The Cursed Highlander (Lairds of Dunkeld Series) (A Medieval Scottish Romance Story) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Join My VIP Readers’ Club List

  A Personal Note From Emilia Ferguson

  Dedication

  About The Author

  The Highland Hero

  CHARACTERS LIST

  *

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  EPILOGUE

  Also By Emilia Ferguson

  Acknowledgement

  If You Have Enjoyed This Book…

  Publisher’s Notes

  The Cursed Highlander

  Lairds of Dunkeld Series (A Medieval Scottish Romance Story)

  Emilia Ferguson

  MOUNTAINSKY HOUSE PUBLISHING CO.

  Contents

  Copyright

  Join My VIP Readers’ Club List

  A Personal Note From Emilia Ferguson

  Dedication

  About The Author

  The Highland Hero

  CHARACTERS LIST

  *

  PROLOGUE

  *

  CHAPTER ONE

  *

  CHAPTER TWO

  *

  CHAPTER THREE

  *

  CHAPTER FOUR

  *

  CHAPTER FIVE

  *

  CHAPTER SIX

  *

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  *

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  *

  CHAPTER NINE

  *

  CHAPTER TEN

  *

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  *

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  *

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  *

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  *

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  *

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  *

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  *

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  *

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  *

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  *

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  *

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  *

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  *

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  *

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  *

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  *

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  *

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  *

  EPILOGUE

  *

  Join My VIP Readers’ Club List

  Also By Emilia Ferguson

  Acknowledgement

  If You Have Enjoyed This Book…

  Publisher’s Notes

  Copyright © 2017 by EMILIA FERGUSON & MOUNTAINSKY HOUSE PUBLISHING CO.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to real or dead people, places, or events are not intentional and are the result of coincidence. The characters, places, and events are the product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the author/publisher. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Cover designed by Ms Melody Simmons. Author has the copyrights to this cover.

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  A PERSONAL NOTE

  FROM EMILIA FERGUSON

  To My Dearest Lovely Readers,

  There is something picturesque and dramatic about the Scottish Highlands. Not only the landscape, which is mysterious, with its own special wildness and drama. It is the people themselves.

  Scottish people are the original untamed spirits: proud, wild, forthright, in touch with their inner selves. The Medieval period in Scotland is a fascinating one for contrasts: half the country was steeped in Medieval culture - knights, ladies, housecarls and maids - and the other half was a maelstrom of wild clans people; fighting, living and loving straight from the heart.

  If the two halves - the wild and the courtly - meet up, what will happen? And how will these proud women and untamed men react when brought together by social expectations, requirements and ambitions?

  Read on to find out the answers!

  Thank you very much for your strong support to my writing journey!

  With Hugs, Kisses and Love…

  DEDICATION

  Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be man's last romance.

  Oscar Wilde

  This Story Is Specially Dedicated To You, My Dearest Reader!

  It is with gratefulness and gratitude that I am writing to you this personal dedication.

  Thank you once again for giving me this opportunity to share with you my creative side.

  I hope you will enjoy reading this story as much I have enjoyed writing it!

  It is with such great support from you that we authors continue to write, presenting you with great stories.

  Have you checked out my other western historical romance books series?

  Click the link below to get started

  *** AMAZON USA ***

  Do you like what you have read?

  I want to hear from you!

  Please do get in touch with me:

  facebook.com/EmiliaFergusonBooks

  [email protected]

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Emilia Ferguson is the pen name of an author who writes historical romance with her husband. Her hometown is California, but currently she is living in hot tropical Singapore where she enjoys hot summer the whole year round.

  When she is not writing her Medieval Historical Scottish Romance pieces, she enjoys taking long walks with her husband and kids at the nearby beaches.

  It was these long walks where she got inspirations and ideas for her stories. She credits her wonderfully supportive husband John, her great cover designer Ms Melody Simmon
s and her advance review reviewers for helping her to fine-tune her writing skills and allowing her creativity to explode.

  THE CURSED HIGHLANDER

  A MEDIEVAL SCOTTISH ROMANCE STORY

  by

  EMILIA FERGUSON

  and

  MountainSky House Publishing Co.

  CHARACTERS LIST

  CHARACTERS LIST

  The following are a list of characters featured in this book #4

  Estate Name: Dunkeld castle

  Family name: MacConnaway

  Mother: Amabel MacConnaway (great-niece of Brien Lochlann, Earl of Lochlann)

  Father: Broderick MacConnaway, thane of Dunkeld

  Daughter: Joanna MacConnaway

  Daughter: Amice MacConnaway

  Son: Brodgar MacConnaway

  Aunt: Alina MacConnaway (sister to Amabel)

  Uncle: Duncan MacConnaway (brother to Broderick)

  Cousin: Leona MacConnaway

  First cousin once removed: Chrissie MacNeil

  Husband to Chrissie: Blaine MacNeil

  Second cousin: Conn MacNeil

  Second cousin: Alf MacNeil

  Great-Aunt: Aili Lochlann

  Estate name: Lochlann Castle

  Family name: Lochlann

  Brien, earl of Lochlann (deceased)

  Estate Name: Buccleigh Castle

  Family name: Blackheath

  Father: Adair Blackheath, his grace the duke of Buccleigh

  Mother: Jeanne Mentieth

  Son: Dougal Blackheath

  Son: Alexander Blackheath

  Grandmother: Colla Lochlann (daughter of Brien, Earl of Lochlan)

  Grandfather: Donald Mentieth, his grace the Duke of Athol

  Uncle: Fergal Blackheath, Earl of Albraith

  PROLOGUE

  PROLOGUE

  “Joanna, no! Wait...”

