A TIME OF END
A Medieval Romance
By Kathryn Le Veque
Book Four in the Executioner Knights Series
© Copyright 2019 by Kathryn Le Veque Novels, Inc.
Kindle Edition
Text by Kathryn Le Veque
Cover by Kim Killion
Edited by Scott Moreland
Reproduction of any kind except where it pertains to short quotes in relation to advertising or promotion is strictly prohibited.
All Rights Reserved.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
License Notes:
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook, once purchased, may not be re-sold. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it or borrow it, or it was not purchased for you and given as a gift for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. If this book was purchased on an unauthorized platform, then it is a pirated and/or unauthorized copy and violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Do not purchase or accept pirated copies. Thank you for respecting the author’s hard work.
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Kathryn Le Veque Novels
Medieval Romance:
De Wolfe Pack Series:
Warwolfe
The Wolfe
Nighthawk
ShadowWolfe
DarkWolfe
A Joyous de Wolfe Christmas
BlackWolfe
Serpent
A Wolfe Among Dragons
Scorpion
StormWolfe
Dark Destroyer
The Lion of the North
Walls of Babylon
The Best Is Yet To Be
The de Russe Legacy:
The Falls of Erith
Lord of War: Black Angel
The Iron Knight
Beast
The Dark One: Dark Knight
The White Lord of Wellesbourne
Dark Moon
Dark Steel
A de Russe Christmas Miracle
The de Lohr Dynasty:
While Angels Slept
Rise of the Defender
Steelheart
Shadowmoor
Silversword
Spectre of the Sword
Unending Love
Archangel
Lords of East Anglia:
While Angels Slept
Godspeed
Great Lords of le Bec:
Great Protector
House of de Royans:
Lord of Winter
To the Lady Born
The Centurion
Lords of Eire:
Echoes of Ancient Dreams
Blacksword
The Darkland
Ancient Kings of Anglecynn:
The Whispering Night
Netherworld
Battle Lords of de Velt:
The Dark Lord
Devil’s Dominion
Bay of Fear
The Dark Lord’s First Christmas
Reign of the House of de Winter:
Lespada
Swords and Shields
De Reyne Domination:
Guardian of Darkness
With Dreams
The Fallen One
House of d’Vant:
Tender is the Knight (House of d’Vant)
The Red Fury (House of d’Vant)
The Dragonblade Series:
Fragments of Grace
Dragonblade
Island of Glass
The Savage Curtain
The Fallen One
Great Marcher Lords of de Lara
Lord of the Shadows
Dragonblade
House of St. Hever
Fragments of Grace
Island of Glass
Queen of Lost Stars
Lords of Pembury:
The Savage Curtain
Lords of Thunder: The de Shera Brotherhood Trilogy
The Thunder Lord
The Thunder Warrior
The Thunder Knight
The Great Knights of de Moray:
Shield of Kronos
The Gorgon
The House of De Nerra:
The Promise
The Falls of Erith
Vestiges of Valor
Realm of Angels
Highland Warriors of Munro:
The Red Lion
Deep Into Darkness
The House of de Garr:
Lord of Light
Realm of Angels
Saxon Lords of Hage:
The Crusader
Kingdom Come
High Warriors of Rohan:
High Warrior
The House of Ashbourne:
Upon a Midnight Dream
The House of D’Aurilliac:
Valiant Chaos
The House of De Dere:
Of Love and Legend
St. John and de Gare Clans:
The Warrior Poet
The House of de Bretagne:
The Questing
The House of Summerlin:
The Legend
The Kingdom of Hendocia:
Kingdom by the Sea
The Executioner Knights:
By the Unholy Hand
The Promise (also Noble Knights of de Nerra)
The Mountain Dark
Starless
A Time of End
Contemporary Romance:
Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Series:
Valley of the Shadow
The Eden Factor
Canyon of the Sphinx
The American Heroes Anthology Series:
The Lucius Robe
Fires of Autumn
Evenshade
Sea of Dreams
Purgatory
Other non-connected Contemporary Romance:
Lady of Heaven
Darkling, I Listen
In the Dreaming Hour
River’s End
The Fountain
Sons of Poseidon:
The Immortal Sea
Pirates of Britannia Series (with Eliza Knight):
Savage of the Sea by Eliza Knight
Leader of Titans by Kathryn Le Veque
The Sea Devil by Eliza Knight
Sea Wolfe by Kathryn Le Veque
Note: All Kathryn’s novels are designed to be read as stand-alones, although many have cross-over characters or cross-over family groups. Novels that are grouped together have related characters or family groups. You will notice that some series have the same books; that is because they are cross-overs. A hero in one book may be the secondary character in another.
