The Highlander’s Dilemma (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 Highlander’s Dilemma

  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

  EPILOGUE

  Also By Emilia Ferguson

  Acknowledgement

  If You Have Enjoyed This Book…

  Publisher’s Notes

  The Highlander’s Dilemma

  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 Highlander’s Dilemma

  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

  *

  EPILOGUE

  *

  Join My VIP Readers’ Club List

  Also By Emilia Ferguson

  Acknowledgement

  If You Have Enjoyed This Book…

  Publisher’s Notes

  Copyright © 2017 & 2018 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 Simmons and her advance review reviewers for helping her to fine-tune her writing skills and allowing her creativity to explode.

  THE HIGHLANDER�
�S DILEMMA

  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 #5

  Estate Name: Dunkeld castle

  Family name: MacConnaway

  Mother: Alina Lochlann

  Daughter: Leona MacConnaway

  Uncle: Broderick MacConnaway

  Aunt: Amabel Lochlannn

  Cousin: Brodgar MacConnaway

  Cousin: Joanna MacConnaway (living at Lochlann castle, wed to Dougal, duke of Buccleigh)

  Cousin: Amice MacConnaway

  Aunt: Chrissie Connelly

  Uncle: Blaine MacNeil

  Cousin: Conn MacNeil

  Cousin: Alf MacNeil

  Estate name: Annecy

  Family name: du Mas

  Lord: Marc du Mas, comte de Anncey

  Estate Name: Cleremont

  Family name: Ferrand

  Lord: Guy Ferrand, comte de Cleremont

  PROLOGUE

  PROLOGUE

  “Leona! Wait!”

  Laughing, Leona turned to Conn in the hallway, her long golden hair swinging over one shoulder with her sudden change in motion.

  “I beat you!” she grinned at him, blue eyes slanting in merriment. “Why must I wait?”

  “Aw, Leona...” Conn protested. He shook his head, looking ruefully after her as she ran, laughing, up the hallway and burst into the solar. Conn followed her into the room. At sixteen, he was a speedy runner. He still did not seem as fast as her.

  I'll beat him! I will...

  “Leona MacConnoway,” a stern voice shattered her musing.

  “Mother!” Leona stopped in her headlong rush, blue eyes round with surprise.

  Alina MacConnoway, seer and lady of the castle, compressed her lips into a thin line, hiding a smile. “You were looking for something?”

  “I was hiding!” Leona protested. “From Conn!”

  Alina smiled. “Oh. Well, perhaps now you are here – hiding –” she paused to hide a smile, “you can tell me what you would like to wear for the upcoming winter gathering.”

  Leona flushed, her chiseled face with its high cheekbones reddening with pleasure. “Yes! I'd forgotten.”

  “Well, then,” Alina said, voice teasing. “Since it's such a trivial event that you forgot, I suppose you don't have any idea what to wear, then?”

  Leona stamped her foot. “Oh, Mother!” she said, exasperated. “Stop teasing. You know I have an idea of what I would like to wear to the gathering.”

  “I do,” Alina smiled, a proper smile this time. “And I hope we have something that will suit your needs.”

  “Aw, Mother,” Leona smiled, giving her tall, slender mother an affectionate hug. “You spoil me.”

  “Maybe,” Alina admitted. “But it's only spoiling if you're spoiled. And you, my dear, are quite lovely. Inside and out. Come on; choose something.” She waved a hand at the chests of costly fabric that lined the walls and stepped back to let Leona look through them.

  Leona bent over the chests, perusing the piles of brightly-colored, costly fabrics packed inside them. She smiled as she ran a finger over costly velvets, the colors forest green or autumnal gold or woodland brown. She knew exactly what she wanted. She was sure these chests, with their precious cargo – sometimes from lands so far away it took years to reach this country – would contain it.

  “There!”

  She felt her cheeks lift in a delighted smile to have seen it. The perfect dark blue. She went to it and lifted it from the chest, feeling the smooth fabric, cold like water, under her long index finger. She held it up, a questioning look on her face. “This, Mother? Please?”

  Alina smiled. Again, her grave, solemn face lit up in a smile. “I did think it might be that. Yes. Of course.”