  Joanna ran down the corridor, escaping from the turret and her aunt Alina. At sixteen, long red hair flying loose behind her, Joanna felt a moment's rebellious freedom.

  Alina's always so serious! Always telling me I should be more responsible. More wise. It isn’t fair!

  At the end of the hallway, she stopped, panting. Her deep vein of common sense caught up with her as she cooled off from her run.

  Her aunt Alina was frail. She might be only a year younger than Joanna's own mother, who was hale and fit as someone half her age, but Alina was not as strong. Joanna shouldn't have been so thoughtless and made her run. Her mother would be cross, and rightly so.

  Feeling guilty, Joanna walked back down the hallway.

  At the top of the stairs, she found Alina, waiting for her. Her face chalk white, hand on her chest as she caught her breath, Alina looked serenely at Joanna, her black eyes ageless.

  “I'm sorry, Aunt,” Joanna said sadly.

  Alina smiled tranquilly, her pale oval face as lovely as a carving, and just as composed.

  “No harm done,” she said. “I understand what it is to have the gift, so young.”

  Joanna sighed.

  That was what had upset her so much, earlier: Alina's insistence that Joanna had the same gift she did.

  The gift of intuition. Of knowing what others thought, before they said it. Of knowing what would come to pass before it happened.

  I don't want that gift!

  It was no gift, but a terrible burden. Yet, despite her greatest struggles, Joanna had to accept her aunt told nothing but the truth. She did have it. She wished something – anything – could take it away.

  More, even than that, she wished something could take away the future she had seen.

  Alina had been trying to explain it when she had run away. How was anyone supposed to be responsible and careful when faced with the future she had been shown?

  It was so very dark.

  Her dream had not been specific – more imagery and feeling. In it, she, Alina, her mother, and all her little cousins had been lost in a castle.

  Bigger than Dunkeld, her home, this castle was vast, dark, and swathed in mist. Away from all her family, Joanna had held a brand, leading the way. However, ahead was only darkness. And his face.

  The man. That was the most frightening part. She had not wanted to tell Alina of it. She suspected that she already knew.

  What could she, or Joanna, do about it? If fate was inescapable, then he was her fate.

  They would one day meet.

  Suppressing a shiver, Joanna followed her aunt down the spiral staircase, back to the room where they had sat before.

  The worst thing about the man in her dream was that she did not understand how he made her feel. Tall, with black hair and a lean, haughty countenance, he frightened her, made her want to run away.

  Yet, she had also liked him.

  She shivered again, and this time it was not with fear. A strange, delicate tingle had spread up through her body, making her shudder with some new, hitherto foreign emotion as she recalled him.

  Sensible, mature Joanna did not think she liked this feeling. It was strong, compelling, and dangerous.

  Somewhere in her, the part of her that was not mature and sensible liked it very much.

  She wondered if she would ever get a chance to find out more.

  If Alina was right – if dreams, her dreams, were fated to come true – then she would one day know.

  She did not know yet, whether she wanted to find out.

  CHAPTER ONE

  NEWS FROM A CASTLE

  NEWS FROM A CASTLE

  The fire roared in the grate upstairs in the solar, the great, arched windows covered with tapestries to screen the bitter chill from the room. Joanna, sitting at her place at the table, fanned herself with her hand. It was warm up here. She gathered up her hair and lifted it momentarily off her neck, seeking some coolness. At nineteen, her hair was thick and lustrous, hanging down to her waist.

  The whole family was gathered together in the solar, to celebrate Lammastide, the festival that gave thanks for the year's harvest. The atmosphere was crackling with life, conversation merry, and laughter loud. Joanna bent down, frowning in concentration, to hear what her aunt Chrissie had said to her.

  “Oh, Joanna! You are so thoughtful.”Aunt Chrissie smiled at Joanna from her place at the table. Joanna grinned at her fondly.

  “It wasn't really thoughtful,” she admitted. “I enjoyed taking Conn and Leona out for a ride.” She glanced across the table at her little cousins, who were engaged in fighting over a helping of pudding. They had ridden for an hour around the castle walls, the two youngsters shrieking with delicious horror at the thought of bears, or wolves, prowling from the woods. Joanna enjoyed their company and, besides, it kept them out of mischief.

  Chrissie touched her hand. “You are a blessing, my dear.”

  Joanna felt warm inside. Chrissie – sweet and kindly – was a dear friend. Taking her son Conn for a few hours was no hardship at all. Especially not now, when they were all gathered for the Lammas feast.

  Joanna glanced across the laden table, lifting a strand of long red hair off her brow as she watched her cousins and their argument over the plate. At thirteen years old, the pair of them was always getting into mischief – a state of affairs Joanna suspected was mainly Leona's fault. Alina's only daughter, and as beautiful as her mother, Leona was already stubborn.

  And so enchanting she can get away with anything. Joanna smiled, watching the two cousins talk.

  “It's my pudding!” Conn protested as his cousin reached across to take a piece with her spoon.

  “Oh, but you don't mind sharing with just me?” Leona said, smiling, all dimples and shining eyes.

  “No, Leona,” Conn said, gazing back. He looked adoringly at her and Leona dimpled sweetly.

  Joanna wanted to laugh. The two cousins had been pledged at birth for marriage, and she could already see the strong regard between them. Leona's dominant personality certainly ensured that there would be no mistreated wife in her home! She grinned.

  “Wh
at, dear?” Amabel, her mother, asked from across the table.

  “Nothing,” Joanna replied. “I was just watching those two.”

  Amabel smiled fondly at her niece and nephew, sitting beside her at the table. “They're a fine pair.”

  Joanna nodded, feeling her throat close with emotion. Leona and Conn were all set up for their future, it was true. They might only be thirteen, still children, but they had more of a secure future planned than she had.