There is NO reading order except by chronology, but even in that case, you can still read the books as stand-alones. No novel is connected to another by a cliff hanger, and every book has an HEA.
Series are clearly marked. All series contain the same characters or family groups except the American Heroes Series, which is an anthology with unrelated characters.
For more information, find it in A Reader’s Guide to the Medieval World of Le Veque.
Alexander de Sherrington, the man affectionately referred to as “Sherry” by his friends, is off on the gre
atest adventure of his life… and his target is Lady Christin de Lohr.
Lovely and vivacious, Christin is as headstrong as her mother but born with her father’s innate sense of politics. She fostered in the finest homes and proved herself to be smart, intuitive, and calm under pressure. Unbeknownst to her father, William Marshal recruited Christin into his network of spies and even as she serves a de Lohr ally, the House of de Winter, as a lady-in-waiting for Lady de Winter, she completes missions at The Marshal’s directive.
Enter Alexander de Sherrington.
He is intrigued with the beautiful new spy, and he and Christin are thrown together due to necessity. But Alexander soon realizes there is something very special about the daughter of Christopher de Lohr. As a romance blossoms, King John has his own plans for Christin – marrying her to his bastard son to undermine Christopher’s power.
The only one who can stop the marriage is Christin herself.
Join Alexander and Christin, Christopher and David, and the rest of The Marshal and de Lohr allies in this epic adventure of intrigue and romance that pushes the bonds of trust between allies. It’s Medieval Mayhem in 13th Century England!
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Kathryn Le Veque Novels
About the Book
Author’s Note
Hic Finis Dat Deus (God Ends Here)
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Epilogue
About Kathryn Le Veque
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I’ve got to say… I love me some Sherry!
Finally – his story is here. And his leading lady? None other than Christin de Lohr.
This book is set between the last chapter and the epilogue for Starless, Book 3 in the Executioner Knights series, and what a story it is. The Executioner Knights series is growing by leaps and bounds, with so many awesome knights who are part of William Marshal’s spy ring. I originally wrote about the spy ring in the novel The Whispering Night, and then in Lord of the Shadows, so it’s been a lot of fun to expand on that particular aspect of England’s political underground.
If you’re wondering why my original spy from The Whispering Night, Garren le Mon, isn’t in any of these books, the reason is simple – at the end of his story, he fled to France, so he’s over in Gascony while all of these adventures are going on.
But back to the tale – for those of you keeping track of the de Winter aspect of this series as it ties into another novel, High Warrior, I have to explain something – we have two Daveigh de Winters. The first Daveigh was mentioned in the novel High Warrior, and I only mention this because the hero of that novel, Bric MacRohan, has also made appearances in the Executioner Knights series.
Bric serves Daveigh de Winter of Narborough Castle, while Daveigh’s uncle, also Daveigh de Winter (and the brother of Daveigh’s father, Davyss de Winter the First) is the garrison commander at Norwich Castle and the father of Lady Delesse de Winter, who was mentioned in Godspeed as having broken Dashiell du Reims’ heart. We met Delesse, briefly, in The Mountain Dark, Book 2 in the Executioner Knights series. For those keeping track, Davyss de Winter – hero of Lespada – is the son of Grayson de Winter, half-brother of Daveigh de Winter of Narborough Castle. They both share the same father, Davyss I.
Confusing, I know, but those de Winters really aren’t original when it comes to names. They’re all named after each other – Davyss, Hugh, Grayson, and Daveigh. That’s what you’ll see the most of. In fact, a heroine in the Reign of de Winter series even comments on it. You can actually find the House of de Winter family tree on my website.
Back to the House of de Lohr – I’ve never fully outlined the children of Christopher and Dustin, but we know they had a bunch of them. The first time I gave a full accounting was in A Blessed de Lohr Christmas, so here it is again:
The children of Christopher and Dustin:
Peter (Christopher’s son with Lady Amanda)
Christin
Brielle
Curtis
Richard
Myles
Rebecca
Douglas
Westley
Olivia Charlotte (the future Honey de Shera)
Now, aside from the de Lohr family, lots going on in this story. William Marshal has spent the past few years in and out of England, mostly in Ireland, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that he and John were at odds, and also because some English lords were trying to take over his Irish properties. In this story, he’s only recently returned home again, back to serve John.
