Lady Emmalene Eberhart never really knew what it meant to be
a wife in the complete sense of the word but she knew that
what she and her husband had done on her wedding night
wasn't it. She seeks an audience with the King and asks him
to order her husband to go to bed with her.
When her husband dies without fulfilling his duty, Emmalene
fears that she will end up wed to his lecherous cousin,
Bertrand. Instead the King offers the lands to Amaury de
Anford, a
knight who defended the King with his strong arm. Amaury
knows nothing about his bride-to-be except that her husband
happily spent years away from her. Resigned to wedding a
hag for the chance of a permanent home, he resolves to do
his duty. When he arrives at the estate, he is surprised to
see
everyone dressed in black. When he discovers the bed linens
are all black as well, he begins to wonder about the sanity
of his future wife. All doubts fade as he meets the
beautiful Emmalene. Life with Emmalene will never be dull,
especially as there are multiple attempts on their lives.
Ms. Sands has a wonderful way of writing believable,
incredibly naive heroines that keep the reader chuckling as
they try to explain events to the hero. She is one of my
favorite authors for when I need a good laugh. Even though
I had read this book in the past, Ms. Sands worked her magic
and I fell in love with her writing all over again.
Lady Emmalene Eberhart was dying to do it. She even begged
the King to make her husband do it to her- because she
wanted to be a good wife. But then her husband died, and
Emmalene was still as much a virgin as on the day she wed.
Suddenly, the innocent young beauty found herself the
fulerum of a struggle for feudal power: Along with her ample
dowry, Emma found herself promised to Amery de Aneford, a
landless knight whose able sword had preserved the King's
crown - and whose rugged good looks made her heart skip a
beat. But on the wedding day, as a rival knight galloped
toward the bridal chamber, Amanry would find that making
love to his naive new bride would take consummate skill. For
in the conjugal bed, Emma was astonished to learn there was
more to a wedding night than just a sound sleep - and more
to true love than she'd ever imagined.