Midsummer’s Eve in Slovenia

By J.E. Leigh

Lured to a castle with the ominous name of Bled, Keira Kent has no idea what dangers await her. When she is handed a mysterious package and told to guard it with her life, Keira must fend off a band of knights, a greedy dragon, and scariest of all, a kingly kiss.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.E. Leigh
• Release date: Jul 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005096625

J.E. Leigh

J.E. Leigh became a mom at age 35 so the doctors called her "elderly gravida". She didn’t become a writer until this ‘late’ time of life, so she also considers herself "elderly writera". Leigh’s background is in Geography, Sense of Place, and Nature Interpretation. She writes a blog (seetravelmag.com) and has worked as a writer/editor for publications on parks, protected areas, and cultural sites. Her adventure novels are set in exotic places like Costa Rica, Patagonia, Hawaii, Germany, Slovenia, and New Mexico (yes, people think it’s a foreign country). She lives in Colorado with her husband, son and two dogs.

Book preview

Midsummer’s Eve in Slovenia

By J.E. Leigh

Copyright 2015 J.E. Leigh

All rights reserved

This is a work of fiction. All locales, businesses, characters, events, and dialogue depicted in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Christmas Eve in Paris

Titles in the See! Series

About J.E. Leigh

Chapter 1

The dragon’s head loomed.

Keira flattened herself against the cold, rough stones of the castle wall. Four knights pursued her. Maybe more. Her long, lavish gown — by far the most decadent thing she had ever worn — hampered her escape.

Traveling for her job had led Keira to expect, if not accept, unusual situations. But her recent transfer to Europe had resulted in her work trips becoming rather more than unusual. They were downright fantastical.

It didn’t help that she had come to a place so steeped in lore, she had trouble reconciling it with the modern world that lay beyond. And yet it was the folksy, mythical aspect of the country that drew her here in the first place.

Keira had been assigned to write an article on hiking trails for See! Magazine. She had accepted the task with relish, embarking on the adventure with more than her usual level of excitement. She suspected her zeal had to do with the novelty of tomorrow’s date: Midsummer’s Day. A time for lighting fires that lent power to the sun and conquered the darkness, causing the days to be long and the nights short.

If she had been born in this land on Midsummer’s Day, she would be named Kresnica. Firefly.

Bringer of light to the dark.

Midsummer brought to mind Shakespearean passions and dramatic tragedies. It stirred Keira’s literary soul and filled her with a longing to live in a time of castles and knights and forbidden love. Foolishness, of course. But for a moment, she imagined herself as a maiden collecting a pail of water to place beneath her window on Midsummer’s Day. For if the tales were true, she would see the face of her one true love reflected there.

Never did she imagine any of this would become real. Yet here she was, facing a dragon sprung from the pages of a fable. Fleeing a band of knights lanced free of the bonds of time.

A torch guttered nearby. The dragon’s face transformed. A spatter of angry voices. A scuffle of footsteps behind her.

She smiled, pleased.

This would be the knights, wracked with indecision, stymied by the fork in the hall. It would buy a few precious seconds. Out of reach of the torchlight, an inky shadow draped over the wall. She melted into it. The darkness would aid her escape. But where to? Reaching out with her left hand, she crept her fingers along the wall, seeking a chink in the stone edifice.

As Keira searched, she wondered what kind of idiot accepted an assignment to a place called Bled. An image flashed in her mind: The limousine winding its way up the road. The cliff above the lake. The castle glowing against the blackened sky. It seemed an eon had passed since her heels clicked across the wooden drawbridge as she entered through the arched stone gate.

But it wasn’t an eon.

Only a few hours ago, she had found the mysterious package outside her door. If she hadn’t opened it, then she wouldn’t have read the card. And if she hadn’t read the card, then she wouldn’t be in this mess now.

Fire flared in the direction of the dragon. A shout from the knights. Leather boots pounded across the flagstones. She leaned, stretching along the wall, fingers searching.

The clink of metal. The rasp of chain mail. The knights still carried their swords and they were well armored. They were after what she had hidden in the folds of her gown. Maybe if she gave it to them, the knights would let her go.

