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Hidden Magic

by Carmen Webster Buxton

Hidden Magic - Carmen Webster Buxton
Editions:Kindle - First Edition: $ 3.99
ISBN: 978-1-7325317-7-2
Paperback - First Edition: $ 9.99
ISBN: 978-1-7325317-6-5
Size: 6.00 x 9.00 in
Pages: 315

The valley of the River Wystan is isolated from the rest of the world. Many years before it had been united under the Lord of Cold Spring, who had suppressed the practice of magic. But when he died, his son wasn’t strong enough to hold the other lords’ loyalty. Now Lord Garrick, the new Lord of Cold Spring, means to resume his grandfather’s role of overlord for the whole valley. Young Richart Tallengen, newly minted Lord of Esterby, tries to fight off Lord Garrick’s men, but he’s captured and carried to Cold Spring Castle. When his sister Maura comes to Cold Spring to see her brother, she catches Lord Garrick’s eye. Lord Garrick is as attracted by her courage and her brains as much as by her looks, but he is very surprised to discover that there is more to Maura than meets the eye. She has magical abilities, even though she doesn’t know it.

Published:
Publisher: Cracked Mirror Press
Editors:
Cover Artists:
Genres:
Tropes: Enemy to Ally, Pseudo European Society
Word Count: 132,000
Setting: a magical version of Earth; European-ish setting
Languages Available: English
Tropes: Enemy to Ally, Pseudo European Society
Word Count: 132,000
Setting: a magical version of Earth; European-ish setting
Languages Available: English
Excerpt:

She cast a skeptical eye over him as she took it. “Why are you taking all this trouble for a captive lord’s sister. Are you hoping to use her to win her brother over?”

Garrick smiled and cast a glance over his shoulder to be sure no one was in earshot. “Not at all. In fact, I mean to marry Maura Tallengen.”

His mother’s arm went rigid under his hand. “What?”

“I mean to marry her.” Garrick patted her arm. “It’s time I found a wife, and she has everything I need in a consort—brains, strength of will, and courage.”

Lady Quilla blinked and shook her head. He had never seen her so stunned, not even when his father died. One hand went to her mouth as she struggled to compose herself. “You’d do better to find someone else. You have too much of a handicap with this woman.”

“Perhaps,” Garrick said as they descended the stairs. “But I don’t think so. Once she understands my goals, she’ll come around.”

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“You’re assuming,” Lady Quilla said, her dry tone sounding more like herself, “that she’d be willing to devote her life to the same cause you espouse. You’re not offering her employment, you’re proposing marriage.”

“That’s why I don’t intend to say anything to her yet.”

His mother’s eyebrows lifted in a skeptical frown. “And how will you court a woman who lives almost at the other end of the valley? Even in high summer you can’t get to Esterby in less than a full day of hard riding.”

Garrick had already thought this out. “I’ll have to be certain I make a good impression on her before she leaves here. And I’ll have to win over her brother. Once he’s my liegeman, it should be easier to control the logistics of the situation.”

She gave him an appraising look. “Are you quite certain, Garrick, that it’s her brains you admire so much?”

Garrick laughed as they went down the last steps. “Now, Mother, you taught me yourself that the best goals are those that satisfy more than one ambition.”

COLLAPSE

About the Author

Carmen Webster Buxton spent her youth reading every book published by Ursula LeGuin, Robert Heinlein and Georgette Heyer. This combination of far-future worlds, alien cultures, and old-fashioned courting customs influenced her writing, especially in her ThreeCon series.

Carmen was born in Hawaii and experienced a peripatetic childhood, as her father was in the US Navy. Having raised two wonderful children, she now lives in Maryland with her husband Charlie, and a beagle named Cosmo. She writes science fiction (often including a romance, and mostly set in the far future), and the occasional fantasy.