Author's note: I'm launching a Patreon! By supporting my Patreon you can gain access to early chapters of The Saintess and the Villainess and exclusive bimonthly (twich a month) chapters of my new novel, The Warmonger Duchess and Her Female Husband.
The following is the first chapter of my new Patreon exclusive novel:
Chapter 1: Tamsin Meets Her Fate
The Earldom of Gwedric was a small independent nation within the Viland Empire. Of course, the Viland Empire contained as many as ninety-five to a hundred independent nations at any given point, so that fact alone didn't make Gwedric particularly noteworthy. In fact, almost nothing made Gwedric noteworthy—and therein lay the Earldom's luck.
It was located in a small mountain valley that was somewhat annoying to travel to but not especially isolated. The Earldom contained no particularly valuable resources, but the land was fertile and the climate mild so the people rarely went hungry. And the Earl's family tended to produce mid-level army officers or civil servants—people who made themselves useful to the empire without ever becoming particularly distinguished.
That's how the Earldom, as small as it was, managed to survive as an independent nation for so long. Longer, even, than most other nations in the Empire. They were small, but self sufficient, lacked any valuables to entice invaders (especially considering how inconvenient it would be to send an army there), and generally avoided offending anyone important or powerful enough to retaliate. Against all odds, generation after generation, the Earldom of Gwedric was weak enough, unimportant enough, and lucky enough to avoid being conquered in any of the Empire's near constant civil wars.
But the Goddess of Fate is a tricky mistress, and no lucky streak can last forever.
Gwedric's luck finally ran out when the current Earl's son and heir was thrown from his horse during a hunting trip just a few months before his wedding.
If the grouse's nerve had held and it had remained hiding in the bushes for another few minutes until the horses had passed, then the hunt would have continued and perhaps Roger would have brought home a wild boar that night, inspiring a joyous feast.
But the grouse had panicked, and in its desperation to flee, it had spooked Basil the horse, causing him to throw his rider in his own panic.
If the stone had been a few feet to the left, Roger would have only had the wind knocked out of him when he landed, or perhaps a mild concussion. Perhaps he would have laughed off the concerns of his companions and chosen to ride home early, planning to continue the hunt another day.
But the stone was in just the right place to crack the young man's skull open, spilling his life's blood into the soil.
Tamsin Gwedric, Roger's younger sister and sole remaining heir to the Earldom, cursed the damned stone for its violence. She cursed the wicked grouse for its cowardice. And she cursed the cruel-hearted Goddess of Fate for abandoning her family at long last.
Tamsin's parents were in the middle of a similar act of abandonment.
The Earl and his wife—a dignified looking man with hair just graying at his temples, and an elegant woman with well-kept curls—argued as they packed a carriage.
"You're certain Erhard will take us in?" asked the Countess, attempting to stuff an oversized hatbox under the seat of the carriage.
"He told me I could come to him if I ever needed anything," said the Earl, sticking a cage containing a squawking chicken onto one of the seats.
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The Saintess and the Villainess
FantasíaWhen Anne finds herself suddenly reborn as the Saintess, the main character of the novel she had been reading just before she died, she has no interest in fulfilling her original role as the heroine. Instead, she devotes herself to saving her favori...
