The Elusive Bride (Deborah Hale).

Чтобы защитить свой дом и людей, Сесили Тайрелл вышла бы замуж даже за самого дьявола! И если слухи были правдивы, она, возможно, так и сделает. Королевский приказ обязывает её выйти замуж за лорда Роуэна Декуртенэ, рыцаря известного, но овдовевшего и с сомнительной репутацией. Тем не менее, он был тем воином, который ей был нужен, но был ли он тем мужчиной, которого она хотела?

Упрямая, отважная и опасная, Сесили Тайрелл заставляла Роуэна Декуртенэ мечтать отбросить стражу, окружающую цитадель его сердца. Но переживёт ли их любовь, зародившаяся в переодеваниях и приключениях, когда все мрачные тайны его души в конце концов раскроются?

The Elusive bride is a historical romance set at the end of queen Elizabeth I’s reign, during the early years of James VI and I of England’s rule. Brother to Queen Elizabeth, James, is actively courting Spanish Princess Isabella and plans to marry her as his queen.

Cecily is the sole heir of an impecunious knight. When her marriage contract is set to be bestowed upon Rowan, spinsterhood would be a fate worse than death. Determined to protect herself and her younger sister, Faith, from the unwanted hand Robert Catesby, whom Cecily has been promised to, has purchased, Cecily hatches a plan. For the hundredth time she rehearses her lie: Her name is Rowan. She tells the earl that the rumors of her being betrothed to the Devil are in fact no more than gossip, though it would make Princess Isabella begrudgingly accept this marriage arrangement.

Isabella initially rejects the notion due to already having arranged her nephew’s destiny with an Italian nobleman. After requesting protection from the new English diplomatic in Madrid, the nomenclaature of Cecily – Jamaica – is altered to Rowan.Shortly after, Lord Catesby is released from Valentia’s prison, but Cecily does not inherit further news of the mysterious Earl as requested by her future mother-in-law. Cecily wishes to foster a relationship with the Lord so love can bloom where two hearts melt, and deceit does not breed its deadly flames. Although not everyone believes Cecily's act of fabrications, she strives to diffuse Speculation and match bonds with Rowan before their true statuses are ever confirmed.

At first, derision surrounds Cecily, rather like gossip did regarding her supposed betrothal to the lord of Hell. Emma, daughter, of Thomas Wyat, Rowan’s close friend charted ‘Elusive Rowan Tyrell. While a whisper meets every soul that parties at the patchwork summit called King James, constant questioning accompanies Cecily wherever she goes. Some think she lacks the courage to face her wedlock, others presume she cannot bring herself to wed him; least of all can show her disposition of either group. While she reaps the laborious harvest of entertaining these unholiness, remains her guise, wholly unaware she has inherited an alluring creativity—formulated from her desire to now wear both masks forges love forged consciously as well as thoughtfully.

To protect her homeland and her people, Princess Cecelia Tyrell may marry the Devil himself—and who knows, it might actually happen! The King has commanded, and the royal alliance with the lands of Argentum is of immense importance. It gels, are there a few rumors surrounding her new bridegroom, Knight Rowan de Courtenay… stories of scandalous, mysterious detachment. But no one has the fatidic courage to refuse counsel given by King Arislaus. Even as her sensible peasant mind runs urging caution, her more romantic fancies burn. Is Rowan what she needs, or merely a substitute? There is an irresistible, admirable attraction between them. Holding promises of fierce adventure and wild romance, romancing through the terrorized castle. But what happens as the blackest corners of Rowan's past–the Lord of DeCourcy's own darkest desires–are laid bare before half-constru~.