Discovering My Past

Isabeau will be released in the German Amazon store on Oct. 14th, 2014 by Amazon Crossing.

Imagine how exciting it would feel to discover that many years after you’d written a historically based series of novels that several of the people you’d written about were your very own ancestors.

For weeks after I saw the movie Braveheart in 1995, my thoughts kept drifting back to two of the characters: Robert the Bruce, the eventual King of Scots, and Isabella of France, the wife of Edward II, who later became the King of England. I couldn’t stop thinking about them and wondering about their role in history. I didn’t know why Isabella and Robert were more fascinating to me than any other historical figures. They just were. They became like an itch I had to scratch.  I had to write about them.

I had no clue then what an ambitious undertaking that was going to be – or how many hours in my day and years of my life it would eventually consume. I became obsessed with research, taking enough notes to write a doctoral dissertation. I even went so far as to visit England and Scotland on two different occasions.

And on odd thing happened to me on those trips. Several times, I would stop, look around me, and get this strange sense that I’d been there before. Like I knew this place, these hills, this castle, that road in the distance.

After my books came out on Amazon, readers began to ask if I was descended from any of the people I’d written about. I honestly didn’t know. I had a family tree on paper that went back to the 1700’s, when some of my mother’s family came to America, but that was it. There were some Gordons in it, who I knew were Scottish.

It took me awhile to get around to checking further. I began to research my ancestry online, tracing each branch back as far as I could – and hitting a lot of dead ends. Sometimes the records just weren’t there, or they’d been lost along the way. So I’d dabble in the genealogy in my spare time, not really expecting to find anything notable.

Then one day, I traced a Scottish family branch all the way back to Robert the Bruce. It was absolutely surreal. It made me feel like all those years of writing in obscurity were worth it. I kept digging and eventually discovered another line that traced back to English roots. My jaw hit the ground when Edward III, son of Edward II and Queen Isabella, turned up. Hah. I did have royal blood after all.

I’ve since had a lot of readers e-mail me to tell me that they, too, are descended from the characters in my books and that reading about them brought special meaning to their own ancestry. It thrills me to know that my stories have inspired others to investigate their own ancestry. I still find it hard to believe that long after I’d written about Isabella and her contemporaries that many of them were actually my ancestors. Maybe there was a reason I felt called to write their story after all?

Until later,

Gemi

Scotland in 1333 - Part I: The Treaty of Northampton

My new Time Travel novel, In the Time of Kings, takes place in Scotland in 1333. When I sat down to write a story about a man named Ross Sinclair who has memories of a past life and eventually finds himself reliving it, I had to decide when to set the story. The events of 1333 were a perfect backdrop, especially considering that The Bruce Trilogy ends in 1330.

Scotland, by then, was not only without its visionary King of Scots, Robert the Bruce, but soon it was also without the strong leadership of James Douglas and Thomas Randolph. James’s younger brother Sir Archibald Douglas was appointed Guardian of the Realm.

The Treaty of Northampton

Toward the end of Robert the Bruce’s reign, he secured the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton, effectively ending the war between Scotland and England. While in it, England acknowledged the independence of Scotland and Robert the Bruce as its rightful ruler, the treaty was primarily the brainchild of Queen Isabella and Sir Roger Mortimer. England’s king at that time, Edward III was just sixteen years old, and still under the influence of his mother. However, when he rebelled against his mother, Isabella, and her lover, Mortimer, and had Mortimer executed, it eventually came to light that he was not entirely in agreement with the terms of the treaty.

In 1329, a year after signing the treaty and realizing his lifelong dream, Robert the Bruce died, leaving as his heir a six-year old son, David, who was already wed to the four-year old Princess Joan, younger sister of King Edward III of England. Robert had named Thomas Randolph, the Earl of Moray, and Sir James ‘The Good’ Douglas as his son’s guardians. Both were strong and experienced leaders. The following year, Douglas was tasked with carrying his king’s heart on crusade to the Holy Land, but before he ever arrived there, he perished at the Battle of Teba in Spain. Sadly, Randolph also died in 1332. 

