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  Eliza’s Awakening

  By Zaide Bishop

  It is the eve of the Longest Night. Eliza Baker and the rest of Lord Kempsly’s servants excitedly prepare for the lavish festival as their masters enjoy a head start on the debauchery that awaits. Eliza’s madly in love with Kell, a sweet, deliciously sexy guard. Kell returns her feelings, but is striving to make himself a worthy man before he asks Eliza’s father for permission to court her.

  To keep the Demon of Winter at bay, an offering must be made during the festival. As the event begins, Lord Kempsly informs Kell that he’s offering a special sacri­fice this year, and Kell must escort the girl who will offer up her maidenhood for the enjoyment of the crowd. Another guest will select the maiden, and Kell realizes to his dismay the guest is Lord Rakin, a rich and handsome rogue who has his eye on Eliza. But little do any of the men suspect the burgeoning desire the ceremony is awakening in Eliza…

  15,000 words

  Dear Reader,

  Inspiration comes from the strangest places. Every month, I whine a little when my coworker in charge of production, Jenny Bullough, emails to tell me it’s time to write a new Dear Reader letter. “But, but, I don’t know what to write about,” I say. This month, I added to my whine, “People have been telling me they actually READ these letters. Now there’s PRESSURE.” To which Jenny replied:

  My usual offer still stands ;)

  Dear Reader,

  Angela is busy sunning herself on a beach somewhere; we’ll return to our regularly scheduled dear reader letter in August. Meanwhile, enjoy this book!

  ~Jenny Bullough

  Unfortunately, since I write these letters months in advance, while this particular letter is going in the July books, and you’re perhaps reading this during the summer, the truth is, right now I’m dealing with allergy season, and not beach season. Though I did get to visit a beach in Florida a few weeks ago during a conference. Ahhh, memories…

  But I hope, for your sake, as you’re reading this, you are sunning yourself on some beach. With a tropical drink or frosty beer in hand. And a good-looking cabana person of your choice serving it. Oh, and no biting insects (our beach has biting insects and they hurt!).

  Still, I thank Jenny for the offer, and the inspiration to help me start off this letter. I have to admire the dedication of our authors who, every month, use their inspiration and write such fantastic stories that make great companions on the beach, by the pool, or even in your favorite reading spot indoors. This month, we have another creative and diverse group of releases for your reading pleasure.

  Kicking off the month is a sweeping historical romance from Laura Navarre. By Royal Command offers every­thing you’re looking for in a great historical read: rich historical details, sweeping passion, intrigue and, I don’t think I’m giving anything away by saying this, an amazing happy ending! Joining Laura in starting off our month of releases is debut author Kait Gamble with her fascinat­ing science-fiction romance Liar’s Game. Meanwhile, KC Burn keeps readers in the detailed science-fiction universe of Spice ’n’ Solace with her follow-up super-hot-and-spicy erotic m/m novella Alien ’n’ Outlaw.

  Longing for a particularly delicious erotic romance to turn up the heat inside, while it’s hot outside? We’ve got you covered this month. In addition to Alien ’n’ Outlaw, check out erotic romance offerings from Delphine Dryden and Karen Erickson with The Theory of Attraction and A Scandalous Affair, respectively. And we’re proud to announce debut erotic romance author Samantha Ann King with her ménage novel Sharing Hailey, and debut author Zaide Bishop with her erotic historical novella Eliza’s Awakening.

  Meanwhile, Michelle Garren Flye offers a compelling and emotional contemporary romance, Where the Heart Lies.

  Also this month, join Allegra Fairweather in another para­normal adventure in Island of Secrets by Janni Nell. And make sure you check out Jeffe Kennedy’s Rogue’s Pawn, which kicks off her new fantasy romance series!

  Other returning Carina Press authors this month include Natasha Hoar with The Ravenous Dead, the next installment in her Lost Souls series; Dee J. Adams’s Dangerously Close, which continues the high-octane Adrenaline Highs series; Anne Marie Becker, bringing you another slightly creepy and very suspenseful romance in Avenging Angel; and Hunter Raines with the paranormal m/m romance Sight Unseen.

