In Stirling, Marie de Guise, the widowed Dowager
Queen, fears for the safety of her child, Mary, Queen of
Scots. Rumours have reached her that the English intend to kidnap Mary and take her to Henry's court to marry his son.
A fast-paced dramatic story set in
Stirling, Scotland in the year 1543.
EXCERPT
Accompanied
by her maid and four Douglas men-at-arms, Meg pondered her father’s
instructions as she rode the dreary, waterlogged miles through Edinburgh and on
to Stirling. By the third day, when rain gave way to clear blue sky and
sunshine, she wondered if she could contrive something to her own advantage.
Father wanted
her to pursue friendship with the Dowager Queen of Scotland, who was noted as a
generous woman. If a gift were to be offered, a manor house with a little land
would be most acceptable.
Riding into
Stirling, Meg eyed Broad Street with a calculating eye, but decided it was not
a place she would choose to live. A cheerful crowd, jostling for a view of the
gallows, surged about the open space between the Mercat Cross and the grim old
Tolbooth. A hanging must be imminent. Her escort closed protectively around her
and forced a way through to the top of the hill.
Both her
destination and the castle came into view at the same time. Meg caught her
breath at the sight of the Great Hall, pale as day-old cream in the October
light, shining like a beacon against the darker stone of the older castle
buildings.
‘You there! Shift
yer hide!’ The sharp order from her Serjeant snagged her attention. He had
halted his horse and glared at two men sitting on the perimeter wall
surrounding Douglas House. The taller of the two slid off the wall and
disappeared in the direction of Broad Street before she had time to glimpse his
face. When she looked at the other man, her heart gave a single, painful bound.
Thomas!
She blinked,
and found she’d raised a gloved hand to her throat. Her heart thudded light and
fast in her chest. Like Thomas, this man’s skin had been coloured by wind and
sun, and his hair held the same dark-red fire of beech leaves. Yet Thomas
Howard had been dead these six years. When the fellow slid from the wall, she
realised the resemblance was no more than a trick of the light.
historical novel set in the sixteenth century. PG 13
US Kindle link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OZME2DK
UK Kindle link: http://amzn.to/1wQTs7F
Jen Black’s Blog
- http://tinyurl.com/kxpedhy
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