It was then that Scotland’s autonomy and its unity began to fall into peril. With a child-king on the throne and no strong leader, opportunity had presented itself for Edward Balliol, son of the prior King of Scots, John Balliol. Young Edward concocted a scheme to once again march on Scotland with the intent of subduing it by supporting Balliol’s claim to the Scottish crown.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Until later,

Gemi

International Gathering of the Clans 2014 ***Update

***For the latest news on this event. please make sure to check The Gathering 2014 FB link below. There have been some recent changes. When it gets much closer, I'll be sure to re-post final plans here.  ***

__________________

For those who would like to celebrate their Scottish roots, there will be an International Gathering of the Clans to be held in conjunction with the event Bannockburn 700, June 24th, 2014. This will be 700 years after Robert the Bruce defeated the forces of Edward II of England at the Battle of Bannockburn. For more information:

The Gathering 2014 (on Facebook)

Clans 2014

Bannockburn 700 (on Facebook)

I see Clan Gordon will have a tent there. Hoping some of my other ancestral families (Bruce, Douglas, Stewart, Johnston, etc.) will be in attendance. Sounds like a great excuse for a research trip/second honeymoon!

Until later,
Gemi

Featured book this month at Historical Fiction e-Books

The featured book this month at Historical Fiction e-Books is The Honor Due a King. Check here for my blog post 'What was Robert the Bruce really like?'

P.S. Big cover reveal for the sequel to Isabeau, The King Must Die (scheduled for release in April 2012) coming soon!

Until later,
Gemi

Giveaway for The Bruce Trilogy over at Musings of a Book Junkie

If you still need to catch up on reading The Bruce Trilogy, Allison over at Musings of a Book Junkie is hosting a giveaway for one copy of a book from the series (The Crown in the Heather, Worth Dying For or The Honor Due a King), your choice of either Kindle or paperback (and yes, international entries are fine). Contest deadline is November 1st - so hurry over and add your name and contact info.!

To enter, click here.

Meanwhile, The Honor Due a King has stealthily found its way into the Top 100 for Historical Fiction on Kindle and I'm spending my days in 14th century England, working on the sequel to Isabeau. My desk is being overrun by research books, highlighters and Post-It notes.

Happy reading,
Gemi

The Honor Due a King (The Bruce Trilogy: Book III)

It's been a marathon week and as evidence to that, it's nearly noon and I'm still in yesterday's clothes. I just finished a backlog mountain of laundry at midnight last night and the grass has grown a foot since last mowing.

The end result is that the final installment in The Bruce Trilogy, The Honor Due a King, is now available as an e-book at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Smashwords (for Nook, Ipad, Sony and Kobo). I'll post here again when it's directly available from Barnes and Noble, etc. The paperback should be available on Amazon well before the end of the month.

As I caught up this morning with e-mails from readers to let them know about the new release, I realized how the interest has snowballed over the past year and I got a little... misty. It's been a challenging year, both frustrating and rewarding in turns. But nothing worth doing is ever easy. So whatever your dreams and goals are - go for them! There are people out there who like to squash dreams by criticizing, dismissing or talking bad about you. Forget about them. As Oprah says: "Surround yourself with angels."

Now, here's the blurb for The Honor Due a King:

In the dawn of a kingdom, loyalties and lies collide.

The truth will change England and Scotland forever.

In the triumphant aftermath of Bannockburn, Robert the Bruce faces unfamiliar battles. His wife Elizabeth, held captive in England for eight long years, has finally returned home to Scotland. With his marriage in ruin and hopes for an heir quickly fading, Robert vows to fulfill an oath from long ago—one which will not only bind his daughter to a man she does not love, but challenge the honor of his most trusted knight, James Douglas.

While Ireland falls to the Scots, King Edward II of England must contend with quarrelsome barons. Hugh Despenser is the one man who can give him both the loyalty and love he so desperately craves. War with France looms and Edward’s only chance at peace rests with his queen, Isabella—a woman who has every reason to seek her own revenge.

