First Line Fridays: Lady of Conquest by Tamara Leigh

I have not posted in nearly 3 weeks. I was going to feature the first line from Carolyn Miller's latest novel A Hero for Miss Hatherleigh but I figured that a lot of other people are probably going to be including that particular book.

So I am featuring instead the first line from an novel I am currently reading from my Kindle Backlist: well actually I am listening to the audiobook, since I got the novel free a while back. 

Lady of Conquest is one of several clean read rewrites of a series of general market titles she wrote back in the 90s, and is actually one of the earliest of her novels- at least in terms of the setting. Its set in 1068, just a couple of years after the Battle of Hastings.

Or rather it was the earliest until the Publication of Merciless, the first title in Mrs Leigh's new series set just after the Norman Conquest late last year. The second book is due out in late April. 

Being from Sussex, the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest is an event I've always known about, and sort of always consider the Saxons as my people.
I like the cover a lot, and the blonde Lady looks very Saxon: apart from her impossibly small waist and the stone castle in the background. Castles at this time were made strictly of wood.

Anyway, without further ado, here is today's first line 

" A thousand times I curse you!” the fallen knight shouted at the one who cradled his head in her lap, whose blue skirts were stained purple with his blood"

Don't forget to click the Meme and comment with your own First Line.