Murder casts a dark shadow over the christening of Lady Lucy and Major Sir Robert Kurland's daughter Elizabeth—even more so when Lucy's own father, the rector, falls under suspicion for the crime . . . Lucy and Robert's joy in christening their new daughter, surrounded by extended family and loved ones who have gathered in the village of Kurland St. Mary, is only enhanced when Robert's aunt Rose—now the second wife of Lucy's father Ambrose—announces that she is with child. However, not everyone is happy about the news, in particular Rose's adult daughter Henrietta and her husband, who fear for their inheritance. Following the christening, Rose's disagreeable son-in-law Basil Northam threatens to turn afternoon tea in the rectory into an unsightly brawl. The next morning, he is found in the rector's study, stabbed through the heart with an antique letter opener, clutching a note that appears to implicate the rector...

Fawn Heathcote has resisted the advances of her aunt's rakish half-brother, Captain Crispin Wolfe, for as long as she dared. Until the night he arrives to deliver a devastating message and Fawn realizes only her tormentor can save her. Her resistance to Crispin’s seduction gradually breaks down under his protection and she soon discovers a side to her captor that is loving--and one that is lethal.

On a visit to Bath, Major Sir Robert Kurland and Lady Lucy Kurland discover that the English spa town is not beneficial to everyone's health . . . After Sir Robert's injury from the battle of Waterloo begins troubling him again, his wife Lucy insists they relocate from the village of Kurland St. Mary to Bath, along with her sister Anna, so that Robert can take the waters and recover. At the Roman baths, Robert befriends an elderly and pugnacious businessman, Sir William Benson, ennobled by the Crown for his service to industry. Their acquaintance is short-lived, however, when the man is found drowned in the baths. Robert vows to find his killer, with Lucy's aid. The members of Sir William's family seem the most obvious suspects to benefit from the wealthy man's death, but his will has gone missing. To deduce who sent Sir William to a watery grave, Robert and Lucy must investigate with the utmost discretion—before they too find...

Two linked tales of two amoral men transformed by the women who love them. Set in 13th Century England at Christmas. In Mercenary, Lord Broderick's wife dies in childbirth.Tess, the daughter of the lord whose lands Broderick has usurped, becomes the infant's wet nurse. In Jester, Dumas, a deformed clown travels the countryside with his assistant, Fallon, a young woman who is disguised as a boy.Two linked tales of two amoral men transformed by the women who love them. Set in 13th Century England at Christmas. In Mercenary, Lord Broderick, has been made a new father but his wife dies in childbirth and his infant son is failing to thrive. Then Tess is brought before him, the daughter of the lord whose lands Broderick has usurped. Unaware of her identity, the new master of Castlemuir confines the young woman to his inner sanctum to nurse his son, unaware that Tess poses the greatest danger to him of all.In Jester, Dumas is a hideously deformed clown who travels the countryside in a caravan with his assistant, Fallon, a young woman disguised as a boy. In return for keeping her identity a secret, Fallon must perform for the misshapen man each night. But Dumas has a secret of his own as Fallon soon learns after a performance at Castlemuir Hall.Dark Redeemer Historical Romance is a series of stand-alone adventure-romance tales set in 13th Century England during the reign of King John, known as the High Middle Ages. The stories are full of action and romance. However, Mercenary and Jester contain certain love scenes that are not suitable for younger readers.

Delighted by the quiet uproar of raising their newborn, Lady Lucy and Major Sir Robert Kurland could not be more pleased at the prospect of welcoming another into their home. But their preparations are soon overshadowed by a baffling case of murder . . . Once known to all in her village as the rector's daughter, Lucy is now a mother herself—to a wonderful eighteen-month-old son, Ned. Upon discovering that she is expecting a second child, Lucy and Robert are delighted. In anticipation of the new arrival, Lucy is set on expanding her nursery staff. When Agnes, her current nurse, recommends her cousin, it seems like the perfect solution. But trouble arrives along with the new nursery maid from London. Polly's flirtations provoke fisticuffs in the servants' hall and tumult in the village tavern, and on her afternoon off, she fails to return to the Kurland Estate. When a farmer finds her lifeless body in a drainage ditch, Lucy and Robert fear foul...

Clara Hamilton’s daring rescue from Gateshead Asylum leads to a shocking revelation that shatters her hope for their love. With nowhere to turn, Clara accepts Mrs. Brockville’s offer to join a shooting party at Petherham Manor that includes Strachan and his bitter fiancée, Trudy Delisle. But Windemere Hall is only a short distance away and Clara cannot stop thinking about its master, her enigmatic, haunted cousin Branson. Beguiled is the third episode in the Windemere Hall Trilogy and launches Catherine Lloyd’s Victorian Villains Gothic Romance Serials. Steamy gothic romance in the tradition of Phyllis A. Whitney and Victoria Holt, they are set in 1867 Victorian England. The novellas will be released in installments like the “penny dreadful” of the Age. Each episode ends in a cliff-hanger. These are steamy romances containing scenes, language and themes written for a mature audience. **

A wounded soldier and a rector's daughter discover strange goings-on in the sleepy village of Kurland St. Mary in Catherine Lloyd's charming Regency-set mystery debut.Major Robert Kurland has returned to the quiet vistas of his village home to recuperate from the horrors of Waterloo. However injured his body may be, his mind is as active as ever. Too active, perhaps. When he glimpses a shadowy figure from his bedroom window struggling with a heavy load, the tranquil façade of the village begins to loom sinister. . .Unable to forget the incident, Robert confides in his childhood friend, Miss Lucy Harrington. As the dutiful daughter of the widowed rector, following up on the major's suspicions offers a welcome diversion—but soon presents real danger. Someone is intent on stopping their investigation. And in a place where no one locks their doors, a series of thefts and the disappearance of two young serving girls demands explanation. . .As Robert grapples with his...

It's harvest time in the village of Kurland St. Mary as Lucy and Robert prepare to take their vows—but a murderer has taken an unseasonable vow of vengeance . . . As Miss Lucy Harrington, daughter of the village rector, and Major Sir Robert Kurland plan their nuptials, the major is beginning to wonder if he'll ever hear wedding bells. He's seen complex military campaigns that involved less strategy, and he's finding Lucy's meddling family maddening. When the body of Ezekiel Thurrock, the church verger, is discovered crushed by a stone gargoyle that has fallen from the bell tower, the tragic death strikes a somber note and the wedding is delayed. But the evidence suggests this was no accident, and Lucy wonders if bad blood at the village fair had anything to do with the man's mysterious demise, since there was much bitterness over Ezekiel's prizewinning vegetables. As Lucy and Robert uncover long-standing village...

As wedding bells chime in Kurland St. Mary, a motley group of visitors descends on the village--and with a murderer on the prowl, some of them may not be returning home...Lucy Harrington has returned to Kurland St. Mary to help with her friend Sophia Giffin's wedding. But her homecoming is made disagreeable by the presence of Major Robert Kurland, whose bungled proposal has ruffled Lucy's composure, and a meddling widow who has designs on her father, the village rector. Wary of the cloying Mrs. Chingsford from the start, Lucy has doubts about the busybody's intentions with her father. But everyone else seems to think they make an ideal match--until the courtship is curtailed when Mrs. Chingsford is found dead at the bottom of a staircase. It's clear that it wasn't an accident, and in hopes of finding the culprit, Lucy and Robert call a truce and begin scrutinizing the wedding guests. But the widow left behind plenty of enemies, and when one of...