Medieval Monday with Ashley York - Excerpt 5

 

Welcome back to Medieval Monday. Today is our fifth excerpt. Today, I’m hosting Ashley York. In her story, Lachlann’s Legacy an 11^th century highlander who must deceive a lovely woman living among outcasts in order to save his priory, but it’s his heart that’s truly at stake…

Lachlann is injured and Ethne is seeing to him. He’s just realized his injury happened days ago. He’s asked her how long his pain will last. Today’s excerpt finds him waiting for her answer.

 

Excerpt 5

When their eyes met, her hand stopped. “Ye should be careful not to rip it open.”

He glanced beyond her where Finn slept beside the fire, no doubt having fallen asleep waiting for her to be done caring for his wound. “Did Domelch go as well?”

“She decided to join them at the last minute.” Ethne dropped the cloth into the bowl. With a single finger, she traced the roundness of the impressions on his skin, the straight lines crossed like feathers on the shaft of an arrow. “Where did ye get these markings?”

“I do not know. I have always had them.” He looked around him. "Is my satchel about?"

You’ll have to wait until next week and visit Sherry Ewing  for Excerpt 6 o find out what’s in Lachlann’s satchel that’s so important.

 

Lachlann’s Legacy
The Order of the Scottish Thistle

By Ashley York

Hidden secrets could tear them apart as fast as their passion drove them together

On the Moray coast in Scotland…

Ethne’s genuine and caring nature makes her invaluable to her brother as his son’s caretaker, but he and his wife treat her as little more than their servant. When she learns their tribal leader would use her chaste status for his own purposes, Ethne plans to escape and reluctantly accepts the help of Lachlann—a handsome pilgrim she only just met at the local faire.

Despite her independent spirit, Ethne feels drawn to Lachlann. Her instincts say his intentions are honorable, but can she trust him with her heart?

Raised by his godfather with few clues to his family’s past, Lachlann values his freedom and the brotherhood of his highlander kin. Disguised as a pilgrim on a mission for the priory, he encounters Ethne, a warm, intelligent maiden whose courage in the face of a loveless marriage awakens an intense need to protect her.

Unfortunately, Ethne is one of the very people he must deceive to explore the cave system containing clues to the lost treasure he seeks. But he cannot abandon her to an uncertain fate—or deny the simmering tension between them.

With religious prejudice running high and both of them facing tests of loyalty, Lachlann and Ethne may realize the only way to fight for their futures is to surrender... to each other.

 

BUY LINK: https://www.ashleyyorkauthor.com/lachlanns-legacy

 

You can find Ashley York at www.ashleyyorkauthor.com

 

Medieval Monday with Cathy MacRae

I LOVE weddings, they are joyous, and filled with the excitement of the what is yet to be. Let’s wish the Arbela and Caelen well on their new life together. Can someone please pass the wine!!

 THE HIGHLANDER’S CRUSADER BRIDE

Born in the Holy Land only a few years after the Third Crusade, half-Armenian, half-Scot Arbela MacLean is a true daughter of the desert, beautiful and untamed. Trained to be a warrior to avoid her gentle mother’s fate, Arbela has honed her skills with Turkish bow and arrow, sword, and throwing darts—and dreads the day her father choses a man for her to marry.

After more than thirty years in the Holy Land, Donal MacLean, Baron of Batroun, is recalled to Scotland, the last son available to take up leadership of clan MacLean. He brings with him knights, treasure, trade—and a daughter of marriageable age.

Caelen MacKern, known as the Bull of the Highlands, is cynical about women. His first marriage formed an alliance, and he did not grieve when his spoiled, immature bride passed away. He has agreed to marry again—against his better judgement—for the men, means, and coin to recover from a devastating pestilence that all but wiped out his clan.

More than a little resentful at finding himself forced to remarry, Caelen’s proposal to Donal MacLean’s headstrong daughter nevertheless piques her interest. Each will receive what they want most from life—the ability to live as they please without interference from a meddling spouse. But their marriage of indifference will soon change to one of passion that neither Arbela nor Caelen could have predicted.

Buy links:

Amazon: https://www.amzn.com/dp/B0762TL89Z

B&N: http://bit.ly/THCBB_N

Kobo: http://bit.ly/THCB_Kobo

Excerpt:

As they stepped inside the chapel, Arbela fingered the ring Caelen had placed on the third finger of her right hand. The red and gold cabochon jasper was smooth beneath her thumb as she twisted the beaten gold band on her finger. Though she had jewels aplenty—and of much greater worth than the semi-precious jasper—this one would never leave her hand. The idea drew her thoughts away from the nuptial mass.

She moved through the responses with little awareness. She stood, sat, and knelt as prescribed. With effort, she pulled her attention to the priest’s words. Her father, Zora, Rory, and a second representative from Dunfaileas stepped forward and held a shimmering veil over Arbela and Caelen’s heads as the priest spoke a blessing over them. His hand rested lightly on her head and she peered at Caelen from the corner of her eye.

Follow me for next week’s snippet on Judith Sterling’s blog: https://judithmarshallauthor.com/blog/