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  RAVES FOR

  AMANDA SCOTT

  AND HER SCOTTISH ADVENTURES

  “Scott has a flair for characterization.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  TAMED BY A LAIRD

  “4½ Stars! TOP PICK! Scott has crafted another phenomenal story. The characters jump off the page and the politics and treachery inherent in the plot suck you into life on the borders from page one. This is the finest in historical romance.”

  —RT BOOKreviews Magazine

  “Remarkable… Soars with intrigue, exciting characters, and a wonderful setting.”

  — MyShelf.com

  “[Scott] instills life and passion in her memorable characters… Few writers have come close to equaling her highly creative and entertaining stories.”

  — ClanMalcolm.com

  “Fascinating… fourteenth-century Scotland’s rich history comes alive in this romantic novel full of intrigue.”

  — FreshFiction.com

  “Scott creates a lovely, complex cast… and has a deft touch with thorny period language.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “A delightful story filled with romance, passion, humor, and intrigue… Scott makes Scotland come alive.”

  —RomanceNovel.tv

  “Fast-paced…A super Scottish medieval romance starring two terrific lead characters and a strong support cast who bring out the essence of the era of the main players.”

  — HarrietKlausner.wwwi.com

  “Scott is able to make settings and history come to life…for a read brightened by suspense, wit, and love, Tamed by a Laird is a great choice.”

  — RomRevToday.com

  BORDER MOONLIGHT

  “4 Stars! Scott crafts an accurate portrait of the snarled politics of the era and the vibrant people who lived, loved, and dared to keep the peace. Excitement melds with romance in a page-turning adventure.”

  —Romantic Times BOOKreviews Magazine

  “A devilishly fun romance novel rich with intrigue, deception, tension, and love ever after. If there was ever a novel to bring a reader’s smile alive, this is it.”

  — CurledUp.com

  “Features Scott’s trademarks: strong-willed women and warrior men, mystery and intrigue, dashes of humor and wit, deep characterization, complex plots, and, above all, historical and geographic accuracy in the days of ancient Scotland.”

  —Sacramento Bee

  “Exceptional… Another fabulous book by uber-talented Amanda Scott… She fills our senses with the sights, sounds, smells, touch, and taste of the great lands and castles of Scotland.”

  — SingleTitles.com

  “Fast-paced… An exciting Border romance with plenty of action… A terrific historical gender war.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  “It was hard to put this one down…A pleasure to read.”

  — ReadingRomanceBooks.com

  “The love story is funny, honest, and flares with both friendship and desire…Simon and Sibylla are outstandingly detailed and complex characters.”

  — TheRomanceReader.com

  BORDER LASS

  “5 Stars! A thrilling tale, rife with villains and notorious plots… Scott demonstrates again her expertise in the realm of medieval Scotland.”

  — FallenAngelReviews.com

  “4½ Stars! TOP PICK! Readers will be thrilled… a tautly written, deeply emotional love story steeped in the rich history of the Borders.”

  —Romantic Times BOOKreviews Magazine

  “4½ Stars! A wonderful romance with a historical setting full of action, suspense, passion, and a great plot.”

  — TheRomanceReaderConnection.com

  “Scott excels in creating memorable characters.”

  — FreshFiction.com

  “Excellent… a charming romance, a tale of murder and intrigue, and an enlightening, entertaining foray into Medieval Scottish history.”

  — RomRevToday.com

  BORDER WEDDING

  “4½ Stars! TOP PICK! Not only do her characters leap off the pages, the historical events do too. This is more than entertainment and romance; this is historical romance as it was meant to be.”

  —Romantic Times BOOKreviews Magazine

  “4½ Hearts! A very enjoyable read that is rich in history… Ms. Scott’s next book will be another must-read.”

  — NightOwlRomance.com

  “5 Stars! Scott has possibly written the best historical in ages!… There was not a part of this story that was not enjoyable… the best book to come along in a long time.”

  — FallenAngelReviews.com

  “A journey you won’t want to miss! Scott’s gift is her ability to create people you want to know. Another winner!”

  — FreshFiction.com

  “Wonderful… full of adventure and history… Scott is obviously well-versed on life in the fourteenth century, and she brings her knowledge to the page… an excellent story for both the romance reader and the history buff. I’m anxious to read others by Scott in the future.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  “Scott’s vivid attention to details makes you feel as if you are indeed visiting Scotland each and every time you pick up her delightful book.”

  — ArmchairInterviews.com

  “A winner… Few authors do medieval romances as consistently excellent as Amanda Scott’s.”

  — HarrietKlausner.wwwi.com

  KING OF STORMS

  “4 Stars! An exhilarating novel… with a lively love story… Scott brings the memorable characters from her previous novels together in an exciting adventure romance.”

  —Romantic Times BOOKreviews Magazine

  “Passionate and breathtaking… Amanda Scott’s King of Storms keeps the tension moving as she continues her powerful saga of the Macleod sisters.”