Tormented by his past, James returns to a solitary, ruthless life of raiding into the north of England. When a bewitching spy promises him the ultimate victory, James must weigh whether to unveil the truth and risk losing her love—or guard his secrets and forever preserve Robert’s faith in him.

Happy reading,
Gemi

Worth Dying For - Now available in paperback

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Worth Dying For

by N. Gemini Sasson

Giveaway ends April 21, 2011.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

For those who have been patiently waiting, Worth Dying For (The Bruce Trilogy: Book II) is now available in PAPERBACK! You can find it at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. It's now $13.99 at Amazon.com. The B&N price has been discounted to $13.06, but I can tell you Amazon usually follows suit shortly after their main competitor drops the price - so keep checking if you want to save a buck. It should be available at Amazon.co.uk within the next ten days. All the links will be up on my main web site as soon as they become available.

Or enter to win a copy at Goodreads.

Between the formatting, editing and file burps, it took longer than I had anticipated to pull it all together, but I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. If long periods of silence now ensue, I'm either toiling away in my garden or . . . finishing up the third Bruce book.

Happy reading,
Gemi

The Bruce Trilogy: Clearing up confusion on titles

But isn't there another Bruce Trilogy - I mean, besides the one by me? Yes, there is.

Nigel Tranter also wrote a trilogy about Robert the Bruce in the early 1970's. Since this has caused some confusion, I'd like to address that matter. About ten years ago, I began writing a story centered on Robert the Bruce. As it often does, my research kept mushrooming and over the course of four years that story evolved until I had what I considered to be three distinct books.

When I sought out an agent for the first of these books, The Crown in the Heather, the agent who eventually took interest, upon finishing it, asked me if there was a second book and to please send it on. I did - and then he asked if there was a third. There was.

Between us, we started out calling the books 'the Bruce trilogy' and on the title pages we put the book's main title, followed by 'The Bruce Trilogy: Book I' (or II or III), so it would be clear that they belonged together and what order they went in. We shopped the books around as The Bruce Trilogy. It seemed descriptively fitting. It had been over three decades since Nigel Tranter's The Bruce Trilogy had been published, so we didn't feel we would be stepping on any toes. Not one editor objected to the title of the series.

It is a strict policy of mine that I only read non-fiction about the characters I intend to write about, no novels, because I want my interpretation to be unique. Thus, I have never read any of Tranter's books in full, although I'm sure they're quite good, since so many people still speak so highly of him.

There are also novels about Robert the Bruce (either recently or soon to be published) by Robert Low, Robyn Young and Jack Whyte, as well as many other novels set in Scotland during that time. I love it when there are multiple books about the same historical figures, because you're sure to find one that suits your individual tastes. The more, the merrier.

Neither book titles nor series titles can be copyrighted. Publishers and authors try as much as possible to come up with unique titles, but sometimes it's simply not appropriate. Many, many books bear the same title - the differentiation then is settled by the author's name, year of publication and, of course, content.

If you look up 'Worth Dying For' on Amazon, you'll find a dozen or more books bearing that as their title or part of their title. Right about the same time I released Worth Dying For (The Bruce Trilogy: Book II), bestselling mystery/thriller writer Lee Childs had also just put out a book called Worth Dying For. I chose the title because it comes from a line in my book that encompasses what the story is about. ("And in that, I never saw more truth . . . than to truly live, was to have something worth dying for.") I wasn't trying to dupe any of Lee Childs' readers into buying my book any more than he or his publishers were trying to trick fans of Beverly Barton, who also had a book called Worth Dying For published in 2009, into buying his.

When a title is right for a book - or a series, for that matter - it just is.

To complete my (N. Gemini Sasson's) The Bruce Trilogy, I plan on releasing the third installment, The Honor Due a King, later this year. And yes, I've already Googled that title. It's not taken. Yet.

P.S. To those who may have wondered, yes, there is a sequel to Isabeau planned, as well. Who knows - there may even be a third book in that storyline.

