The black knight and the.., p.1
The Black Knight and the Lady, page 1
The Black Knight and the Lady
JM Dragon
2021
Back of the Book
A lady faces the bleak loss of someone who had caught her heart but never known her love at the final battle where King Arthur Pendragon is returned to the Ladies of the Lake.
A knight armored in black, in search of redemption, has a personal secret that at any time could ruin the reputation of the family name.
When the lady’s father, a nobleman affiliated with King Arthur, asks the Black Knight to bring his daughter home from Camelot, the knight reluctantly agrees.
Neither the lady nor the Black Knight could have expected what was to follow in this timeless romance of love battling secrets and treachery.
The Black Knight and The Lady
© 2007 by JM Dragon
Affinity E-Book Press NZ LTD.
Canterbury, New Zealand
2021 2nd Edition
ISBN:
978-1-99-004910-1 epub
978-1-99-004911-8 pdf
978-1-99-004912-5 prc/mobi
All rights reserved.
No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form without the express permission of the author and publisher. Please note that piracy of copyrighted materials violates the author’s rights and is illegal.
This is a work of fiction. Names, character, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Editor: Angela Koenig
Proof Editor: Alexis Smith
Cover Design: Irish Dragon Designs
Acknowledgments
Thank you to everyone who continues to read my work, old, and new. The story, although written over a decade ago, still makes me smile when I read it. I always loved the legend of King Arthur as a child which managed to weave the magical mystery of that time into my thoughts. Of course, what better way to acknowledge the period than to write a story. Thank you, Angie, for your suggestions and help with the edit of the story. Alexis, thank you for picking up the things we miss after reading a story time and again and also checking my timeline. A shout out to my colleagues at Affinity who provide me with a sounding board when I need it.
Dedication
For us all who love the legends of the past and bring them to life in the future, either by writing or reading. There is always a place for Once Upon a Time.
Also by JM Dragon
My Dear Vet
Wanted for Christmas
Dreams in a Jar
At Last
The Tempest
Jeager’s
Breaking the Silence
The Promise
Do Dreams Come True?
The One
Letting Go
Circus
Falling into Fate
The Fix-it Girl
In Name Only
Death is Only the Beginning
Lonely Angel
Echo’s Crusade
A Window in Time
Waterfalls, Rainbows, and Secrets
The Dragon’s Halloween Collection
Incantations – A Collaboration
Affinity’s Christmas Collection 2010
Christmas Collection 2011
Christmas Collection 2012
Christmas Collection 2014
Define Destiny Series
Define Destiny
Haunting Shadows
In Pursuit of Dreams
Actions and Consequences
All Our Tomorrows
Two Steps Forward One Back
A World of Change
When Hell Meets Heaven Series
When Hell Meets Heaven
Fatal Hesitation
Echoes of the Past
The End Game
Requiem
JM Dragon & Erin O’Reilly Collaborations
Racing for Love
Against All Odds
Take Me as I am
Earthbound
New Beginnings
Atonement
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
About the Author
Other Books from Affinity
Prologue
Many say legends are fanciful stories eroded by time. If the simple expression Once Upon a Time does not provoke a pleasant reaction in the reader, then this might not be the story for you. For those who feel a warm thrill at the expression, this is a story that will gratify the true romantic within us all.
Chapter One
Once upon a time…
Alicia Lascelles watched from the shore as King Arthur became lost among the mists of Avalon, the lake that now also held the great sword Excalibur. This timeless and ethereal site was a fitting place to send the one true King of England upon his death.
Only a sigh revealed her mind was working overtime. What would become of the ladies in waiting to King Arthur’s Queen now? The loss of the king and the apparently uncoerced vows the queen had taken in the church had ended an era of magic, mystery, chivalry, and romance in Camelot.
Count Lascelles a French nobleman and Alicia’s father had pledged his sword to the king many years before. He had also sent Alicia, his eldest daughter, as a pledge of good faith to be a lady in waiting to Queen Guinevere. For the last four years, Alicia had been a faithful friend to the troubled queen. The queen’s frustration at the politics gathering in dark shadows in Camelot had caused much anguish between her and King Arthur. Now that he was gone and Guinevere cloistered in a nunnery, what would become of Alicia? She had spurned the attentions of most of the knights who tried in vain to court her. Yet, there was one such knight that had paid little or no attention to her at court. His name had been Sir Edwin D’Argent. There were many suitors hoping for her hand, but she had eyes only for the blue-eyed knight whose eye color matched the very skies on a wonderfully clear day, yet he ignored her at every approach. Where was the noble knight now that the battle had ended? Was he also a victim of the foreigners who had tried but failed to conquer the lands of the proud King Arthur?