  In addition to Samantha Ann King, Kait Gamble and Zaide Bishop, we’re proud to introduce another debut author, R.L. Naquin. If you enjoy your urban fantasy with a cheeky edge and a sense of humor, while offering the urban fantasy and romantic elements you love, make sure to check out Naquin’s debut novel, Monster in My Closet.

  I hope you these July 2012 releases as much as we do. And that you really do have a cabana person to wait on you ;)

  Remember, we love to hear from readers, and you can email us your thoughts, comments and questions to [email protected]. You can also interact with Carina Press staff and authors on our blog, Twitter stream and Facebook fan page.

  Happy reading!

  ~Angela James

  Executive Editor, Carina Press

  www.carinapress.com

  www.twitter.com/carinapress

  www.facebook.com/carinapress

  Dedication

  For the people who never gave up on me and believed in me, even when I was sure there was nothing left to believe in.

  Acknowledgements

  Books are like movies and deserve a rolling list of credits at the end. So much hard work goes into a book, not just from the author, but by many departments in publishing houses, from the art team, to finance, to the publicity department, the acquisitions team and, perhaps most importantly, the editors. The team at Carina Press have been fantastic—welcoming and professional. Thank you.

  Most of all, I would like to acknowledge my editor, Alissa Davis, for believing in my manuscript and turning it from a pipe dream into an actual book. Any editor working with a first time writer is taking a big leap of faith. Alissa, thank you for jumping with me.

  Contents

  Eliza’s Awakening

  About the Author

  Copyright

  “Eliza, hurry with those cakes or Lord Kempsly will personally tan your hide!”

  Eliza hurried past Amberlyn, the cook, before the plump, flour-dusted woman could strike her with the ladle. The cakes in question were steaming hot, already gathered on a silver platter and dusted with sugar that shimmered like snow on their fat, golden heads. She desperately hoped that Lord Kempsly’s guests would be too full to eat them all and that there would be leftovers for her and the other serving girls when the party was over. There was an excess of food, but nothing appealed to her quite as the little cakes did.

  “Yes, ma’am!” She scooped up the tray, tripping nimbly through the crowded kitchen, trying to avoid the flustered excitement of the other maids.

  The Longest Night was the busiest and most exciting event of the year. There would be a feast, dancing and a sacrifice, so the God of the Woods could protect the world from the Demon of Winter. There would be costumes and fine music—not to mention guests from all over Lorneswood and beyond. The kitchen staff had already been cooking for three whole days, and tonight all the keep staff were in pressed, starched uniforms and every pair of shoes was polished and shining. Lady Kempsly, Lord Kempsly’s wife and mistress of the keep, had given the maids flowers for their hair and Eliza could smell the fragrant lilies even amid the spicy aromas of the kitchen.

  She passed other girls, their brightly polished shoes making a clipped tapping noise on the stone floors.

&nbs
p; “The carriages have started to arrive,” Ylinda said, falling in beside Eliza with a platter full of dates and goat cheese. Ylinda was a dark-eyed creature with dusky skin and masses of black hair all tied back in a braid. She was elegant and mysterious, but quick to laugh and popular with the guards and stableboys. The opposite of Eliza’s tangerine freckles and strawberry blonde hair, so rich it was almost red. Yet they might as well have been sisters, for all the time they spent together. Sometimes Eliza wished they really were sisters, so she could have dark, smooth hair and that same willowy grace. Instead they were light and dark, sunny day and glossy night.

  “Are they all in costume?” Eliza asked.

  “Some of them. Most of them, I suppose, but you can still tell who they are. They want to look exotic and appealing, not like monsters on a theatre stage, I suspect.”

  “That’s boring.” Eliza rolled her eyes. “If I were a lady, I would wear a mask and stag horns and a big bear pelt and be Halen, the God of the Woods.”