Happy reading,
Gemi

#SampleSunday - The Crown in the Heather, Ch. 10

I realize I haven't done #SampleSunday for a month! Where have I been? Finishing up courses in Anatomy, Plant Biology and Field Geology, that's where. As much as I love learning new things (or re-learning old things, in this case), I am sooo glad to be back, for tomorrow I shall sit at the keyboard, freshly brewed Chocolate Raspberry coffee steaming up from my special The Black Prince mug, and let my imagination run rampant in 14th century Scotland. Life is good.

The paperback version of Worth Dying For has finally gone to print - woo hoo! It should appear on Amazon.com within the week. Enormous apologies to those who have been more than patiently waiting for it.

Meanwhile, here is an excerpt from Chapter 10 of The Crown in the Heather. The year is 1300 and Prince Edward has been summoned to Windsor by his father, King Edward I of England (a.k.a. Longshanks). He's in trouble for having hunted on lands owned by a bishop without permission while in the company of his beloved, Piers Gaveston - a man his father considers a very poor influence.

I'm sure some readers wonder at first why the future Edward II is suddenly appearing in a book about Robert the Bruce. That's a valid question. For one, I wanted to show more of his father, Longshanks. Also, you should get a solid sense of what this dysfunctional father-son relationship was about. I can easily imagine Prince Edward on the Dr. Phil show, baring his soul and bemoaning the fact that his father neither understands nor accepts him as he is. Second, who could resist getting under the skin of a character as complex and misunderstood as Edward? Last, Edward's tragic life and how it intertwines with the Bruce becomes even more abundantly clear in the second and third Bruce books.

*****

I ENTERED THE ROOM where my father, King of all England and more, was taking his supper at a small round table. Bishop Langton sat across from him. I cringed inwardly, but kept a level chin and square shoulders. I knew, without being told, why I had been summoned to Windsor. Behind them, the chill air of a dimming sunset poured in through an open window, so they were but dark silhouettes before it. Black-robed judges ready to levy their sentence on me, with or without a trial.

Ignoring me as one would a menial servant, the king finished off his meal to the very last pea and chased it down with half a cup of wine from a jeweled goblet. The bishop’s stern eyes never left me. He leered at me like a nagging mother who stares down a disobedient boy before she can get across the room to tweak him by the ear and drag him outside for a beating. I so wanted to prance over to him, knock the bloody miter right off his fat, bald head and then strike him senseless with the gold crucifix that swung from his short, little neck. By Babylon, it must have been heavy enough to anchor a ship. I glared back at him, rolled my eyes and sighed with annoyance.

When your time comes, your grace, God will judge you, too, by your legion of vices. I hear your steward’s niece birthed your bastard not a year ago and her belly is already swelling again.

“What is it,” my father began, as he dabbed at his hands on a square of white linen, “about the word ‘property’ that you fail to understand?” With a flip of his slim fingers, he tossed a chicken bone to the floor. His lazing brindle greyhound snatched it up, growled as it passed me with its tail tight between its legs and then lay down across the doorway, as if to block my escape.

“Mea culpa,” I muttered, bowing low in Langton’s direction. “It will not happen again.”

“Indeed, it will not.” My sire dipped his fingers in a bowl of rose water and then wiped them dry on his lap. “You behave infra dignitatem, perhaps because of those you surround yourself with. You are confined to Windsor for six months. Your ‘friends’ may not come within sight of you during that time. That should provide you with ample time for reflection.” Beneath cold, gray eyes, he smiled smugly.

My heart froze in its rhythm. Six months? Six months? “But, sire . . . Brother Perrot? You placed him in my household at King’s Langley. You cannot send him away because of one little escapade. What harm was done that cannot be undone?”

“Much. You both suffer from poor judgment. You knew you were on Bishop Langton’s lands and yet you failed to seek his permission. You killed more deer than you could bring back and left a dozen carcasses in the forest to rot, spread disease, breed flies and stink whenever the wind blows. You have been a nuisance, a wastrel and a common thief. The bishop here urged me to be more lenient with you, but I think I have been far too lax until now. Punishment is overdue. It is time to alter your ways. You are a man now and should begin to act like one.”