“M’lady, it is time to ride back to Camelot. The skies grow dark with the cloud of death that has taken our good king.” Sir Arnold Debouis quietly spoke.
Turning, Alicia looked at the boyish features of the knight who had remained constant in his affections for her. She had never returned his advances but gently attempted to shift his attentions elsewhere. Her heart was set, and she felt could never be moved away from her knight of the sky-blue eyes.
“Camelot? Sir Knight, will the castle not decay now that our lord king has returned to the place of ancient legends?”
“M’lady, Camelot will remain. We, the Knights of the Round Table, will stand for all the values that our king taught us. We will create this place for all time with the stories that are spoken. For the songs that are written of the adventures and the essence of the reign when Arthur came to us as a mere boy. Even then, he showed the spirit of a great king within such a frail body. Camelot will stand for the justice of our land. The love of our people, m’lady, it will never decay.”
“In thee I trust, Sir Debouis. Please, lead on and take us back in safety to Camelot.” Alicia looked around at the fallen bodies of those that had given their life as Arthur had done. The carnage made her stomach churn. Her heart wept silently for the solitary knight of the sky-blue eyes. What had befallen him?
“Lady, I will not betray your trust.” Sir Debouis walked ahead, instinctively battle ready, his hand on the hilt of his bloody sword.
Alicia mounted the horse that had been readied for her. The other three ladies in waiting had gone before her, unable to watch their lord king disappear for the final time, into the mist of legend.
“Have we lost many knights in the battle, Sir Debouis?”
“We have lost several of the Round Table, as well as many from the provinces. Today was not a good day for anyone.” He stoically replied.
Alicia nodded and looked one final time at the battlefield that would forever change her life.
Chapter Two
For over a year Alicia waited patiently for her father to send an escort to take her from Camelot. The castle, besieged with doubt and petty bickering between not only the peasants, but also the nobility, was unbearable. During the long wait her need to leave the place she had once called home had become overpowering. In truth, her heart had been broken when the solitary knight with the sky-blue eyes had not returned from the battlefield. Now she wanted only to return home and see her family in the kingdom of Gaul.
“M’lady there is a strange knight at the gates who says he has a message from your father.” Her personal handmaid passed her a parchment with the seal of her father’s house.
Glancing at the first message she had received from home in over three years, she quickly broke the wax seal, as the pieces of wax fell at her feet, she read the contents.
My dear daughter, Alicia,
I am no longer able to collect you myself as I was
Please accept the noble knight that reveals this parchment. He has pledged his sword to your well-being and was instrumental in saving my life on a dark day. This deed resulted in he and I being unable to be with the good King Arthur in the last battle of his life.
I trust him, my daughter. Please do as he says, although he says little, and I know he will return you to me safely.
He will only refer to himself as the Black Knight. Please respect that, daughter, as you give me your respect.
My love as always, dear daughter. Safe journey home.
Your loving father, Count Henri Lascelles.
Alicia clutched the parchment to her breast. She looked around the room and retrieved a lace shawl, draping it over her shoulders. Her attention then went to the weather-beaten face of Mathilda, the head maid, and she motioned for the woman to lead the way to the knight.
†
The night air was cool as winter was approaching. Although the shawl gave her some protection from the coolness of the night, the dampness of the air clung to Alicia, assaulting the warmth of her body.
The battlements, as always, were heavily guarded. The flicker of a burning torch cast more shadow than light into the recesses of the castle, emitting a dark evil intent as night fell. She was annoyed at the slow gait of the maid delaying the means of leaving sooner. Alicia sighed, but nonetheless slowed her own steps to match that of the servant.
“He be there,” said the maid, pointing to a dark figure in the deepest black armor Alicia had ever seen. Although, she surmised that it could be the light, or lack of it, playing tricks with her eyes.
“Thank you, Mathilda, you may go.” Alicia looked at the Black Knight standing before her. The knight had yet to turn to face her so she could see the face of the man who had not only saved her father’s life, but also pledged his sword, and in so doing, his life to her for the journey home.
“Sir Knight, are you here at the bequest of my father, Count Henri Lascelles?” Alicia’s tone was firm. The knight appeared to stiffen at her voice but that could be her imagination.
“Yes.” She heard a barely audible reply.
“I am in your debt, Sir Knight, for saving my father’s life.” Alicia watched the knight who still hadn’t turned. Instead, he stood erect in the dark armor that protected his body.
“Your father is a true knight of the realm of the late King Arthur. It would have been a sorry day indeed that I leave such a fine ally to die at the hands of cutthroats who did not know his worth.” The reply was low.
Alicia’s heart pounded at its timbre.
