My Lady Beloved [Paperback]

Bestselling author Linda Lael Miller has captured the magic of love in more than thirty magnificent novels. Now, writing as Lael St. James, she embarks on a charming adventure of courtly love and loyalty in glorious medieval England.

Sweet, sheltered Gabriella Redclift is betrothed to Sir Cyprian Avendall, whom she has met but once. When Gabriella is abducted in the Devonshire countryside en route to her nuptials, her innocence—and her dream of true love—hang in the balance.

Morgan Chalstrey is not the rogue bandit that he appears. Seeking vengeance on Avendall for his role in the undoing of Morgan’s beloved Rebecca, he means Gabriella no harm; her possible ruin is unavoidable, if unfortunate. But as Gabriella discovers that her fiancé is far from chivalrous, she might become a willing participant in her own corruption. And Morgan, who had sworn off love forever, may find that innocent Gabriella’s love, and not revenge, is the one thing worth fighting for.Chapter 1

Late summer, 1369

St. Swithin's Abbey,

Devonshire, England

The uppermost branches of the oak, a gnarled and venerated tree, ancient of days and fully grown long before the first stones of the abbey's foundation had been laid, rustled beneath the bare and somewhat grubby feet of nineteen-year-old Gabriella Redclift, soon to be Lady Avendall. She peered into the distance, squinting a little, and held her breath, glad her expression was hidden from her sisters, standing below on the path.

Can you see Sir Avendall and his men? called Margaret, her twin, who grew vexed if addressed by any name save 'Meg.' Her voice floated up through the green, bristling leaves, high and eager, for she, like everyone else at St. Swithin's, believed the fiction that Gabriella truly wanted the marriage arranged for her, long ago, by their late father. None must ever suspect that she was merely pretending to be pleased, for the sake of hlãž