With a sweep of his hand he dismissed me from his royal presence. I lowered my eyes and backed away, turning sharply about as I reached the door. The greyhound let out a yelp, jumped up and snapped at my shins. I had stepped on its tail—not by accident.

*****

Happy reading,
Gemi

What was Robert the Bruce really like?

On occasion, I have been asked if I would have liked to live in the past. Hmm, well . . . no. That seems an odd thing to say, coming from one who has spent the last decade studying the events of 700 years ago and writing about them, but let me put it this way: I'd like to be able to visit the past, provided I get to take my Universal Translator (like the ones they had in Star Trek, because how else would I understand what the medieval Scots were saying?) - and if I'm allowed to come back whenever I need to, because I would not want to be stuck in the Middle Ages interminably for lots of reasons. Having just spent nearly two whole days without electricity following an ice storm, I can honestly say that modern comforts have made a wimp of me. If I had to stumble through the Scottish Highlands in the dead of winter, sleeping on the ground in the open air, without central heating to thaw my bones, insulated Goretex snow boots, and hot Toasted Almond coffee that appears with the push of a button, I would be one major whiny-pants. This is why I have not applied to become a contestant on Survivor. I would probably draw blood in order to win reward after having to spend my nights sleeping on a bamboo mat under a leaky palm-leaf roof in a monsoon, while cockroaches the size of guinea pigs crawled over me.

One thing I would like to do is go back, for just a little while, and get to know Robert the Bruce. I mean, what was he really like? Not the king or even the soldier, but the man. Historians have done a great job of compiling historical documents from both sides of the war and giving us the English slant vs. the Scottish one. As a novelist, I don't believe my job is to repeat what so many accomplished scholars have already done. I believe it is my job to give a more human interpretation of what Robert and his contemporaries were like as people, not historical figures who made only political or military decisions.

Yet in doing so, I risk failing to meet the expectations of some readers - and I'm well aware of that. It is the inherent danger of writing biographical historical fiction. If a reader comes into the opening pages believing Robert was stoic, unfailingly decisive, and without regret or guilt, then I'm not likely to convince them that he may have been otherwise. My interpretation of Robert the Bruce is just that - mine. And if I can humanize him well enough, hopefully readers will accept how I have chosen to represent him.

So did I make all this stuff up about what he may have been like? Or did I find the Secret Diary of Robert the Bruce hidden in a spidery cave somewhere in Argyll? Uh, no, neither actually. I take the known facts, a smattering of legend and fill in the holes as best I can.

One thing we do know about him is that Robert the Bruce was an exceedingly forgiving person and a man who was willing to compromise for the long-term and greater good. For example, he later forgave and accepted into his service the Earl of Ross, who was responsible for capturing his wife and daughter as they were trying to escape to the Orkneys and then handing them over to the English. How many of us could have been that Gandhi-like? (I don't know about the rest of you, but I can hold a grudge forever.) Robert did so because he needed allies and he wanted Scotland to stand as one. If he had made a point of punishing his fellow countrymen regularly that would only have served to divide them further.

Another matter that makes me believe he was a man who loved deeply was his pursuance of Elizabeth de Burgh. He met and fell in love with her at a time when he was a declared rebel against Longshanks (Edward I of England). The sticky issue was that her father was still an adherent of Longshanks, so in order to marry her he would have to once again submit to the English crown. Which meant that to many of his fellow Scots he was an opportunist and not really on their side after all. Quite a dilemma. He desired Elizabeth, but he also wanted to be king. In the end, he chose the woman. Very romantic. (Swoon.)

Imagine the torment he must have suffered later when she was taken captive by above mentioned Earl of Ross and delivered into the hands of Longshanks himself. I don't think it's too far-fetched to say that he would have missed her terribly and maybe even have questioned how he could have kept her safe.