“My father believed in the king. He had many times laid his sword at the king’s side. So, tell me where you met my father?” Alicia was sure there was stiffening of the armor-clad figure. I wonder why? It is an innocuous question.
“I was on my way to seek permission to woo the hand of the one I love. I ventured down the same road that evening when tragedy struck your father. Providence saw to it that your father was not forsaken and that I could aid him. In so doing I saved his life,” the knight declared.
Alicia’s heart raced at the romantic images. “After this event, did you manage to finish your own quest and ask for the hand of the woman you loved?” Alicia wasn’t sure why her stomach ached at the conversation. Perhaps it was the pigeon pie I had for dinner this evening.
“Alas no. I had to relinquish that deed for another time. Our good King Arthur needed all the knights he could muster. Sadly, I arrived too late and for that battle. I and my line will be eternally cursed.” The knight’s voice barely above a whisper.
“Then, I hope one day you can continue your quest to seek the hand of the one you love,” Alicia sincerely replied.
“If that is my fate, I will welcome it.”
“And if it’s not?” Alicia asked, her curiosity piqued.
“I will work toward my redemption for not being with our King Arthur, m’lady. In doing so, I will fulfil the barren life I have left to me.”
“Redemption is only for those that have done wrong. Saving my father was not wrong,” Alicia earnestly replied.
The Black Knight stood a silent statue for several minutes. Alicia thought that he had decided not to answer, so stepping forward, she placed a hand on the knight’s gauntlet. The cold steel sent a shudder up her spine.
“The saving of your father was perhaps a blessing in disguise for events yet actioned.”
Alicia was unable to summon a reply to the enigmatic response. “My father said to trust you, Black Knight, and I will. Please, do you have a name?” Alicia asked instead.
The knight sighed. His heavy gauge steel armor scraped as he turned for the first time to face her. “My name, m’lady, for our journey, is simply Black Knight.” The quiet tones of the knight split the air like a swift blow of a sword in a parry with an opponent.
Alicia was entranced by the mystery of the knight before her—it sparked her attention for the first time since she had felt the loss of the knight with the sky-blue eyes. She had never heard that he had died, or anything else about him for that matter. Even the knights she had spoken to had denied knowledge of his whereabouts. Perhaps there is hope?
“Black Knight, when are we leaving?” Alicia so wanted to see the knight in the daylight and see…see what? She did not know, but she would find out come the morrow.
“M’lady, the earlier the better in my mind.”
“I will need to take my leave from the Knights of the Round Table. Perhaps you know some of them?” Alicia looked at him intently as the inky blackness of night descended.
The Black Knight turned away. “None that would know of me.”
It was another cryptic remark. Alicia wanted to understand, but the very stance of the knight betrayed his annoyance at the question. I’ll ask again at another time.
“I will take leave of you, Sir. We will begin the journey to my home in the morrow.” Alicia finally conceded the conversation, which hadn’t shed much light on the dark figure before her, was ended.
“I will wait for you at the gates at your leisure, m’lady.” The Black Knight turned once more to face her.
“As you wish. Goodnight.” Not waiting for a reply, Alicia turned away, walking back toward the main keep of the castle and her room. Tonight, she not only had plans to make, but her mind was awash with the unusual feelings she had about the stranger. Tomorrow things would be different. The light of day often shed its rays in the most unexpected places.
†
Months before…
The Black Knight stood on the hillock observing the heat of a fierce battle of a knight surrounded by marauding peasants. They had obviously taken him unawares. Several blows from the primitive pikes of the peasants knocked off the helmet, and grey hair revealed an older knight. Then, to his searching gaze, he beheld a man who was the answer to dreams—the Count Lascelles. The count’s allegiance to King Arthur had been of great help as his well-trained forces from Gaul, sought out traitors who landed on the French shores. Now it was the old man who needed help. This was not just some old knight in out-of-date armor. A clash of swords focused attention to the old man’s dilemma. What better way to train for the battle that was waiting for them than to dispatch these peasants to their maker.
“Raven.” A black stallion appeared and, mounting the horse, the knight rode like the wind toward the battle area. Amazingly many of the peasants ran, screaming “the Devil, the Devil” when they saw the black figure approaching the fray. The Black Knight could see the older knight continuing to make a few pathetic blows with the short dagger he still possessed. Edging toward the half dozen offenders who went scattering in every direction, the rescuer swung a long staff toward the peasant’s skulls. As the peasants realized the Black Knight’s fearsome appearance was matched by skill in battle, they grudgingly moved away from the now prone victim. A couple tried but failed to unseat the demonic horseman before all the peasants who could run, walk, or stagger made haste away from the two knights. They left behind only their dead comrades.
