Redeeming a Villain
by Julia Latham

I have a secret: I love to redeem villains. I've done it three times now in my career writing as both Julia Latham and Gayle Callen, and it still makes me giggle.

Okay, I'm not taking a hardcore murderer and making him a hero, but Tom Bannaster made some big mistakes in my first book, THRILL OF THE KNIGHT. He started to learn the error of his ways in ONE KNIGHT ONLY, and now, in SECRETS OF THE KNIGHT, it's his turn to shine. (Don't worry, you don't need to have read the first two books to understand Tom)

Tom gets kidnapped in Chapter One and spends the first quarter of the book chained to the wall in a dungeon. He's being held by Diana Winslow, the first woman member of the League of the Blade, my mysterious band of knights who fight injustice. Years before in self-defense, she killed Tom's brother, and Tom was always under a cloud of suspicion as the man with the best motive. After all, his brother's death kept Tom from the priesthood and made him a viscount.

Diana thinks he's finally discovered the truth and is back for revenge. How can she believe that he's only there to court her sister? And then the League of the Blade gives her an assignment, and it's about Tom! Needless to say, Diana and Tom have a lot to learn about each other and spend much of the book in a cat and mouse game trying to figure everything out--not to mention trying to fight the incredible passion they feel from the beginning.

So, how should your man apologize to you--or do you wish you, too, had a handy dungeon?