While many documents exist entailing the Bruce's political and military actions, we have fewer accounts of him as a private man. English chroniclers naturally tend to vilify him, while Scottish ones relay the legends surrounding him which paint a more heroic portrait. Here's an example from a 14th century Scottish chronicler John Fordoun:

"This man [Robert the Bruce] seeing them [the Scots] stretched in the slough of woe, and reft of all hope of salvation and help, was inwardly touched with sorrow of heart; and, putting forth his hand unto force, underwent the countless and unbearable toils of the heat of day, of cold and hunger, by land and sea, gladly welcoming weariness, fasting, dangers, and the snares not only of foes, but also of false friends, for the sake of freeing his brethren." (From Chris Brown's Robert the Bruce, A Life Chronicled)

I question that he suffered all those trials 'gladly' (perhaps ' with acceptance' would have been a better term?) or that he did so purely for selfless reasons, because he was an ambitious man who believed that the crown of Scotland was rightly his by birth. Clearly though his character was one of perseverance and brotherhood.

Did he ever question his goals or his actions? Let me wrap up this post with a quote that Fordoun attributes to Robert: "Were I not stirred by Scotland's olden bliss/Not for earth's empire would I bear all this."

Until later,
Gemi

#SampleSunday - The Crown in the Heather, Ch. 12

Today's excerpt is taken from The Crown in the Heather (The Bruce Trilogy: Book I), Ch. 12. The year is 1301. After visiting James Stewart at Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, Robert must at last say goodbye to Elizabeth de Burgh. His feelings for her are strong, but their future is a very uncertain one:

*****

It was the coldest of February days when Stewart, his wife, and Elizabeth gathered in the courtyard as the horses were brought out for Gerald and me. Brittle winter air shattered our frail words of farewell. Reluctantly, I handed my Marjorie back and she clung to Egidia’s skirts. Tears glistened on her pink cheeks. Coll padded across the slick cobbles, leaned against her leg and nuzzled her fingers.

I took Elizabeth’s face in my hands and kissed her sweet and long upon the lips. My mouth trembled not from cold, but from the wave of pain pulsing with every beat of my heart. For weeks, I had denied this moment would ever arrive. Now that it had, it was as though some emptiness threatened to devour me whole. Fool that I was, I thought I would be able to endure this parting bravely, like some eager young soldier venturing off to war. Instead, I felt . . . desperate. Or determined. I didn’t know which.

Once, ambition had consumed me. But for all that I wanted to pursue what my grandfather had begun, it seemed meaningless without Elizabeth. What I thought I had always wanted—it had changed.

“Say you’ll be my wife, Elizabeth. Say that you will and I’ll fly back the moment I can and take you in my arms and never let go.”

She looked down, as if she sought to hide the tears brimming over her long lashes. “Please, Robert, I . . . I can’t promise that. You know why.”

Gently, I lifted her chin in my fingers and stared into her eyes, as green and glistening as the Lothian hills after a spring rain. “I thought surely we . . . Oh, damn it, Elizabeth. Do not give breath to such murderous words. Give me reason to hope.”

She brushed my whiskered cheek with smooth fingertips. “We can but hope. That is all, no more.”

I pulled her in close—yet even as I did so, I realized I had brought this upon myself . . . upon us.

“We’ll find a way, my love. By all that is true and sacred, we will find a way.”

I meant it, more than I even knew.

I had mourned long enough for Isabella. I wanted to live again—truly live. Not for some tomorrow that might never come, but for now.

*****

Happy reading,
Gemi

#SampleSunday - Worth Dying For, Ch. 5

Worth Dying For is on sale on Kindle for just 99 cents on Amazon.com and 71 p on Amazon.co.uk for one more week. Although this is the second book in The Bruce Trilogy, if you haven't yet read the first you should have no trouble jumping right into this one. For those who've asked, I'm preparing the final files for the print version of WDF and it should be out sometime in February. I'll post here when it's available. Thanks, everyone, for being so patient. Meanwhile it's available in e-book form on Amazon and Smashwords.

