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She's a highly placed lady in waiting and he's a lowly soldier guarding her as she sneaks out of the palace during the Byzantine empire. Each thinks the other wouldn't be interested but things change as the months drag on including the danger she's in. Customer Ratings:
OVERALL ENJOYMENT Not rated
SENSUALITY Not rated
Based on 0 reviews Editorial Reviews:
From Mitnik, Sexy Reads
8 out of 10
This historical romance from Jennifer Mueller allows us to experience those most deep and deadly of needs shared between lovers who cannot love, but must! The rich scenery presented in this book make the reading an almost time travel experience as your taken back, experiencing the stage in the way only an accomplished artist can rend
From Zee, ENCHANTING REVIEWS
3 Enchantments
This was a lovely story. Ms. Mueller pens a nice tale about two people who appear to be from different worlds, but who are not so different after all. The reconstitution of the world of old Constantinople is worth noting and applauding.
Excerpt:
A man of the Varangians . . . met with a woman of the region in a private place and tempted her virtue, and when he could not get her to agree willingly, he tried to rape her, but she got hold of the Foreigner's sword and struck him through the heart, so that he died at once. When his deed became known through the neighborhood, the Varangians gathered together and honored the woman by giving her all the possessions of the man who had attempted to rape her, and they threw away his body without burial, according to the law about suicides.
Event of 1034 Chronicled in the Skylitzes Manuscript
Yngvarr stood in the splendor of the Hagia Sophia during the service rich in ceremony. The patriarch's voice was almost musical as icons and reliquaries, one worth as much as his entire villages' wealth surrounded him. Six years had passed since he had arrived in Constantinople from his cold Norse homeland. He had to bring enough money to buy his place on the Varangian guard as they were the personal guards to the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire and were the highest paid men in the army. Positions didn't come easily. His eyes wandered from the formality before him as they often did. The splendor of the Emperor and his wife and their attendants was almost blinding with all encrusted in gold and gems. He always felt a little out of place in his tunic. Even if it was of silk, it was a far inferior quality to the attendants even. Church was the only time he got these attacks of vanity, of course, it was about the only time he was put in such close quarters with such a fortune on display. His eyes froze as they surveyed the crowd. He had noticed the woman many times before, who wouldn't after all. It was told among the guards that she was one of the entrants to become the wife of the Emperor's son. She hadn't won the prize of marriage into the royal family, but she had caught the eye of the Empress enough to become her personal attendant. If it was true, she was one of the twenty most beautiful women in the empire, but it wasn't her features that had stopped his eye on her. The Empress had asked her a question and in her answering, there was something in her manner that jogged his memory. He leaned to his friend next to him.
"Halfdan, it's her. The woman Anundr attacked."
"Which one?"
"The one on the Empress' right." Yngvarr hissed under his breath.
Halfdan shot her a look without moving his head. "By God, you're right." Someone shhhed them and they had to keep their amazement that they weren't all tossed in prison with the key thrown away.
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