  “You would be a very small God of the Woods,” Ylinda teased.

  “And I would still eat the most cakes.”

  They hurried down the corridors, their footfalls muffled by the thick red carpets that lined the floors around the Grand Hall. Still, Eliza walked on careful tiptoes as they crossed the threshold into the vast ballroom.

  She scarcely recognised it. Paraffin lanterns had been replaced with candles that lit up the room, bringing it to blazing life. Gauze curtains, fine as mist, were strung across the walls and over the doors—blue like winter skies. Glass decorations were everywhere, made to look like ice crystals, sparkling in the candlelight. The grand tapestries that depicted hunting and knights had been stripped away and replaced with scenes of dark forests and snow-crusted dells, as if they really were somewhere outside, in the wilds, preparing to feast and dance with the spirits of the trees.

  The banquet table shimmered with silverware. Most of the courses were already in place—rich and fragrant with spices that reminded her of the winter season. And, of course, behind it all, the main event—the solstice tree, decorated with sparkling balls of coloured glass, blown and painted eggs, strings of nuts and dried fruits, and delicate little birds made of lace and stuffed with eiderdown.

  The spits of roasting meat were in here, cooking over burning wood and open flame. It spared the meat the taint of the coal it would receive if it had been cooked in the kitchen, in front of the range. The ancient grand fireplace was large enough to walk a horse into and now the fire was built and the embers burning like tiger’s eyes as two brawny looking men tended the meats that turned there. It was so grand and awe-inspiring—and warm. Even with the icy decorations, the room was delightfully toasty from the fire and candles. Such a pleasant change from the weeks of dull, grey chill leading up to the Longest Night.

  “It’s beautiful.” She paused a moment to take it all in, but Ylinda hurried on to the table.

  “Come on, we’ll get it if they find us dawdling.”

  Eliza sighed and hurried on. “I wish we could find costumes and sneak in. We’d never forget it.”

  “We’d never forget the lashes we got for it in the morning either.” Ylinda laughed.

  “I just want to be part of it…” Eliza gave a little sigh.

  They put down their platters and started back the way they’d come. “Perhaps it would be fun,” Ylinda mused. “But you know it’s all debauchery and sin. It’s not like the parties we’ve known, where people drink, get drunk, fall over and praise the season. The lords make sacrifices.”

  “We always killed a dove in my home,” Eliza said. “My uncle Fen would feed it raisins and sunflowers all evening, then cut off its head and offer it to the God of the Woods. You have to, or someone will die before spring turns.”

  “The nobility offer different sacrifices. Rigori said they will be making an offering of flesh and seed. Lord Kempsly has promised to put on a show that none of them will ever forget.”

  “Oh, and we’ll miss it. We’ll probably be stuck in the kitchen while they’re all witnessing miracles.”

  Ylinda pulled a face. “Some miracles I can live without.”

  They turned back down the corridor, toward the kitchen and saw two of the keep guards in their red and black livery, trying to straighten the lapels and tassels on one another’s uniforms. They were doing a poor job. One was the sandy-haired Emerlin, but the other—the other made Eliza blush. Her heart started to pound, even before the young men looked up and noticed them.

  Kell’s thick black curls were always coming loose from the club he bound them in at the back of his neck. Tonight, two strands had already worked their way free and were softening the hard line of his jaw. She wanted to tuck them back in place, to tidy them up, but she would never dare. His big dark eyes met hers and he smiled. She was melting, all her insides pooling, hot, in the bowl of her hipbones.

  “Good evening,” Emerlin said, pretending he was tipping a hat to them. He was funny—so funny he could never be serious, even when he should be.

  “Have you seen the guests arriving?” Ylinda asked. “Who has the best costume?”

  “We should be at the doors,” Kell said. His voice was always soft. “We’re late.”

  In a moment of boldness, Eliza reached up to carefully smooth his lapels and straightened the bronze stars pinned to his chest. Their eyes met and she blushed again, biting her lip and looking at his buttons instead.

