About Redemption
Written by AJ Wilde
35 pages / 15000 words
ISBN: 978-1-60370-502-8, 1-60370-502-3
Available file types - html,
lit, pdf, prc
In this sequel to Shadow Road: The Page of Swords, Bailey is now training under Lord Charles, and he's working hard toward his goal of taking over as The Shadow, just as Charles took the position over from his late lover, Robert. Things are not easy for either of them, though. Bailey yearns for Charles' approval, but Charles refuses to let Bailey become the Shadow until he has experienced defeat at least once.
Things come to a head when a late night encounter between a coach, a pair of highwaymen and the Shadow himself results in chaos, and the lord is injured. Will the events from that night change Charles and Bailey forever?
Sample
April 20, 1741
Lord Charles Huntingwood stared at the plain headstone marking the grave of his late fiancée, Lady Constance Denholm. Next to it, a similar drab square of limestone stood over the spot where her faithful ladies’ maid, Alice Petty, lay at rest, murdered with her mistress, at the tender age of fifteen.
A tall and elegant figure in black lawn cutaway and doeskin leggings, his dark hair swept into a neat ponytail secured with a black velvet ribbon, Lord Charles looked every inch the nobleman; for such he was, as Lord of Huntingwood Manor in the county of Warwick, and magistrate for the village of Leamington Priors. His family had ruled in these parts for centuries. And yet, no Lord of this household had ever escaped the stain of tragedy – and it was said by some that the name of Huntingwood was cursed.
Lord Charles took off his tricorn hat and knelt at the grave. He stared at the carved letters until his eyes burned. He had never shed a single tear for those who had perished on the Warwick Road, two years ago now – not even for the woman he was to have married – and why should he, considering that they had never met? The marriage was one of arrangement, a convenience among genteel families; a pact to ensure their continued survival as landowners and nobility. It had always been thus, and who in their right mind would presume to challenge such a tradition? Certainly not one whose tastes ran not even to womankind in general, but to men, and since that fateful day in 1739, to one man in particular: Bailey Smith, bachelor of the Parish of York, manservant to the Denholm estate, now indentured smith and apprentice swordmaker to Huntingwood Manor.
The wind, still chilly in April, whistled around the churchyard, rustling the fresh green of the stately oaks and elms that bordered this ancient place. High above, the sky was clear, blue and alive with birdsong and sunshine. Lord Charles stood up, lifted his head and let the breeze ruffle his long, dark hair. All around him the world was bursting into life, and yet Lord Charles felt dead inside.
It wasn’t Bailey’s fault. God knew the boy had been loyal, obedient to a fault, and a diligent apprentice. The forge was not a gentle master, and since his apprenticeship to the Manor smithy, Bailey had applied himself to every aspect of swordmaking and the craft of metalwork. The art of the sword, its use in combat and the age-old skills handed down through countless generations, were not easily learned either. Lord Charles remembered Bailey’s first clumsy efforts with the training rapier, its edge dulled to avoid injury, and the hours of practice in the courtyard. Bailey was a quick study, yet even he found the art of the sword a challenge, but he had endured, and worked, and with regular practice, was beginning to show the makings of a swordsman. He would need those skills, too, if he were ever to follow in his master’s footsteps as protector of the Leamington Road, in the guise of the feared highwayman, the Shadow.