  — NovelTalk.com

  “Intrigue and danger… Readers will enjoy the adventures and sweet romance.”

  — RomRevToday.com

  “A terrific tale starring two interesting lead characters who fight, fuss, and fall in love… Rich in history and romance, fans will enjoy the search for the Templar treasure and the Stone of Scone.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  “Enchanting… a thrilling adventure… a must read… King of Storms is a page-turner. A sensual, action-packed romance sure to satisfy every heart.”

  — FreshFiction.com

  KNIGHT’S TREASURE

  “If you are a fan of historical romance with a touch of suspense, you don’t want to miss this book.”

  — LoveRomanceAndMore.com

  “Filled with tension, deceptions, and newly awakened passions. Scott gets better and better.”

  — NovelTalk.com

  LADY’S CHOICE

  “Terrific… with an exhilarating climax.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  “A page-turner… her characters are a joy to read… sure to delight medieval historical fans.”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  “Plenty of suspense and action and a delightful developing love story… Another excellent story from Scott.”

  — RomanceReviewsMag.com

  PRINCE OF DANGER

  “Phenomenal.”

  —Romantic Times BOOKreviews Magazine

  “RITA Award–winning Scott has a flair for colorful, convincing characterization.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Exhilarating… fabulous… action-packed… Fans of fast-paced historical tales… will want to read Amanda Scott’s latest.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  LORD OF THE ISLES

  “Scott pits her strong characters against one another and fate. She delves into their motivations, bringing insight into them and the thrilling
era in which they live.”

  —Romantic Times BOOKreviews Magazine

  “Scott’s storytelling is amazing… a captivating tale of intrigue… This is a definite keeper.”

  — CoffeeTimeRomance.com

  HIGHLAND PRINCESS

  “Delightful historical starring two fabulously intelligent lead characters… Grips the audience from the onset and never [lets] go.”

  —Affaire de Coeur

  “Perfect for readers who enjoy romances with a rich sense of history.”

  —Booklist

  “A fabulous medieval Scottish romance.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  OTHER BOOKS BY AMANDA SCOTT

  TAMED BY A LAIRD

  BORDER MOONLIGHT

  BORDER LASS

  BORDER WEDDING

  KING OF STORMS

  KNIGHT’S TREASURE

  LADY’S CHOICE

  PRINCE OF DANGER

  LORD OF THE ISLES

  HIGHLAND PRINCESS

  THE SECRET CLAN: REIVER’S BRIDE

  THE SECRET CLAN: HIGHLAND BRIDE

  THE SECRET CLAN: HIDDEN HEIRESS

  THE SECRET CLAN: ABDUCTED HEIRESS

  BORDER FIRE

  BORDER STORM

  BORDER BRIDE

  HIGHLAND FLING

  HIGHLAND SECRETS

  HIGHLAND TREASURE

  HIGHLAND SPIRITS

  THE BAWDY BRIDE

  DANGEROUS ILLUSIONS

  DANGEROUS ANGELS

  DANGEROUS GAMES

  DANGEROUS LADY

  THE ROSE AT TWILIGHT

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2009 by Lynne Scott-Drennan

  Excerpt from Tempted by a Warrior copyright © 2009 by Lynne Scott-Drennan

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Forever

  Hachette Book Group

  237 Park Avenue

  New York, NY 10017

  Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com.

  www.twitter.com/foreverromance

  Forever is an imprint of Grand Central Publishing. The Forever name and logo is a trademark of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  First eBook Edition: January 2010

  ISBN: 978-0-446-55856-3

  Contents

  Copyright

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  A Preview of Tempted by Warrior

  The Dish

  Dedicated

  with many thanks to Jim and Jen

  for their unwitting suggestion of a wonderful plot device

  and for our amazing Cameron Scott,

  born 6 October 2008

  Author’s Note

  For the reader’s convenience, the author offers the following aids:

  Caerlaverock = Car LAV rock

  Dunwythie Hall = “the Hall,” the fortified house at Dunwythie Mains

  Ebb tide = falling or receding tide

  Flood tide = incoming or rising tide

  Forbye = besides, also

  “Herself” = in this book, Arabella Carlyle (née Bruce), Lady Kelso

  Kirkcudbright = Kirk COO bree

  Low tide (or low water) = lowest point of the ebb

  Mains = the primary seat of a lord (from “demesne”), as in Dunwythie Mains

  Neap tide = minimum tide, tide of minimum rise, when rise and fall show least change; occurs generally during first and third quarters of the moon

  Nithsdale = NEETHS dale

  Spring tide = tide occurring at or shortly after the new or full moon; tide of maximum rise, occurs twice a month

  Stem up = begin to flood (at Annan, about three hours before high water; at Kirkcudbright Bay, about five hours before)

  Thole = busy

  Tocher = Scottish term for dowry

  Chapter 1

  Dunwythie Mains, Annandale, 8 March 1375

  Peering through new green foliage into a large field that the surrounding woodland sheltered from winds that could roar up the dale from Solway Firth, Will Jardine said, “What if Dunwythie catches us here?”

