title: Midsummer Night's Madness
author: Jill Barnett
description: The first of four stories about a Midsummer night is A Knight in Tarnished Armor by Jill Barnett.  The lovely Lady Linnet of Ardenwood will do anything to avoid marrying the horrible Baron Warbrooke.  She asks the mercenary William de Ros to escort her to a convent to escape her would-be husband.  What Linnet doesn't know is that her grandfather has given Baron Warbrooke one week to woo Linnet and convince her to marry him.  But Linnet is beginning to have feelings for William-- who has a secret of his own.  In A Ribbon of Moonlight by Elaine Coffman, Quinn Scott, Marquess of Waverly, finds out he has become the guardian of a distant cousin's daughter.  Assuming the girl is a child, he doesn't realize that the pretty woman he has been watching at a masquerade ball is the girl Catherine Flowers.  When he discovers who she is, it is already too late-- he has kissed her.  To Catherine, Quinn is everything she could want in a man.  But he is trying to marry her off to avoid facing his feelings about her.  Enchanted by Alexis Harrington is set in Oregon in 1875.  Leah Whitman runs Whitman's Dry Goods, right next door to the gunsmith, Austin Ryder.  Soon to be married, Leah isn't as taken in by Austin's good looks as the rest of the women in town.  When a mysterious man named Professor Xavier Sortilege gives her an amulet that will bring her true love to her, Leah is skeptical.  But when she begins to dream about Austin after he mistakenly kisses her, she begins to wonder.  A legend about a pirate's treasure brings Nell Jolley and Sebastian Kane together in The Golden Mermaid by Sonia Simone.  Nell thinks she has conjured up the pirate Despicable Jack when she first meets Sebastian on the beach in the Florida keys.  But her father and Sebastian are searching for a gold statue, the Bathing Maenad.  When her father is injured, Nell decides to stow away Sebastian's ship to make sure he doesn't keep the statue for himself.  Sebastian is often frustrated and occasionally amused by the whirlwind Nell.  She has been raised with unconventional beliefs and Sebastian finds himself wondering what life would be like with such a woman.Four captivating stories by four beloved authors!  An enchanting anthology! Each story in Midsummer Night's Madness is special!  A delightful collection that combines romance and fate! Pure magic!   The authors have done a splendid job of weaving  bewitching tales about a midsummer night and the power of love!Kristina Wright  -- <i>Copyright  1994-97 Literary Times, Inc.  All rights reserved</i> -- <i>From <a href="/exec/obidos/subst/partners/marketing/literary-times.html/${0}">Literary Times</a></i>
zlib_text: **Jim Thompson**
  
   **King Blood**
  
   ***Chapter One***
  
   **Just before first-light, just before dawn began its streaky buttering of
  the Territorial Oklahoma prairie, Critch stepped out to the open vestibule of
  the train and stood waiting there for the soldier's bride. She had to stop by
  the toilet (small wonder!) before she could join him, so there was time to
  brace himself for what he would do if her attitude demanded it; to visualize
  the ultimate scene in a drama of robbery and rape.**
  
   **Let the little lady get troublesome, and he'd knock her off the platform.
  Send her down between the two cars, and the grinding wheels of the train.
  There were seven cars behind this one. By the time they were done with her,
  the little lady would be mincemeat. A nothingness which would be less than
  nothing when daybreak brought coyotes and buzzards.**
  
   **Chuckling softly, Critch lighted a cheroot, thinking how praiseful Ray
  would have been had he been alive to praise. Oh, Ray would have approved
  han