I have just published my Roman Britain novel, Crossroads at Isca, as a Kindle download.
Faine and Marella are the nieces of a British chieftain. When they meet two young Tribunes from the great Roman fort on the plain, their lives are changed forever.
A circle of men, their beards glistening with pork fat, and clasping beakers filled with wine and mead, watched the dancer, her golden hair flying around her as she leapt and turned around the fire burning in a ring of stones at the centre of the wattle and daub hut.
The men shouted their encouragement as the dancer completed the final steps of the dance to the beat of a drum covered with animal hide, the rattle of stones and animal bones, and the shrill trill of a pipe.
They burst into uproar when she stood poised like a statue, one arm raised above her head, her breasts rising and falling, her lips shining as she glanced across the heads of the audience.
The shouts of "More, more," echoed around Ceomin's hall.
His face flushed from excitement and wine, Tribune Lucius Acilius jumped into the circle and swept the dancer into his arms and danced with her in a whirl of skirts around the periphery of shouting men , his iron-studded sandals biting into the earthern floor.
I have begun Crossroads at Isca and am already concerned for the two cousins who are unaware of the potential betrayer in their midst. Marella is headed for trouble and she's determined to take Faine with her. Faine seems like a sensible young woman but there is this tribune who could turn her head. You have me intrigued, right from the start.
ReplyDeleteYou are such a good writer, Laurel, you make me feel at home in your stories. Whether they are set in ancient Ceobury, on an outback Australian sheep station, a WA village or Regency London, your reader becomes part of the family; eating, drinking, laughing, crying and journeying with your characters. I thorourly enjoy the ride.