Highlander's Redemption: The Sinclair Brothers Trilogy, Book Two (26 page)

“He isn’t,”
Garrick said cautiously, suddenly unsure again of what the Bruce was plotting.

“Which works out
perfectly for me. Laird Kennedy has a daughter who is of marrying age. I still
have my doubts about the man’s loyalty, so I plan to force his allegiance to me
by marrying his daughter to someone I can trust. Daniel Sinclair will do
nicely.”

Garrick tried his
best to mask his shock and misgivings about such a plan, but the Bruce’s merry
eyes missed nothing. “Do you object, Garrick? Is there some reason that your
brother shouldn’t enter a marriage alliance for his King?”

“Nay, Robert, it’s
only….Daniel was always a stubborn lad growing up, and it has only increased
with age. He is a natural-born leader, but acquiescing to the will of others
has never been a strong suit of his.”

“He sounds like
just the man for the job, then. He won’t take any of Kennedy’s shite—beg
pardon, Lady Jossalyn—and he’ll get Loch Doon back in line with the Scottish
cause.”

Garrick had to
admit that the Bruce was right, but he didn’t want to imagine how Daniel would
respond to being told—nay,
commanded
—to leave the Highlands to marry
some Lowland, English-sympathizing Kennedy lass, sight unseen.

“Perhaps you feel
sorry for your brother, since he hasn’t had your good fortune to make a love
match in marriage?” the Bruce prodded gently, a small smile still on his lips. “If
it makes you feel any better for him, I have heard rumors that the Kennedy lass
is bonnie—and spirited. Perhaps even such an arranged marriage can prove to be
a good match—or at least an interesting one,” he said with a chuckle.

“I’m sure Daniel
will be honored to oblige his King’s plans,” Garrick said diplomatically.

“I truly hope his
is as lucky in love as his brothers have proven to be,” the Bruce said cheerfully.
“That’s enough business for now. Let’s turn to the real reason you two are
here.”

The Bruce called
to the guard standing outside the tent, and the canvas door-flap was pulled
back. Several of the Bruce’s advisors, including Angus, Colin, and Finn, filed
in and stood next to Garrick and Jossalyn. As Angus moved to Garrick’s side,
Garrick caught a distinct whiff of whisky emanating from the men entering the
tent. He raised his eyebrow silently at Angus, who merely shrugged and smiled,
his bushy red eyebrows wiggling. “We started the celebration without you,” he
said on a whisky-filled breath.

“I think our
witnesses are drunk,” Jossalyn said to Garrick in a faux-horrified whisper loud
enough for everyone in the tent to hear. Her words brought on a rumble of
laughter, which only further filled the tent with the scent of whisky.

“Kneel before me,”
the Bruce said, and despite his merriment, his voice was filled with gravitas.

They stepped
toward the King’s chair and knelt. Jossalyn’s hand brushed against Garrick’s,
and he intertwined their fingers.

“We are gathered
here today…”

Garrick tried to
focus on the words that the Bruce spoke, which joined him to the beautiful
woman kneeling next to him, but his eyes kept tugging toward her, longing to
drink in the sight of her. She looked up at the Bruce with earnest joy in her
emerald eyes as he spoke of the commitment she and Garrick were making to each
other, in front of their King and in the eyes of God.

He noticed that
her breath was coming faster, and he realized that his pulse was racing, but
not in fear. Not long ago, he had thought himself irredeemable in the eyes of
someone as compassionate and good-hearted as Jossalyn. He had imagined that the
happiness he had seen in his brother after marrying Alwin and starting a family
would never be his. Though he believed in the cause he was fighting for, he had
thought himself unworthy of a woman like Jossalyn. But despite all that stood
between them and should have kept them apart, she had come to love him. Out of all
the men in the world, she had chosen him. He was humbled by her choice, and
even more, he was redeemed by her love.

He didn’t remember
most of what was said during the ceremony, but suddenly he was kissing her, her
scent surrounding him and her soft lips melting into his. A cheer went up from
their slightly inebriated group of witnesses. He leaned in and whispered his
love for her into her ear over the riotous cheering, then stood and helped her
to her feet.

“There’s a happy
ending if I ever saw one,” Angus said, delivering a powerful slap to Garrick’s
back.

“Nay, Angus,”
Garrick said over the din, locking eyes with Jossalyn. “It’s only the
beginning.”

The End

Consider sharing your enjoyment of
HIGHLANDER’S REDEMPTION (or HIGHLANDER’S RANSOM: The Sinclair Brothers Trilogy,
Book One) with other readers by leaving a review on sites like Amazon or
Goodreads.

