A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA, book 1 of the Daughter of Montague series, $4.99 (75% off) in audiobook at Chirp.
As I neared the far end of the fountain away from the house, in the dark I could discern the tall trimmed shapes of the hedges and the water in the pool began to shimmer. The moon sought to break through the clouds. My eyes narrowed as I inched forward.
My foot in its soft slipper kicked something that obstructed the pathway. The warm remnants of a torch, recently extinguished. I pushed it out of my way with my toe, took another step and struck something large, long, heavy, inert like clay, growing cold…
A corpse. Dear God, a corpse!
I admit it, I screamed, a thin sound in the dense night air, and in my haste to back away, my weight overbalanced. I fell forward. I hit hard on the…on the dead body. My palm landed in a sticky pool that felt too much like the blood in my sleeve. I groped and found the hilt of a knife buried in…in the chest of this corpse. The large male dead corpse. All instinct and revulsion, I pushed myself to my feet and backed up—and ran into a living man, my back to his front.
He grabbed me, clapped his hand over my mouth.
The killer!
I bit down hard.
He yanked his hand away. “Woman! I’m trying to protect you.”
The prince. Prince Escalus. His voice. I was relieved, but only for a moment. “Protect me? From whom? Whoever this is, is dead!”
“Whoever it is? Do you not know?”
Then…then the moon burst through the clouds and I saw who had been slain by a knife in his chest.
My betrothed. Duke Stephano, his eyes wide and staring, a look of terror contorting his features. — A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA, $4.99 in audiobook at Chirp.
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