No. She would not surrender.

But if they captured her, they would have no qualms about searching her until they found what they were looking for. Her only chance . . . escape.

The tips of Keira’s fingers struck empty air. An opening? Inching along the wall, she slipped into a dark cavity just as the knights charged into view. As expected, the dragon commanded their attention.

But it would not be for long.

Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Keira spun away from the light, darted deeper into the cavity, and ran headlong into a wall.

No! she hissed, mindful of the knights behind her. Her temple throbbed where it had struck the rock. Desperately, she scraped her hands over the surface.

An alcove, nothing more.

Shouts. Running footsteps. The clatter of chain mail and swords. Sounds that ricocheted and reverberated off the stone walls, closing in. She groped, begging, praying for an opening, fear rising and swelling inside her. But it was too late. The knights discovered her.

Keira whirled to face them.

All went quiet except for the loud snapping of the flag on the castle wall above her. A crimson flag, illuminated by a floodlight, emblazoned with the words Blejski Grad, Slovenija and a crest of the ancient castle rising out of the cliffs.

The four men stood with their long tunics belted over chain mail, their linen breeches, and the glittering hilts of their swords. Looking at them, Keira could imagine she had been transported a thousand years into the past.

But she couldn’t explain why she had been summoned to a place with the ominous name of Bled, then handed a mysterious object and told to guard it with her life. At first she thought it was a prank engineered by the people in her office. So she played along.

The evening was pleasant enough. Dinner. Dancing. A clear, star-filled sky. A handsome stranger who spoke kindly to her and made her blush. Things were just starting to get interesting when they were jolted apart by a tray of desserts crashing to the floor.

A few moments later, a waiter brushed by and whispered, You’ve been discovered. Run!

Responding more to the warning in the waiter’s voice than to his words, she turned to look at the guests crowding along the terrace. Four knights were advancing towards her. As part of the evening’s entertainment, a group of performers in full medieval dress had put on a show of sword fighting, archery, and duels to the death. The cast included a king and queen and a dozen or so knights, among them these four. What could they want with her?

The item in her pocket . . . of course.

She saw the ugly glint in their eyes and a dagger of fear stabbed through her. She had whirled away from the terrace where she stood with her admirer and fled.

Now the knights had caught up to her.

The one on the left split his face with an unfriendly smile. He moved his hand to the hilt of his sword. During the performance, Keira was surprised to see sparks fly from the blades as they clashed. The battle may have been an act, but the swords were real. Now she watched in horror as the blade slid, slow and menacing, from its scabbard.

Before she could react to the threat, a shadowy figure leapt from the wall above and landed on cat feet between her and the knights. Close on the figure’s heels, a wave of burgundy fabric whipped down. The swath of deep red settled into a cloak around the broad shoulders of a man. He stood with a protective stance, his back to her. The velvet cloak swirled at his feet.

The knights were thrown by this new development. The four men halted their advance and stared.

Disliking her back against the wall, Keira slipped away through the shadows, coming out on the knights’ right flank. The group of men didn’t notice her, for the interloper had wholly absorbed their attention.

Keira couldn’t make out the man’s face, but there was something familiar about the way he carried himself. She didn’t stay long enough to find out. Edging away from the others, she cast about for a way to escape.

A dark rectangle to her left . . . a hallway.

Damp air seeped out of the opening. Pausing at the threshold, she looked back. The knights and her mysterious savior had come together in a clash of blades. His cape whirled as the knot of men tangled, moving together in a stumbling dance.

Should she stay? Or did he intend for her to escape?

Despite the unfavorable odds, the stranger seemed to have the upper hand. He fought one against four, but he seemed to know how to handle a sword. The others were actors, trained to perform a rehearsed choreography. They didn’t know how to deflect a real attack.

That settled it.

She didn’t believe the man would come to any harm. Besides, she had nothing to bring to the fight except the object hidden in the folds of her gown. And, she reminded herself, the goal was to protect it from them, not deliver it right into their hands.

Keira ran down the dark hall, listening to