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REC: Honor on the Field by Nell
Nov. 13th, 2022 12:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
abby82Title: HONOR ON THE FIELD
Author: NELL
Pairing: Michael/Nikita
Rating: PG-13
Length: 39,000 words
Content Notes: Historical AU
Author Links: Author at The Split Personality | Author at AO3
Summary: Nikita is the illegitimate daughter of a minor English baron. While her father hosted members of the seasonal jousting tournament she catches the eye of Michel, the Duke of Roen. Despite their attraction, she is not content to be a mistress and bear her own illegitimate children, Nikita has her eye on true marriage and with it legitimacy; Historical AU
Why this must be read: One of the gifts of this story is the richness of its world building. Viewing it through a modern lens, the rules are archaic and at times cruel. To see Nikita dream of a better life and to then have circumstances threaten to take it all away makes you angry on her behalf. Roen is such a tantalizing prospect for her. No one would fault her if she went down that path. Instead, Nikita uses her head rather than her heart and that's such an admirable trait. You never get the impression that she's settling. It's all going according to plan, her plan. Despite everything against her, Nikita is as strong as ever. I love the way she is written. And what can be said about Roen, Samuelle is oh so good. An honorable man with honorable intensions. He respects and admires Nikita and given the setting of the story, that is a rare trait in a man. This story is wonderful and should be savored. The desire in the characters is palpable and yet the author shows so much time appropriate restraint. The writing depicts so much yearning that it leaps off the digital page. The world of LFN fanfiction has plenty of unfinished WIP. This is not one of them, but here we are more than fifteen years after it was written and I'm wishing that another visit to this world existed
Excerpt:
Ironically enough, his rising sympathy made it that much harder to remember his chivalrous intention to do nothing to jeopardize her reputation. Not only could he not stop watching her, at least twice during dinner he wasn't quick enough at looking away to avoid eye contact. Meeting her gaze full on, he lost himself in her eyes, discovering in them a multitude of hues, each new shade a revelation on the special beauty of blue. He saw that her countenance was full of humor and intelligence, of self-confidence, and, with a faint twinge of guilt, he also noted apprehension, curiosity, and, he was certain, an echo of the desire he knew was growing in him with every passing breath. The first time he managed to jerk his gaze away, the second, he was recalled to himself only by the solid weight of Prince Edward's boot heel grinding into his foot.
When the duke suddenly scowled and dropped his eyes, Nikita felt oddly breathless, as though she had been pulling hard on a string, only to have it snap off unexpectedly in her hands. Still reeling from the impact of his gaze, which she had felt all the way to her belly and lower still, and the sudden hollow emptiness inside from the loss of it, she could feel her pulse pounding and worried her cheeks must be flushed. She started to raise her hands to her face to cool her skin, but realized with a stab of angry embarrassment that such a gesture would only call more attention to her stupidity in allowing herself to become aware of, and worse, respond to Rouen's interest in her.
Damn him, she thought! What right did he have to be so obvious about his interest in her? Just because she was a bastard did not mean that she should have to put up with any more ill-mannered, dishonorable treatment in her own father's house than she already received, even from the current jousting champion himself. He was supposed to be a knight after all, schooled in courtly chivalric behavior and dedicated to the ideal of preserving the honor and purity of all women not that she wasn't fully aware that this last was honored, pretty much, only in the breach still, as a Duke and a champion, he should do better. He should not, had no right to, make her an object of further contempt by his open admiration.
Link: HONOR ON THE FIELD by NELL (Parts 1-13) by NELL, HONOR ON THE FIELD by NELL (Parts 14-25)
Author: NELL
Pairing: Michael/Nikita
Rating: PG-13
Length: 39,000 words
Content Notes: Historical AU
Author Links: Author at The Split Personality | Author at AO3
Summary: Nikita is the illegitimate daughter of a minor English baron. While her father hosted members of the seasonal jousting tournament she catches the eye of Michel, the Duke of Roen. Despite their attraction, she is not content to be a mistress and bear her own illegitimate children, Nikita has her eye on true marriage and with it legitimacy; Historical AU
Why this must be read: One of the gifts of this story is the richness of its world building. Viewing it through a modern lens, the rules are archaic and at times cruel. To see Nikita dream of a better life and to then have circumstances threaten to take it all away makes you angry on her behalf. Roen is such a tantalizing prospect for her. No one would fault her if she went down that path. Instead, Nikita uses her head rather than her heart and that's such an admirable trait. You never get the impression that she's settling. It's all going according to plan, her plan. Despite everything against her, Nikita is as strong as ever. I love the way she is written. And what can be said about Roen, Samuelle is oh so good. An honorable man with honorable intensions. He respects and admires Nikita and given the setting of the story, that is a rare trait in a man. This story is wonderful and should be savored. The desire in the characters is palpable and yet the author shows so much time appropriate restraint. The writing depicts so much yearning that it leaps off the digital page. The world of LFN fanfiction has plenty of unfinished WIP. This is not one of them, but here we are more than fifteen years after it was written and I'm wishing that another visit to this world existed
Excerpt:
Ironically enough, his rising sympathy made it that much harder to remember his chivalrous intention to do nothing to jeopardize her reputation. Not only could he not stop watching her, at least twice during dinner he wasn't quick enough at looking away to avoid eye contact. Meeting her gaze full on, he lost himself in her eyes, discovering in them a multitude of hues, each new shade a revelation on the special beauty of blue. He saw that her countenance was full of humor and intelligence, of self-confidence, and, with a faint twinge of guilt, he also noted apprehension, curiosity, and, he was certain, an echo of the desire he knew was growing in him with every passing breath. The first time he managed to jerk his gaze away, the second, he was recalled to himself only by the solid weight of Prince Edward's boot heel grinding into his foot.
When the duke suddenly scowled and dropped his eyes, Nikita felt oddly breathless, as though she had been pulling hard on a string, only to have it snap off unexpectedly in her hands. Still reeling from the impact of his gaze, which she had felt all the way to her belly and lower still, and the sudden hollow emptiness inside from the loss of it, she could feel her pulse pounding and worried her cheeks must be flushed. She started to raise her hands to her face to cool her skin, but realized with a stab of angry embarrassment that such a gesture would only call more attention to her stupidity in allowing herself to become aware of, and worse, respond to Rouen's interest in her.
Damn him, she thought! What right did he have to be so obvious about his interest in her? Just because she was a bastard did not mean that she should have to put up with any more ill-mannered, dishonorable treatment in her own father's house than she already received, even from the current jousting champion himself. He was supposed to be a knight after all, schooled in courtly chivalric behavior and dedicated to the ideal of preserving the honor and purity of all women not that she wasn't fully aware that this last was honored, pretty much, only in the breach still, as a Duke and a champion, he should do better. He should not, had no right to, make her an object of further contempt by his open admiration.
Link: HONOR ON THE FIELD by NELL (Parts 1-13) by NELL, HONOR ON THE FIELD by NELL (Parts 14-25)