  “He won’t,” twenty-five-year-old Robert Maxwell, Laird of Trailinghail, replied as they dismounted in the dense woods. “My lads saw his lordship ride north with ten men just after dawn.” Looping his reins over a handy branch, he added, “He will be gone till at least midday, Will. And we have every right to be here.”

  The younger man’s eyebrows shot upward. “Have we?” he said dryly. “Most Annandale folk would dispute that, including me own da, were ye daft enough to put your brother’s impertinent demands to him.”

  “Alex’s demands are hardly impertinent, since he is Sheriff of Dumfries.”

  “Aye, but only o’ Dumfries,” Will retorted. “Nae one here in Annandale heeds or needs the man, least of all Lord Dunwythie.”

  Unable to deny Annandale’s defiance or Dunwythie’s, Rob kept silent. He was watching where he put his feet as he and Will strode across the field toward a dozen or so men working on the far side. It would not do to give the recalcitrant Dunwythie more cause for complaint by trampling his tender young shoots.

  “God bethankit for His gifts!” Will exclaimed. “What d’ye think can ha’ brought the two o’ them here?”

  Rob looked up.

  Emerging from woods north of them onto a narrow path down the center of the field were two riders. Although they were nearly a quarter mile away, their gowns, fur-lined cloaks, and fluttering white veils proclaimed them noblewomen. Their figures and their supple dexterity with their horses declared them youthful.

  As they drew nearer, Rob saw that one was so fair that her hair looked white against her dark green cloak. The other was dark-haired, and both wore their hair in long plaits that bobbed enticingly on their breasts as they rode. They were watching the workers, and he was sure neither had yet realized that he and Will—in their leather breeks, jacks, and boots—were not simply two more of them.

  A few puffy white clouds floated overhead but did little to block the sun. Its light glistened on the dewy green field and gilded the fair rider’s plaits.

  “I’m glad I came with ye,” Will murmured with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

  “They are noblewomen, you lecherous ruffian.”

  “Hoots, what noblewomen would ride alone here as those two are doing?”

  “Dunwythie’s daughters would do so on their father’s land, a mile from his castle, amidst his own loyal workmen,” Rob said. “Behave yourself now.”

  “I’ve nae wish to frighten off such tasty morsels,” Will retorted, chuckling.

  Rob grimaced, knowing his friend’s reputation with women. Glancing back at the two riders, he saw the fair one frown.

  Clearly, she had realized they were intruders.

  “We’ll go to meet them,” he told Will. “And you will behave.”

  “Aye, sure. Wi’ such toothsome lassies, I’ll behave right charmingly.”

  Rob sighed and altered his course to meet the two, hoping he could avoid trouble with Will. Old Jardine being the Maxwells’ only ally in Annandale,
Rob could not afford to anger the man’s best-favored and sole remaining son. But neither would he let Will make free and easy with Dunwythie’s daughters.

  “Who are those two men?” the lady Fiona Dunwythie asked, pushing a dark curl away from one long-lashed blue eye to tuck it back under her veil.

  “I don’t know,” nineteen-year-old Mairi Dunwythie replied. Wishing—not for the first time—that she knew more people in the area near her father’s largest estate, she added, “They stride toward us like men aware of their worth.”

  “Then where are their horses?” Fiona demanded. “In my experience, men who know their worth rarely walk far.”

  “Doubtless they left them in the woods behind them,” Mairi said.

  “Then they’ll have come from the south,” Fiona said thoughtfully. “I wonder if they might be Jardines.”

  That the two strangers might be members of that obstreperous family had already occurred to Mairi. However, although she had begun her life at Dunwythie Mains, she knew few of its neighbors by sight.

  Three years after the lady Elspeth, her mother, had died at Mairi’s birth, Mairi’s father had married the lady Phaeline Douglas. Learning soon after their marriage that the Jardines to the south of them and the Johnstones to the north were engaged in longstanding, nearly continuous warfare, Phaeline had demanded that her husband remove his family to the house near Annan town that represented the primary part of her tocher, or dowry.

  At the time, Phaeline had been pregnant with Fiona, so her lord had readily complied. Thus, Fiona was born at Annan House, near the mouth of the river, and Mairi had lived there from the age of four, with only occasional brief visits upriver to Dunwythie Mains.

  Whether the two men striding to meet them were Jardines or not, Mairi knew her father would expect her to welcome them, albeit with no more than cool civility.

  Discerning eagerness now in her sister’s posture, she said in her usual quiet way, “Prithee, dearling, do not be making much of these men. If they are Jardines, our lord father will not want us to encourage more such visits.”