  “Oh, Mother!” Leona ran to her, flushed and happy. Impulsively, she embraced her, reaching up to kiss that cool porcelain cheek that smelled, as always, of rosewood and some darker scent – iris, perhaps, or myrrh – that scented her mother.

  Alina smiled. “It looks beautiful,” she said gently.

  “Oh, Mother,” Leona said again. She clasped the fabric to her chest, feeling a little frisson of delight as it slid in oiled folds through her fingers. She was excited.

  The gathering was the biggest event of the entire year. Though Dunkeld Castle, her home, was the venue of many balls and parties all year, the single most important one was the gathering. All her kin would be there. And all the local gentry too. Here, she would have a chance not only to see her cousin Joanna and her baby, but the local eligible lords. She was sixteen and it was not too soon for her to be thinking about marriage. Not at once, of course, but gatherings were the place where arrangements were made and promises given. They were a place to find partners. To shine in the dances, and to flirt and be merry and have fun.

  Leona, loving dancing and happiness, was the center of most parties. And she loved them.

  “Who will you meet here, I wonder?” Alina said, as if she’d heard her speak thoughts aloud.

  Leona flushed. “It doesn't matter, Mother,” she said quickly. “I'll marry Conn.”

  It was what Aunt Chrissie – Conn's mother – had decided. Not really Leona's aunt, she and Conn were not truly cousins, though they had been raised together from birth. They were the same age and had grown up together. They had grown up knowing that they would wed.

  Alina laughed. “I know you always say that.”

  Leona scowled. “I mean it, Mother.” Then she bit her lip, recalling who her mother was. The seer of Lochlann first; now the seer of Dunkeld- she did not speak lightly. “Why do you ask?”

  Alina frowned. She put her hand to her forehead, swaying a little where she stood. Like a column of ivory, clad in dark velvet, she had become even paler and seemed somehow more delicate.

  “Mother?” Leona asked.

  “I see something...complicated, my daughter,” she said gently. “I do not know what it is I see. But you will travel many waters and there are many paths ahead before you come back.”

  Leona felt her heart clench with fear. “Mother?”

  Her mother swayed, and then her black eyes focused once again on her daughter. She blinked; then she smiled. “Sorry, Leona,” she said gently. “I was miles away. Shall we find Amabel and see if she can help cut this for your gown?”

  Leona looked at her hands, heart thudding in her chest. “Yes, Mother,” she said gravely. She felt as if a fist of ice had clutched her heart. She wanted to question her mother; ask her what she saw. However, she did not wish to question the Sight. Moreover, she knew that her mother would likely not recall what she had said. It was often so, with the Sight. She had told her. Leona had the duty now to remember the words and, if they could be made sense of, to seek the sense behind them.

  A future with many paths. Many waters to be traveled, before she came back.

  Still shivering, holding the fabric to her chest, she followed her tall, regal mother from the room.

  She would try and find answers. How many ways could she understand a future of many paths?

  She sighed. It would all become clear in time.

  CHAPTER ONE

  A MESSENGER FROM AFAR

  A MESSENGER FROM AFAR

  Leona looked across the table at Conn, who grinned at her. She smiled, feeling soft warmth flow through her body as he looked at her.

  He's so handsome.

  At nineteen, Leona understood how she felt for Conn. She was attracted to him.

  He was tall, with reddish hair and deep brown eyes, a wide smile and a lean, high-cheekboned face. He grinned at her, seeing her attempt to hide her smile.

  Leona looked sharply away, focusing on her plate, swimming as it was with trout in gravy. It was summer, and her father had decided it was the perfect time for a celebratory
dinner to usher in the season. She looked out the window at the rare sunshine, gilding the courtyard beyond the windows. The atmosphere was relaxed and peaceful, a perfect summer's afternoon.

  “Leona?”

  “Mm?” she asked, looking at Conn with a desperate attempt at a straight face.

  “Could you pass the gravy, please?”

  She smiled. “Of course, Conn.”

  She lifted the tureen and passed it across. They were in the solar, the meal a relaxed informal one with the family all there, but no other guests. Aunt Chrissie, Conn's mother, was far down the table, her blonde curls drawn back off her forehead to save them from the heat and the perspiration which dampened all foreheads.