I could not tear my eyes from the sight of the Roman dangling like a deer after the slaughter. His body, rigid and finely honed shimmered with sweat as Balrogan tried for the third day to glean information from him.
At his insistence, I had accompanied Aeglech to the torture chamber to review the progress of the new Roman prisoner. Though I had been moved to another chamber for only a few days, my stomach lurched at once as I entered the room.
“Do you have no fear, Roman?” Balrogan pushed his large face close to the cage and shoved it, causing it to rock back and forth. The prisoner, his eyes, a stormy pale gray green, met the executioner’s sneering gaze. Dark hair, black as a moonless night, shrouded his face, but he held his tongue as the cage rocked with him upside down inside.
Lord Aeglaech stood at the side of the room, silently watching. The prisoner was either very brave or an eejit. Balrogan glanced over his shoulder, his gaze brushing over me before meeting the king’s. He was not used to seeing me dressed in a gown and without a covering wrapped around my head. Lord Aeglaech gave a nod and Balrogan brought the flame near the prisoners feet once more, already he had singed their fleshy bottoms once.
My eyes were riveted to the Roman’s face, his sturdy jaw clenched as he endured without a sound, the pain to his body. With an exasperated sigh, Balrogan tossed the torch into the pit.
“I will have to think of something else, milord. He is stubborn this one.”
Lord Aeglech stared at the prisoner a moment, before he raised his hand. “Take him down,” Aeglech barked, “and bring him to me.”
The Saxon king breezed by me with his guards close behind. He glanced back before ascending the narrow stairs to the grounds above.
“I will have need of you, wealas. You know what to do.”
“Aye, milord.” I lowered my gaze to the floor. My body trembled at the thought of seducing this man that Balrogan could not break. Carefully, I reached out and swung the cage, so I could see his face.
“Be watchful of that one, mouse, he may spit poison,” the executioner chuckled as he prepared his next device. “We’ll see first if this will persuade him to speak,” he muttered lifting down a handcrafted piece that slowly severs a man’s fingers one at a time.
The Roman’s expression remained unchanged as he stared at me from his bat-like position. His face was not that of a farmer, or peasant, not as I was used to seeing. He had a warriors face, proud, rugged, immovable. Eyes, though shadowed by his physical torture, yet shone with silent strength. My eyes drifted to the tight line of his mouth, pursed with determination. A mouth I ventured could command an army as well as command a woman in bed. For what reason I could not say, I spoke,” Lord Aeglech would not want to be kept waiting.” I held the prisoner’s hard gaze, imagining I saw a glint of challenge behind those turbulent eyes. He was different, more of what I imagined a true warrior to be. Most men, when faced with Balrogan’s forms of persuasion were eager to offer information and, so too, beg for mercy in the process. In three days, this Roman had endured fire, hanging upside down for hours, and now faced having each finger systematically removed as he watched. There was nothing innocent about him, only a powerful resilience seething beneath a warrior’s body. A power that I yearned to sample for myself.
"A disturbingly touching tale of hope, love and survival." Romance BookWyrm
"Amanda McIntyre is a brilliant story teller, and one who can pen a tale so well that you feel as though you are right there with the characters. She is an author who takes great care in her use of words and description, to the point that I'm often left astounded by how vividly scenes play out for me." Happily Forever After
"Well-plotted, with vivid descriptions and a strong sense of time and place" RTBookreviews
The story behind TORTURED:
The idea for TORTURED came out of the blue after reading an obscure bit of historical info that there were only 1-2 female executioners during the medieval era of Britannia(now England) You have to wonder what type of woman could emotionally and physically handle such a job--or even want to!
But what if--she had no choice?
While it seems perhaps obvious the direction an erotic romance author would go with having a female executioner, I chose a slightly different path and made my heroine the prisoner of a barbaric Saxon ruler who had brutally defeated the last of the Briton kings. Having lost her family, she carries a guilt that she could not protect her mother (hanged for treason) and younger brother who is cast out of the kingdom and left for dead.
She alone is spared,because of her gift of "sight" (kings back then relied heavily on spiritual magic for guidance) but due to her aggressive nature, the king sentences her to a life imprisoned as his executioners apprentice.
Sentenced to look like a boy, he cuts her hair and dresses her in breeches, but a few years later, when she comes of age, the king sees the potential of her womanly attributes being a benefit to him in extracting information from prisoners.
Further, rumors of rebel armies gathering against the Saxon lord make him paranoid and when a Roman warrior is captured who likely has crucial information about the rebellion, the king orders my heroine to persuade the truth from the resilient warrior.
In the process, she determines that he is the one man who has all the right stuff (as it were) to help her escape this miserable life. She partners with him to plan a grand escape and helps him lay a trap to ambush the Saxon king and his army.
Kept secret however, are the images she "sees" when she touches him...images that give her reason to believe that he holds answers to her past she thought was dead and the promise of her future.
Their journey to freedom is riddled with danger and obstacles that they must overcome and as passion heats up between them, the risks grow greater and their time shorter. (TORTURED Aug. '09, Harlequin Spice)
Main Characters:
Sierra: Druid slave and apprentice to Saxon executioner
Dryston: Romano-Celt Warrior trained in the Roman army
Lord Aeglech: self-proclaimed Saxon King of Britannia
Cearl: Saxon Stable boy
Balrogan: Saxon Executioner
Torin: Sierra's young brother
Cendra: young Celt woman
Alyson: young Druid woman
Envisions of my cast of characters
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Music & Media
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- King Arthur Original Soundtrack
- Braveheart Soundtrack
- Celtic Traditions-Scottish Moors
- The Best of Heart
- Braveheart
Rob Roy
- King Arthur
- The Dark Ages-History channel video documentary
- Britannia.com
- BBC.com
- dot-doomsday.me.uk
- hightowertrail.com
- History Channel-Pevensey castle
- EnglandandEnglishHistory.com
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- My Armoury
- Timescapes-Early Medieval
- Sophia Johnson Glossary'
BBC.co.uk
- Anglo-Saxon Heathe Time line
- British History Timeline
- Middle Ages Torture
- Medieval Information
- Celtic Heart Romance writers workshop-Beyond the Pale with Sharon Gunn
- Rootsweb.com
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