Unbowed

By Libby Campbell

Mercy Harris, a wealthy matriarch in failing health, guards a lifetime of confidences. Even as she welcomes friends and family into her home for Christmas 1923, she harbors a new secret.
As proprietor of the Black Hen, a guesthouse catering to adults with unconventional sexual appetites, she delivers the luxury and discretion essential to her clients’ enjoyment. Regular visitors think they know Mercy. They don’t.
This year, as her company decorates the house for the holiday, they whisper about the small changes in her. Enticed by their erotic comforts, they shed their worry about the formidable woman who seems destined to live forever.
When her guests are relaxed and mellow on Christmas Day, Mercy surprises them with a gift that will rock their world for years to come.

Disclaimer: Unbowed is a stand-alone prequel in the Without Mercy series. It contains sexual and erotic scenes, including spicy power exchanges. If that content is likely to offend you, please don't read this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Libby Campbell
• Release date: Oct 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781990303081

Libby Campbell

My romance novels feature strong, self-reliant women and the powerful men who love them. Romantic by nature, I write the stories I want to read: those that feature a spicy power exchange and deliver a sting in the tale.Canadian by birth, I also lived in Australia for a couple of decades. While living there I overcame my aversion to saucer-sized spiders and, as a condition of marriage to my Aussie Prince Charming, I swore a lifelong allegiance to the Melbourne Football Club.Then family called and my husband and I packed up and moved. We now live on a rocky island on Canada’s West Coast, close to beaches that once were frequented by smugglers and rumrunners.My passions are reading and writing. I adore all animals and love hiking, beachcombing, and an occasional night of dancing.

Book preview

UNBOWED

UNBOWED

WITHOUT MERCY, PREQUEL

LIBBY CAMPBELL

Author’s note: Unbowed is the prequel to the Without Mercy series. Your enjoyment of it will be enhanced by reading the books in order. Each book contains an HEA for the main couple, but the murderer isn’t revealed until book three. The investigation starts in Unseen, continues in Unchosen, and concludes in Untamed. This book contains sexual and erotic scenes including power exchanges. If such content is likely to offend you, please don't read this book.

Copyright © 2021 by Libby Campbell

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published by Libby Campbell Romance

eBook ISBN: 978-1-990303-08-1

Print Book ISBN: 978-1-990303-07-4

Campbell, Libby

Unbowed

Cover Design by Raven Designs

If you found this book for free on any website but Amazon or another reputable retailer it was most likely pirated. This is a federal crime, but worse the author receives no money for this work. When books are pirated authors stop writing.

This book is intended for adults only. Spanking and other sexual activities represented in this book are fantasies only, intended for adults.

CONTENTS

Prologue

1. December 19, 1923 – The gathering begins

2. Summer 1910 – the Black Hen, unfinished

3. Summer 1910 – Schoolrooms new and old

4. December 19, 1923 – Sharing secrets

5. December 19, 1923 – Keeping up traditions

6. December 19, 1923 – A walk in the forest

7. December 19, 1923 – Pipe dreams

8. December 20, 1923 – Facing facts

9. December 20, 1923 – Determination

10. 1910 and 1923 – The owner’s suite

11. December 23-24 – Last arrivals

12. December 25, 1923 – Christmas spirit

Excerpt from UNSEEN, the first book in the WITHOUT MERCY series…

More from Libby Campbell:

Without Mercy – An exciting mystery series!

The Lighthouses of Devmaer series

Tales of Devmaer: Novellas attached to The Lighthouses of Devmaer series:

His to Hold Series

Bad Girls Grumpy Bosses

Other books by Libby Campbell:

Connect with Libby Campbell:

Libby Campbell in her own words:

PROLOGUE

When Polly Harris lay dying of tuberculosis, she made her husband Earl promise to look after their five-year-old daughter Mercy until she was old enough to marry. That was an easy promise for Earl. He loved his darling girl and had no intention of abandoning her. In the following years, he hauled Mercy with him from one prospecting site to another. Life was difficult but Mercy didn’t know any different. Her sweet-temper and eagerness to help made her good company.

Earl did his best for her. If there was a school near the claim he was working, he made sure Mercy was enrolled. When it was just the two of them, he taught her simple songs and dances. When he was flush with money, he bought her books to read and, occasionally, supplies to draw and paint. He praised her beauty, telling her that her raven hair and thoughtful brown eyes were gifts that her mother had left her.

By the time she was ten, she could also shoot, trap, and fish. She spoke a few words of the many languages of the people working the gold fields and understood more than she let on. Growing up in the most remote Canadian backwoods, she developed a wild streak that stayed with her for life.

When Mercy was seventeen, life changed. They hit a rich seam of gold that promised great fortune. Earl confirmed the finding and Mercy shrieked with joy. She started singing Buffalo Gal at the top of her lungs and Earl joined her in a wild jig around the campfire.