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Look for Burke’s story,
HIGHLANDER’S
RETURN
, a Sinclair Brothers Trilogy BONUS novella, coming in late 2014/early
2015!

First love’s flame extinguished…

Though told they are too young,
Burke Sinclair and Meredith Sutherland want nothing more than to be married,
but ancient clan hostilities tear them apart. When Meredith is forced to marry
another to appease her brother and secure an alliance, the young lovers think
all is lost.

Only to be reignited…

Ten long years of a stifling
marriage nearly crush Meredith’s spirit. But when her unfeeling husband dies
and Burke, now a grown man and a hardened warrior, suddenly reappears in her
life, the two may get a second chance at first love—if old blood feuds don’t rip
them apart once and for all.

Look for Daniel’s story, The
Sinclair Brothers Trilogy, Book Three, coming in early 2015!

Though this is a
work of fiction, several events, locations, and characters were based on historical
record.

Dunbraes is a
fictitious castle and village, though the English did hold several castles in
Scotland during the Wars of Independence, especially in the Borderlands.

            King Edward I, called
Longshanks for his remarkable height and the Hammer of the Scots for his
merciless suppression of the Scottish people (whom he viewed as rebellious
subjects in need of punishment), did indeed die on July 7, 1307 in the farthest
northwest region of England formerly known as Cumberland. He is rumored to have
asked that his heart be taken to the Holy Land, and for the flesh to be boiled
from his bones so that his skeleton could be taken into Scotland on future
campaigns to suppress the rebellion. Eventually, he was buried at Westminster
Abbey.

The battles of Glen
Trool and Loudoun Hill did in fact happen in April and May of 1307,
respectively. Robert the Bruce and his army had been routed in the Battle of
Methven in 1306, and were forced to flee to the Hebrides and eventually
Ireland, where they regrouped and developed a new strategy for battling the
English. When the Bruce and his army returned to Scotland, they tried out their
new guerrilla tactics at Glen Trool and Loudoun Hill. The Bruce’s success in
these two battles proved to be a turning point in the rebellion.

The Bruce and his
rebels did relocate near Inverness in Aberdeenshire in the summer of 1307,
where the Bruce fell ill. Likely, though, he was exhausted from his difficult
and lengthy campaign—a bit less dramatic that poisoning. The final battle in
the novel is based on the Battle of Slioch, which occurred on Christmas Day,
1307, but which I have shifted to late summer for continuity. The Bruce’s
opponent was John Comyn, Earl of Buchan, whose cousin, John “The Red” Comyn,
the Bruce had killed in 1306. It was largely an archery battle, which the
Bruce’s forces won after an initially inconclusive engagement. The rousing
speech that the Bruce gives in the novel just before the battle is adapted from
Robert Burns’ 1793 poem “Scots Wha Hae,” which was itself an adaptation (or an invention
by the poet) of a speech the Bruce gave before the Battle of Bannockburn in
1314.

The Latin motto
Nemo
me impune lacessit
(roughly translated as “no one attacks me with
impunity”) was used by the Stewarts of Scotland, and appeared on coins minted
in 1578 and 1580 under the reign of James VI of Scotland. It was also adopted
as the motto of the Order of the Thistle and several Scottish units of the
British Army, including the Royal Company of Archers. Of course, my inclusion
of this motto in the novel would place its use in Scotland centuries before
these historical records indicate, but the motto’s origin story may hint at earlier
uses of the phrase. According to legend, the Scotch thistle (or “guardian
thistle”) helped save ancient Scotland from a Viking attack. When one Viking
invader stepped on the thistle, he cried out in pain, thus alerting Scottish
defenders to the attackers’ presence, and thus linking the image of the thistle
with the Scotland’s history of resistance to invasion.

Garrick’s recurve
bow could indeed have come from the Holy Land and would have been an immense
improvement over the English longbow, which was inaccurate and cumbersome. The
recurve bow, by comparison, is smaller and more accurate, but more difficult to
make, and so would have been hard to come by.

Jossalyn’s use of medicinal
herbs and plants is based on medieval understandings and uses of such flora. The
emergency tracheotomy (or more accurately, cricothyrotomy) she performs in the
novel on Robert the Bruce is incredibly dangerous, but was actually recorded as
having been used as far back as 124 B.C.E.

Garrick and
Jossalyn themselves are both fictitious characters (though their love is real
to me!).