In the following excerpt, it's still 1306 and Robert the Bruce, self-proclaimed King of Scots, has sailed from Rathlin Island in the Irish Sea up the western coast of Scotland. In order to stand against the English, he needs money, men and ships. Christiana of the Isles has all those things, but there's something she wants, as well, and the task proves to be more difficult for Robert than merely asking for a favor.

It's been frequently reported that Robert was not entirely faithful during his second marriage to Elizabeth Bruce, from whom he was physically separated for many years. We often hear him spoken of in very glowing and noble terms, but like most everyone - especially those with ambition or who wielded power - he, too, had his flaws.

*****

I looked up to see a squat, gray castle hunched above a low cliff on an islet ahead: Castle Tirrim.

The tide being low, we beached the galley on the shingle-littered shore opposite the castle and trudged across a muddy bridge of land to the base of the cliff encircling the islet. Sleet had faded to a spitting mist. Arms wrapped about himself, Torquil led us to a breach in the cliff wall. Stiff with cold, we ascended after him, taking care not to slip on the moss-slickened stones. When Torquil scrambled over the top, he dropped to his knees, small stones crunching with the impact.

Before him stood a noblewoman in a hooded cloak, gloved palms open in welcome, and at her shoulder a glowering lord, his feet braced wide and one hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

Bending at the waist, the lady spread her arms wide, so that her cloak of crimson parted to reveal a green gown embroidered with golden knotwork. As she straightened, a rope of loosely plaited red hair swung from her shoulder, the end of it hanging to the inviting curve of her hip. Tall and imposing in presence, I was one of few men above whom she did not tower. She tilted her head and smiled pleasantly at me, ignoring Torquil and the dozen men huddled close and shivering at the lip of the cliff.

“A thousand welcomes to Tirrim, my lord king,” Lady Christiana greeted. “I have watched for you from my window for weeks now.”

“You couldn’t have known I was coming, my lady.” I took her hand, cold-wet with rain, and kissed her fingers just below the glittering facets of her emerald ring. “I sent no word. I dared not. Scotland is as thick with my enemies as there are pines in the forest. I must keep my comings and goings a secret, as much as I can.”

She laid her other hand over mine. “There are some things a woman knows, even without being told.” With a gentle tug she drew me close, her lips grazing my cheek with a kiss, her breath cupping my ear like a puff of steam as she whispered my name, “Robert.”

With every breath she drew, her bosom swelled against my chest. Fine droplets of rain on my face warmed, like a perspiration that has sprung to the brow with gentle exertion.

“Has it been ten years, truly? Not a day gone, judging by your beauty, I vow.” I bestowed a brief kiss in return. “And you’ve still not found another husband? How can that be?”

When Christiana had barely been of marriageable age, her father, Alan Macruarie, had betrothed her to Duncan of Mar. Perpetually drunk and quarrelsome, she could hardly tolerate him and leapt at any distraction. I had been one of them. It did not matter to her that it was her wedding I had come to attend. But barely in my first full beard then, I was mad for Duncan’s sister, Isabella.

“I’ll not have just any.” She poked a finger at my chest playfully. “You don’t know how despondent I was when I heard you had married again. Did you not think of me? Cruel of you, it was. My heart has yet to mend.”

The black-bearded lord cleared his throat. As I cast a glance at him, he raised his jaw. Finally, he dipped his head in acknowledgment.

“Reginald Crawford of Kyle . . . my lord.” His hand drifted downward from his sword, indicating he would unsheathe it in a breath if given cause.

Christiana snaked a hand beneath my cloak and up my arm to cling seductively to me. “Come, my lord. Let me show you to a warm bed. But first, a fire, a full meal and a flagon of wine to bring you back to life, aye?”

As she led us over the rock-strewn path to the gate, her hip swayed against mine. I had come duly armed with my honor, but already it was proving a challenge. It would have been easier to leave altogether, than to stay and deny such an enchantress.

*****

Feel free to drop into Twitter and search for more #SampleSunday excerpts. I'll be surfing there throughout the day and re-tweeting some of my favorite finds.

Happy reading,
Gemi