From Now Until Forever

By Sherry Gloag

For Prince Liam, families meant bad news, unwanted commitments, and the loss of his personal freedom. Love spawned white picket fences, slippers at the hearth with a wife and kids making demands, so why did those despised images disappear when he met Melanie Babcott?

Melanie Babcott fought hard to escape the horrors of her youth and vowed to remain single and free, so when paid to protect Prince Liam from insurgents why did her personal pledge fly out the window?

From the thud of gunfire to the final, breathless kiss, this novella flies and never stops!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dingbat Publishing
• Release date: Mar 6, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224145294

Sherry Gloag

Best-selling author Sherry Gloag writes romances that stay with you long after you put her books down. One day, when stuck on completing a scene in her debut novel, The Brat,published by The Wild Rose Press, she opened a clean page and started 'freewriting'. She didn't sort of the errant scene, but she did write her first, published, 1k short story. She's had six more published since then. With eight published books under her belt and another due out in late 2013 Sherry is already working on her next novel. Each week, on her blog, along with a group of other talented authors she offers a free read under the umbrella heading of Tuesday's Tales. Sherry Gloag describes herself as a 'displaced' Scot living in the beautifly rural English county of Norfolk, where she enjoys talking with her characters while walking the area she calls 'her extended back garde'. But she does check to see if there's anyone e;se around before she gets involved with her characters. When she's not writing, Sherry enjoys reading, gardening and craftwork, to name a few of her hobbies. Her preference is for quiet when writing, but will occasionally use music to help set a mood if it is being elusive. Sherry Gloag loves hearing from her readers, [e-mail] You can find my books --> http://tinyurl.com/4qqnpck, http://tinyurl.com/4eog6cs, http://tinyurl.com/4dkmlh7, http://tinyurl.com/4jc42gf, http://tinyurl.com/4wy9hds, http://tinyurl.com/6bnvspc, http://tinyurl.com/5tj9zcc

Book preview

From Now Until Forever

Sherry Gloag

The Gasquet Princes book one

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2022 SHERRY GLOAG

Dingbat Publishing

Humble, Texas

FROM NOW UNTIL FOREVER

The Gasquet Princes series, book one

Copyright © 2022 SHERRY GLOAG

Originally published 2011 Astraea Press / Clean Reads

Second edition 2021 Dingbat Publishing

Humble, Texas

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written consent, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

eBooks cannot be sold, shared, uploaded to Torrent sites, or given away because that’s an infringement on the copyright of this work.

This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of International Copyright Law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines and/or imprisonment. No part of this e-book can be reproduced or sold by any person or business without the express permission of the publisher.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are entirely the produce of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to persons living or dead, actual locations, events, or organizations is coincidental.

A big ‘thank you’ to all my readers

And to all those who made this book possible. You know who you are.

Chapter One

Liam Fitzwilliam Gasquet stared in amazement at the blooming patch of red milliseconds before the pain exploded in his arm. Some trigger-happy idiot had fired in his direction. Indignation didn’t have time to take root before another bullet kicked the dust at his feet.

Not trigger-happy.

Intentional.

The rebels had found the fourth and youngest son of Jean-Phillipe Gasquet, ruler of the tiny kingdom adjacent to the Swiss border. When had they discovered his whereabouts?

With a reluctant sigh, he faced the truth of it. They hadn’t found him at all. They’d followed him. For the last three years he’d buried his head in the sand while travelling around the world, assuming his stab at anonymity would keep him safe from the insurgents hopeful of removing his family as rulers of the country.

To the sound of more gunshots he flung himself towards the nearest cover, while horses stampeded across the nearby paddock. Wedging himself behind the scrawny gorse bush wouldn’t deter anyone with a powerful rifle sight for long, but he prayed it would buy him a few more seconds. He weighed his options between the short distance to the solid stone farmhouse, or trying to make it back to the barn. Why did the spaces between suddenly take on the semblance of a full-blown marathon?

Another shot from close behind him had him rolling over for a view of the newest threat.

Melanie!

Beloved, stupid, brave, gun-toting Melanie stood in the farmhouse doorway reloading her weapon.

Get back! Fear strangled his attempted roar, which sounded more like a whimper.

Instead of issuing stupid orders, you’d do better to get your butt over here and behind solid cover. She studied the landscape and homed in on the nearby road. Unless of course, she added, you intend to bleed out where you’re lying.

He wasn’t sure whether he imagined the flicker of fear in her eyes, or heard it in her voice. But he noted her determined stance within the cover of the building.

Start moving, she ordered. While I have your butt covered. Her attention remained focussed on a cruising vehicle in the distance.

Before he could follow up on her instructions, a shower of stone shards flew off the edge of the wall next to his lover. His friend. His wife.

Unfurling his six-foot-five-inch frame, he scrambled to his feet. More dirt flew up around his shoes as he raced for the house, dove through the aperture, and rolled beneath the solid pine table in the centre of the room.

Sunlight — bright, golden, offering false promises — cut a path across the floor to his sanctuary. Shut the blasted door, he snapped while trying to determine whether bruised ego or downright fear fuelled his demand.

Stillness replaced the sound of gunfire. Even the birds, outraged by the disturbance of their tranquillity, fell silent.

Expectancy hung in the air.

What would their attackers do next?

The view from beneath the kitchen table changed the dimensions of the room. Chair legs, square and curving away from him, still managed to crowd his refuge.

The frayed hem of Mel’s jeans brushed her sun-kissed bare feet. Her sandals lay where she’d abandoned them beneath one of the chairs. A rogue ray of sunlight stroked the surface of the faceted coloured glass adorning her sandal straps and shot rainbow beams of tinted light across the surfaces of the cupboards and nearby walls. Who would have thought the owner of those girly sandals could tote a gun as though it were second nature to her?

So! It had begun. Melanie shifted her weapon, cast a glance behind her and then back towards the road in the distance.

In his usual no-nonsense manner, Paxman, her boss, had updated her on events in the phone call just over ten minutes ago. It hadn’t given her time to warn Liam to get back inside, let alone for her to make any moves towards vacating the farm. As the head of palace security, Paxman focussed on the job at hand and kept his missives brief. As her surrogate father — well, she owed him everything.

Our man inside the British Embassy says Drake Guillespie, and his son Charles deBonet, the rebel leader, are heading north and expected to pick up company on the way. Contact the Caretaker.

In other words, leave the farmhouse immediately. Brevity notwithstanding, from his information she’d assumed they’d have time to evacuate the place safely, instead of being embroiled in the middle of a gun battle.

A mistake. Not her first. Probably not her last, but still, a mistake.

From her position behind the half-open kitchen door, Melanie aimed her weapon, fired, and took satisfaction from the distant bellow of pain. She transfered the gun from one hand to the other and shot a brief glance to where Liam crouched beneath the table and wondered what he was thinking. Now the rebels had finally shown their hand… How would Liam react when he realized he’d married his officially appointed palace bodyguard?

And Paxman? How would he respond? She hadn’t told her boss about her marriage, had thought she’d have more time to work out the best way to tell him what she’d done. Best to tack it on to the expanding list of her mistakes.

With a sigh, she shelved her personal problems and concentrated on her duty.

They’d just run out of time and had to leave. Now. To hope they could stay here indefinitely had been nothing more than a wishful pipe-dream.

She loved this place, the farm and surrounding land, loved sharing it with her husband. The place she’d converted into a riding school for disabled children. The children who for different reasons, experienced many of her similar childhood fears and insecurities. Children who, when sitting on their ponies, transformed before her eyes from frustrated and frightened to delighted, smiling little beings, at one with their mounts.

A sadness swept through her as she dialed