The Highland Hero (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

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  EPILOGUE

  Also By Emilia Ferguson

  Acknowledgement

  If You Have Enjoyed This Book…

  Publisher’s Notes

  The Highland Hero

  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

  *

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  *

  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 Simmons and her advance review reviewers for helping her to fine-tune her writing skills and allowing her creativity to explode.

  THE HIGHLAND HERO

  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 #3

  Estate Name: Lochlann Castle

  Family name: Lochlann

  Laird: Brien Lochlann

  Mother: Joanna Lochlann, (deceased)

  Father: Louis du Mas, count of Annecy

  Daughter: Amabel du Mas

  Daughter: Alina du Mas

  Granddaughter: Joanna MacConnaway

  Grandson: Brodgar MacConnaway

  Ward: Heath Fraser

  Aunt: Frances Lochlann, (deceased)

  Uncle: Artair Connelly, (deceased)

  Cousin: Chrissie Connelly

  Aunt: Aili Lochlann

  Uncle: Alec Brodway, (deceased)

  Head of household guard: Blaine MacNeil

  Estate Name: Dunkeld Keep

  Family name: MacConnaway

  Laird: Adair MacConnaway

  Son: Broderick MacConnaway

  Son: Duncan MacConnaway

  Estate Name: Athol Castle

  Family name: Mentieth

  Father: Donald Mentieth, his grace the Duke of Athol

  Mother: Colla Lochlann

  Daughter: Jeanne Mentieth

  Estate Name: Bronley Castle

  Family name: MacDonnell

  Father: Ewan MacDonnell (deceased)

  Son: Thomas MacDonnell (deceased)

  Uncle: Leonard MacDonnell

  Estate Name: Inverglass

  Family name: Duncraigh

  Father: Eivar Duncraigh

  Mother: Christina Duncraigh

  Son: Alf Duncraigh

  PROLOGUE

  PROLOGUE

  “Almost there...go!”

  Chrissie Connolly looked up at the rainy sky, panting as she reached the arbor, her blonde curls disarrayed from running. She collapsed onto a stone bench, breathless with excited giggles. Heath was coming back! She could not quite believe how excited that made her feel.

  The rain struck the paving with a dull impact out beyond the margin of her shelter. The scent of herbs drifted up with the scent of rain, wild and exciting. The storm was growing. This was her favorite place, the best place to curl up and read. For, surprising as it was for a girl – or for anyone besides a priest, that was – Chrissie could read. Curled up on a bench in the arbor, she opened the scroll. Her slim body leaned forward, her legs tucked up under the long white linen skirt of her gown for warmth.

  “And so the princess had to make a choice...”

  The scroll was a romantic tale. Chrissie sighed, letting her mind wander. At nineteen, she had plenty of choices to make. The foremost in her mind was the choice of husband. Heath...or someone else?

  I can choose whom I like. As the least-important cousin, it is my right. Heath occupied most of Chrissie's heart. He had been away for a few years now, and was coming back. Was he the sort of person Chrissie would like to marry, though? She didn't know. She wished she could ask someone.

  Cousin Alina was more like a mother to Chrissie than anyone else, and she hoped to ask her. Soon she would see her, for they traveled to Dunkeld tomorrow.

  If only Blaine were not coming. Crude, inelegant, and unmannerly, Blaine was always finding excuses to talk to her, to grin at her, to give her the kind of attention she, at sixteen, found uncomfortable. He is so boorish! Yet I like to know he is here in the castle. With me.

  She rolled up the scroll she was reading, hearing the rain becoming faster. If she didn't go in soon, she would probably get soaked through. The courtyard was a tempest of rain. The drops hammered the paving, the sound of the rain muting the roll of thunder. Chrissie screamed as she put a foot out, the icy rain sluicing over her legs and soaking her immediately.

  “Chrissie? Chrissie!”

  Blaine. Why is he here? Chrissie bit her lip, feeling somewhat irritated. At the same time, her heart began to beat faster. She thought of seeing him, of being carried into the house in his arms...