Is everything okay over here? a young man asked as he stepped into their small clearing as quiet as a shadow. He was tall, had a broad chest, and his arms were ropy with muscle. Holding a battered sweat-stained hat, he had the guarded manner of someone walking into a stranger’s front parlor for the first time.

Mercy’s Pa put himself between her and the intruder as if to protect her from some unseen threat, but she didn’t look away or even think about hiding. They’d been working the claim for over a month, just the two of them, and the appearance of any stranger was always cause for wariness. Only this time she wasn’t feeling doubt or fear and she couldn’t explain why.

Clearly, the stranger wasn’t much older than she was. For someone living in the bush like they were, his clothes were tidy and well mended. He was clean shaven, which was also unusual. Most prospectors had a moustache at the very least, but he didn’t hide his strong cheekbones or lantern jaw behind a mask of whiskers.

He caught her staring at him and flashed a blinding smile that made her stomach flip. The hair raised on the back of her neck. A warm flush washed over her. The way his eyes, bluer than the brightest summer sky, locked onto hers, sent lust boiling through her veins, although she had no idea what it was or what it meant.

Earl looked at the stranger appraising his daughter and noticed the way she looked back at him. While the two of them were distracted, he picked up his rifle and pointed it at the young man.

The young man quickly put up his hands. I come in friendship. I heard the hullabaloo from my camp. It’s not that far from here. Anyway, I’ve been in the bush alone for so long, that I hoped to find some company. But if I’m in the way, I can move one. The name’s Silverstone. Seth Silverstone.

Mercy had sensed her father studying her and the stranger, but she didn’t care. She didn’t want anything to intrude on this moment.

After a pause, Earl lowered the gun. I’m Earl Harris and this is my daughter Mercy. He shook Silverstone’s hand before stepping back so they could greet each other.

Silverstone accepted Mercy’s invitation to tea and they sat and talked for a while. Eventually, Earl invited Silverstone to share their dinner of venison stew and biscuits. As they ate, Mercy watched and listened while her father grilled Silverstone about his past, present, and future.

Just that morning, her Pa had told her that if their vein was as rich as he thought it was, they’d have to dig a shaft and that meant they’d need help. He also said, If this is as good as I hope it is, I’d like to have another man around to protect you and the claim when I have to go to town.

Mercy had protested that she could protect herself, but Earl had replied, You have no idea how dangerous life will become if word of this lode gets out.

Until Silverstone walked into the campsite, she’d been dreading another person coming into their father-daughter partnership, maybe creating tension between them. Now, her heart pounded with excitement and hope. Could she possibly be so lucky twice on the same day? First, they’d hit the motherlode and then this handsome man had arrived when he was needed most.

By the time they’d scraped the last of the stew from the pot, Silverstone had confided that he had a promising claim of his own. He was looking for someone to share the work and the riches. Comforted by that, Earl described their motherlode and suggested they pool their resources and divide the profits three ways. They shook on the partnership and the men sealed it with a shot of whiskey from Silverstone’s flask.

From that day forward, their fortunes grew as if there was a lucky synergy to them meeting and joining forces. The crazy, drunken feeling Mercy had for Silverstone spiraled out of control. When she caught him looking at her, her body ached. The fire in his eyes and the bulge in his trousers said he felt the same.

One day, Silverstone announced he was going to catch fish for dinner. Mercy waited a few minutes before following him. When she got to the riverbank, Silverstone dropped his pole and opened his arms. She walked into his embrace, trembling with excitement. Her first kiss was everything she’d hoped it would be and ten times better. Their mouths met, gently touching. When the kiss deepened and his lips pressed harder, she kissed back with the same force. Soon enough, his lips slanted over hers and his tongue pushed between her teeth. Shocked and thrilled, she opened for him, loving the way he held her tight against him, enjoying the way his cock was rising in his pants and pushed against her.

She froze when his entire body went rigid. She felt his arms drop away from her. When she opened her eyes, he was staring, wide-eyed, into the distance. The sharp point of a knife was pressed into the side of his neck. A single drop of blood seeped out. Standing so close to Silverstone that she could smell his tobacco, was her father.

Mercy’s temper flared. Pa what are you doing?

I’m protecting you.

Not needed! she yelled, pushing his knife hand away. She closed her eyes to calm herself before saying, This is the first time I’ve ever been kissed. It was the best day of my life, but you just ruined it!

I’d rather see one day ruined, than your entire life destroyed.

One kiss wasn’t going to ruin my life! She took out her handkerchief and dried the blood on Silverstone’s neck.

It’s not the kiss that I’m worried about. It’s what comes next, Earl said.

The three of them stood, looking at each other, their chests heaving.

After a few long minutes, Earl