidson
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Nicola Davidson. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.
Entangled Publishing, LLC
2614 South Timberline Road
Suite 109
Fort Collins, CO 80525
Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.
Scandalous is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.
Edited by Kate Brauning
Cover Design by Syd Gill
Cover Art by The Killion Group, Inc.
ISBN 978-1-63375-402-7
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition October 2015
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Discover more from Nicola Davidson…
His Forbidden Lady
Don’t miss out on more Scandalous romance…
Sins of a Duke
Lady Scandal
Duchess Decadence
Engaging the Earl
For my all-round amazing CP and friend Sherilee Gray—I’m so lucky to have you in my life. And for three fabulous little ladies/future heroines: Madison, Sasha, and Tahlia, with much love.
Chapter One
London, March 1558
She was late. Horribly, fearfully, catastrophically late.
Gritting her teeth against a wave of self-directed anger, Catherine Linwood hurried down a wide, icy-cold corridor within St. James’s Palace as fast as she could without hitching up her dark blue damask skirts and sprinting.
So few people had the trust and affection of their gracious and beloved sovereign Queen Mary. As the only child of Her Majesty’s most favored physician, Arthur Linwood, she had been warmly welcomed to court, granted countless audiences, and given gifts and elegantly furnished rooms.
Now she was repaying the kindnesses with tardiness.
“Catherine, please…” a voice wheezed beside her, and she glanced at Lady Jane Howard, whose complexion currently matched her plum-colored gown. Reluctantly, she slowed her steps.
“I’m sorry, Jane. We are a quarter hour late. You know how Her Majesty feels about punctuality.”
“Yes, but we’ll hardly impress dripping perspiration and gasping like landed trout. Besides, it was feast preparations for your father’s return, not dallying with a gentleman. It was her ladies and their winter ills that kept him away in the country so long.”
Catherine nodded, but her anxiety didn’t ease. Papa would be furious if he knew she’d kept the queen waiting, especially in her current delicate state.
“I couldn’t bear to distress her. She is so close to term now. Just think, finally England and Spain will be joined together again. It feels like we’ve waited forever for a Catholic prince, especially after the last mishap. Poor, dear lady. All the signs, but no bab—”
“Hush!” her friend hissed.
“It’s true.”
Abruptly, Jane grabbed her elbow in an unrelenting grip and yanked her well away from the courtiers calling out greetings and bowing as they passed. “Don’t be a fool. True or false, it is dangerous to speak of such things. It always travels back, and then you’re arrested and made a head shorter. A person’s name, friends, whether they are even guilty, none of that matters. You’re a favorite one day and decorating London Bridge the next.”
Catherine winced. No one knew better than a Howard how precarious the love of a monarch could be. Old King Henry had executed Jane’s father the Earl of Surrey, and her cousins Katherine Howard and Anne and George Boleyn.
“You’re right. I won’t—”
“Good. Just pray for the queen and her unborn child. As long as Elizabeth is heir, there’ll be plots and rebellion. That sly red fox should be rotting in the Tower. Her mother tore this country apart, and she would too.”
“But she’s your cousin,” Catherine mumbled, suppressing a twinge of sympathy at the rough treatment the queen’s half-sister had endured over the years. “Distant cousin,” said Jane coldly. “And a heretic, no matter what she claims. All proper, God-fearing people shun and despise her. You are a devoted Catholic, aren’t you Catherine?”
“Of course!”
“Good. If Elizabeth were to become queen, the country would never recover. Look at the turmoil when Edward was king, then that usurper Jane Grey. Protestants make terrible rulers. They are weak and ungodly.”
“Papa says—”
“Bah. Your father should do naught but doctor. And find you a husband while he has influence and you have your looks. Men might overlook a small dowry and lack of title now, even that you’ve studied Latin texts and tended uncovered limbs. But you are twenty years old, and time is swiftly running out.”
Guilt prickled, the kind that warranted a confessional visit. Disloyalty to her beloved father was wrong, but her lack of husband had become a matter of embarrassment. Papa always laughed and said the day a worthy man presented himself—a kind, devout, and sober Catholic who treated his servants well—he would heartily consent. When she’d seen the unsuccessful men stomp away, with their sour breath and padded doublets, she’d been glad of the firm edict. But lately, she wasn’t so certain.
“Perhaps I shall be a merry old maid, dancing till dawn and eating sweetmeats all day,” Catherine said eventually, forcing a cheerful grin. “You may visit when your castles, jewels, and future lordly husband grow tiresome.”
“Ha! And you may always visit me. Even