  Stop it! She wouldn't accept help from that lummox. Not without losing her dignity.

  “Run!” she shrieked, and, laughing, ran into the rain. She saw Blaine across the courtyard. He drew a thick wool cloak over his head and dashed out into the rain. Chrissie slipped sideways to avoid him, feeling a strange lightness in her chest as she saw his eyes narrow and then widen in sudden consternation.

  Good.

  Suddenly warm arms descended around her. Chrissie screamed and they gripped her tighter. It wasn't Blaine, because he was on the other side of the courtyard near the armory, staring across at her with a strange expression on his face. She thrashed, kicked, and struggled against the grip, but was easily borne towards the colonnade, where the captor set her down.

  “Easy,” he was saying. He reached out and stroked her hair, letting his fingers run down the springy curls of it. “Easy. Easy.”

  Chrissie whipped round, ready with some sharp word, or a slap, then she realized who it was.

  “Heath!” She would have guessed who it was, had she known he was here. “You saved me! Thank you.”

  “I hope to always be of service, Lady Chrissie.”

  Chrissie glowed. Heath was so gallant. So perfect. She allowed him to kiss her hand, feeling her heart thud powerfully as his lips touched it. Then she beamed up at him.

  “Welcome home, Heath Fraser. Inside?”

  “Indeed, Lady Chrissie. Allow me?”

  It was not, truly speaking, Heath's home. He had been raised here, though, as a fosterling with Uncle. As Chrissie slipped her slender arm into the arm of Heath Fraser, she glanced back into the courtyard. There, looking after them, his face strangely blank, stood Blaine. Chrissie suppressed a shiver, seeing the expression on his face. He looked empty, his eyes blank, his mouth a grim line. She had no idea at all what Blaine might do; she only knew it seemed a fearful thing. She would have to be watchful, and so would Heath.

  CHAPTER ONE

  JOURNEYING

  JOURNEYING

  The last few miles to the castle Dunkeld were the worst: the excitement built to the point where sitting still became impossible. Chrissie sat in the coach, holding her breath with anticipation. She could not stop her leg jumping with excitement, her body bouncing impatiently in the seat.

  “Whoa, there, lass,” Aunt Aili said in her resonant voice. “It's only a mile or two more now. You'll see your cousins soon enough.”

  “I know!” Chrissie said, reaching a hand out to touch her aunt's thin, knotty hand. She squeezed it gently, noting with some concern that the older woman's hand was cold.

  Aunt Aili chuckled. “It'll still be standing when we arrive. The castle, I mean. Unless they don't build them as well as I recall nowadays...”

  Chrissie giggled. “Oh, Aunt!” she exclaimed. “I'm sure Dunkeld is as solidly built as Lochlann. We'll see.”

  “Don't be too sure,” Aili said darkly, though from her face it was clear she was having fun, not being serious. “Last time I saw a castle built was nigh on fifty years afore this.”

  Chrissie smiled. The fact that Aili was with her was surprise enough. Her aunt – sister of her mother, Lady Frances – had withdrawn from humankind following Frances' death. She had seen only Alina and sometimes Amabel after that, living in the east wing of the castle with her maidservant, a lady older than herself who now traveled East with them. There, she had acquired a fearsome reputation as a seer. Whether or not it was true, Chrissie didn't know for sure, though she knew there was something unusual about her.

  Aunt Aili had never even looked at Chrissie until two years ago, when they had met by accident. Now, since
then, Aili had begun to take an interest in the outer world again.

  “I cannot wait to see Alina!” Chrissie said. She knew her aunt knew that, for she saw her give a soft smile, her sky blue eyes glowing warm.

  “I ken that, lassie,” she said, speaking the patois of their servants for emphasis, “but I also ken that our Alina has a lot to consider right now.”

  “Oh?” Chrissie bit her lip. Alina and their aunt shared the reputation of seer. If Aili said her niece had something to think about, Chrissie was sure she did. “She's not unwell? I hope not!” She felt a sudden fear for her dearest cousin.