The 4th son of Albert, the Duke of Jugenheit, 14-year-old Ladislaus, becomes a surety hostage in the Duchy of Hohenwald pending complete ransom payment when Albert is captured in a border skirmish. Once freed, Albert refuses to pay, making the hostages’ lives forfeit. Simon, the Duke of Hohenwald, having a fetish for deflowering 14-year-old boys, finds a use for Ladislaus before he begins to off the hostages. The castle priest, Istvan, smitten with Ladislaus, has other plans, though.
Travis was tired of the war and decided to go west and find a new life. At the fort, he met Litte Deer, an Indian girl who "belonged" to the shopkeeper.
You don’t know how this book came into your possession. One day, it just appeared with its red leather cover and no title. As you open it, the pages spring to life, moving on their own with incredible speed until they finally settle on one chapter. The book may speak of many worlds and many ages both past and future, but for now, this is the story the Red Book offered you. On a cold, spring night a carriage makes its way hastily down the old dirt road. In it, a young noble lady.
Jack and Frieda have known each other for two or three months and Jack decides to invite Frieda to spend a night in Brighton and she accepts. Unfortunately, it is 1952 and Frieda's husband is one of the most dangerous bosses of an East End London gang, involved in prostitution, white slavery, bookmakers and extortion. Games are being played for high stakes, do they really know what they are letting themselves in for?
A redheaded girl of sixteen becomes a mail order bride. She is met at the train in Nebraska by her fiancé and they quickly marry. She becomes frustrated when she learns that she is unable to bare children.
May, a war widow struggling to keep her Dorset smallholding alive after the brutal winter of 1946/47, is close to despair when two charming drifters arrive offering help in exchange for board and lodging. Their kindness, humour and dangerous influence draw her into acts she would once have thought unthinkable. By the time they vanish with the summer, they have left her carrying far more than memories. A reason to live.
In a frozen gold-mining settlement where fear keeps doors shut, Erica Dutrieu is left for dead after a brutal beating by her husband. Rescued at terrible cost and forced to confront both frontier justice and her own will to survive, she fights back in the only way left to her. Harsh Times is a tale of violence, endurance, and hard-won hope on the edge of civilization.