An extract from A Knight's Vow, the latest historical romance by novelist Lindsay Townsend

The novel begins with the announcement that the hero, Guillelm, has unexpectedly returned from the Crusades, causing consternation to Alyson, who has always loved him.

England, Summer 1138

'Sir Guillelm has returned! The son of Lord Robert has come back to us!'

'Thanks be to God, we are saved! The young master has returned!'

Alyson heard the shouts from the surviving men-at-arms and jerked her head up, all thought of prayer forgotten. 'My Lord Dragon,' she whispered.

Struggling to rise to her feet from the hard cold floor of the small narrow chapel, she re-pinned her simple veil and pinched color into her gaunt cheeks, feeling her heart begin to race. 'Can it really be true?' She had waited for him for so long, she could scarcely believe it. Guillelm, here, in his family's castle of Hardspen. For a moment she felt stunned with happiness.

'My lady!' The reedy voice of her seneschal, Sericus, floated above the hubbub in the great hall of the castle, calling ahead as he tottered on gangling legs to find her, to bring her this miraculous news.

'I am here!' Alyson called, darting from the chapel. Sericus was lame, and to save his withered limbs she picked up the hem of her plain brown gown and hurried down the spiral staircase of the keep, a small, slender girl with a mass of long black hair, large, very dark blue eyes and delicate features whose naturally bright, high-colored complexion had been dulled by weariness and grief. Longing to see Guillelm, she was reckless in her haste on the torch-lit stair, where only her natural fleetness of foot prevented a fall.

Would he remember her? She had been fourteen years old when he had answered the call of his kinsman, Raymond of Poitiers, and gone with him to the Holy Land. He had been in the exotic, dusty lands of Outremer for seven long years and she had despaired of ever seeing him again. For the last three years, with no news of him, there had even been the terrible rumor that he was dead. But he was alive!

Was he greatly changed? Would she be the one who would have to tell him that the enemy forces ranged outside the main gate were poised to attack? That his father, the noble and intimidatingly austere Lord Robert, had been dead for ten days? That for the last month she had been living in Hardspen as Lord Robert's intended betrothed?

A Knight's Vow is published by Kensington Books and is now available at $3.99 (U.S.A.), £4.99 (U.K.).

Click here to buy A Knight's Vow (U.S.A.)

Click here to buy A Knight's Vow (U.K.)

Click here to read Lindsay's blog.

E-mail Lindsay on lindsaytownsend@yahoo.co.uk.