Something else to note – this takes place about four years before Lord of the Shadows, and Sean de Lara once again plays a fairly major role in this book. I’ve loved writing the Executioner Knights series and one of the reasons is because we get to see Sean in action over the years and why he was called Lord of the Shadows. We also get to see some poignant scenes between Sean and his brother, Kevin.
No pronunciation guides in this book because there are no odd names (surprising, I know!). Castles such as Norwich are real, but Lioncross is fictional. This is such a fun story, so enjoy it. I know I did!
Hugs,
HIC FINIS DAT DEUS (GOD ENDS HERE)
Year of Our Lord 1211
Ramsbury Castle
Seat of the Duke of Savernake
The target was on the move.
This night was the culmination of intelligence, of rumors and whispers. A miasma of information had swirled for months like the fogs that often settled in during the winter – thick, like stew, masking the ingredients therein. It was the night when the information had finally become clear and spies from William Marshal’s stable would catch the double agent who had been carefully cultivated, lured into believing this was the night when all of France’s dreams would come true.
William Marshal’s men had been clever. The agent was an English nobleman, one Lord Prescombe, with ties to the French king. He’d pretended to ally himself with William Marshal, offering his army and money to help the English king, John, regain his properties in Normandy. John had lost Normandy some time ago but had spent the past year building up money and ammunition in order to take an invasion force over the channel and gain back what he believed was rightfully his.
But the French king, Philip, wanted those plans.
To catch the French spy, this night of nights had been created.
It was a feast that would live in legend for years to come. The Duke of Savernake, Edward de Vaston, was a great supporter of William Marshal and the host of the event. The Savernake army was one of the largest armies in Southern England with the exception of the Earl of Canterbury’s army. David de Lohr, the Earl of Canterbury, shared the distinction along with his brother, Christopher, of having one of the largest and best-equipped armies in all of England.
Armies that William Marshal depended heavily upon.
In fact, both Christopher and David de Lohr were at the great feast tonight, meant to celebrate the marriage of the heiress to the de Vaston dukedom, Lily, to a somewhat minor but wealthy nobleman named Clayton le Cairon. That was the premise, anyway. The truth was that Lily and Clayton had married the month before, so this celebration was conveniently late.
But it h
ad been a perfect excuse for William Marshal to call together his network of spies in the hunt for the French spy. Along with Christopher and David de Lohr, other notable agents included Alexander de Sherrington, known as Sherry to his friends. If there was ever a perfect agent, Alexander was it. The man was the perfect combination of knightly skill, experience, and intelligence. He was also the most deadly assassin in The Marshal’s arsenal, a man who preferred to work alone but was no less comfortable leading a contingent, which he was now.
A contingent of some of William’s finest agents.
Also at the top of that contingent were Maxton of Loxbeare, Kress de Rhydian, and Achilles de Dere, the original Executioner Knights, men with great and vast reputations that had been established in The Levant with Richard’s Crusade. All three men had settled down and married since their return to England, and Achilles had brought his wife, Susanna, who had been an agent for William Marshal before marriage and motherhood had taken priority.
Even as William looked over the enormous great hall of Ramsbury Castle, he found satisfaction in knowing Susanna was once again primed for action. She was one of his best. In fact, she was playing the proper wife even as her husband and his friends were pretending to become drunk. William saw Susanna remove Achilles’ drink on more than one occasion, which gave William a good laugh. Achilles was a big, fearsome knight, but it was clear who was in charge of that relationship.
Along with Maxton, Kress, and Achilles was Dashiell du Reims, the commander of the army for the Duke of Savernake and an agent for William when he was needed. He sat at the same feasting table with the original Executioner Knights, and Susanna, along with Bric MacRohan, the commander for the Narborough Castle’s de Winter armies. Bric was Irish to the bone and one of the most frightening, most deadly men William had ever known.
Another perfect assassin.
The Marshal’s group rounded out with Sir Kevin de Lara, Sir Cullen de Nerra, and the eldest son of Christopher de Lohr, an outstanding young knight by the name of Sir Peter de Lohr. Peter came into the service of William Marshal a few years before and was already one of The Marshal’s best agents, much to his father’s distress. Peter was smart, cunning, talented, and deadly. But he wasn’t the most talented spy in the de Lohr family. That title went to Christopher’s eldest daughter, and Peter’s sister, Christin.