  “Thank you, Eliza.”

  “Eliza was just saying we should steal costumes and sneak into the party,” Ylinda told Emerlin. It was so easy for her to talk to men. “But then we’d have no escorts. Unless the two of you can pretend to be lords.”

  “It might almost be worth our punishment, which would probably be marching in the snow carrying live sheep.” Emerlin laughed. “And it would depend on what costume you’re planning on wearing and how much of you it covered. But Lord Kempsly would see to it that it was the last time I ever saw a woman in my whole miserable life and you’d miss me.”

  “I think I could find a way to carry on,” Ylinda said drily, but Eliza could see how she leaned toward Emerlin.

  “Who would you go as?” Kell asked Eliza.

  “The God of the Woods,” she said, uncharacteristically shy.

  “You’re far too summery to be a spirit of coldness and death.” He smiled.

  She blushed, her tongue tangled and thick in her mouth. She wanted to say something sweet or flattering. Even a ‘thank you’ would have been better than staring at him dumbly, but her wit always fled while he was nearby. All he had to do was glance at her to set her loins smouldering and her skin tingling. His compliment was too much for her heart and underclothes to bear. A sudden shriek from the kitchen made Ylinda groan.

  “Amberlyn is losing her temper. Come, Eliza. Before she steps out and spots us.”

  “Bye,” she said to Kell, feeling foolish.

  He smiled goodbye and he and Emerlin walked away with their heads together, murmuring quietly.

  Ylinda caught her arm lightly and tugged her along. “If you were any more obvious you’d have fallen to your knees and unbuckled his trousers in the corridor,” she scolded.

  She blushed again. “I looked like a fool.”

  “You didn’t. But it’s hard for him to talk to you when you act like you’re going to explode when he looks at you. Relax a little and he’ll spend more time with you.”

  Eliza pulled a sour face. “It’s easy for you.”

  “Because I don’t have to dry out my pantalettes when a man so much as looks at me?”

  “Not any man. Just that one.”

  They hurried back into the kitchen and the floury chaos within. After the cool of the corridors, the heat of the kitchen—fuelled by hundreds of cakes baking and dozens of bodies all rushing around—was enough t
o make her start to sweat.

  “You two!” Amberlyn snapped, spotting Eliza and Ylinda as they stepped through the door. “Go down to the wine cellar and fetch up six bottles of claret. Quickly! The guests are coming inside and they will want drinks at once!”

  The girls nodded, hurrying out the way they had come. They continued to scramble until they were out of range of the kitchen and Amberlyn’s line of sight, then they slowed to a comfortable stroll.

  “Thank the gods for that.” Eliza grinned. “It was so hot in there.”

  “Come, let’s take the long route to the cellar. If we go upstairs we can look down on the arriving guests from the library balcony and see their costumes.”

  “Amberlyn will have us flogged,” Eliza said, though without any true concern.

  “We’ll say Lord Kempsly had us folding cloaks or fetching glasses.” Ylinda waved a dismissive hand. “Come.”

  They slipped up the narrow staircase reserved for servants and trotted quickly down the wide, elegantly decorated corridors. It was quiet tonight—and cold. With no one in this wing, the fires had not been lit and the stone walls radiated the chill night as if they were cut from ice. They slipped into the dark room. “I’ve never seen the library like this,” Eliza said.

  “It will be cheery again on the morrow.” Ylinda led the way across the handwoven rugs that padded the floor. The balcony doors were all glass to let in the light, though the only light now was the burning of paraffin lanterns on the road and all around the driveway, welcoming the guests to the door. There was no moon—it was covered with low, thick clouds, like so much cotton jammed up into the sky.

  They could see the carriages gliding in, drawn by fine horses that pranced in the light dusting of snow, lathered from their trek. As each carriage rolled into the entryway, grooms rushed to the horses with thick blankets to keep them warm while their masters and mistresses socialised. The drivers would probably not fare so well. They had to bring their own blankets.