"Just in time for Valentine's Day... a charming second anthology brimming with romantic fantasy tales of swashbuckling ladies and daring gentlemen.... Readers will be left starry-eyed and hoping for the series to continue." -- Publishers Weekly "Lace and Blade offers a banquet of adventure, intrigue and romance. There's something here to delight the palate of every reader's inner swashbuckler " -- Jacqueline Carey LACE AND BLADE, an original anthology of elegant romantic fantasy, edited by Deborah J. Ross, appears every Valentine's Day... In the spirit of classic period swashbucklers, Zorro, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and D'Artagnan, brimming with romantic courtly intrigue and dangerous liaisons, with cloak and dagger and perfumed handkerchiefs, the language of the fan and stolen glances, with the manners of Jane Austen and the sparkling rapier wit of Oscar Wilde, here are fantastic stories of adventure, derring-do, love, and glamorous yet subtle magic. Don't hesitate another moment... step into a sophisticated other world where passion is a courtly mistress, mystery is moonlight on steel, and magic is the god of love. "En garde, mon amour " LACE AND BLADE 2 Contributors in this volume: Rosemary Hawley Jarman, Mary Rosenblum, Diana L. Paxson, Francesca Forrest, Robin Wayne Bailey, Daniel Fox, Sherwood Smith, Traci N. Castleberry, Pauline Zed, Elisabeth Waters, Tanith Lee, and Madeleine E. Robins.