The Viper - A Highland Guard Novel

Zusatztext Monica McCarty is the bestselling author of The Ranger ! The Hawk ! and The Chief ! the first three books in the Highland Guard series! the Highlander trilogy ( Highlander Untamed ! Highlander Unmasked ! and Highlander Unchained )! and the Campbell trilogy ( Highland Warrior ! Highland Outlaw ! and Highland Scoundrel ). Her interest in the Scottish clan system began in the most unlikely of places: a comparative legal history course at Stanford Law School. After a short but enjoyable stint as an attorney! she realized that her career as a lawyer set against her husband’s transitory life as a professional baseball player was not exactly a match made in heaven. So she traded in her legal briefs for Scottish historical romances with sexy alpha heroes. Monica McCarty lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband and their two children. Informationen zum Autor Monica McCarty Klappentext The war for Scotland's sovereignty rages on-as Robert the Bruce is crowned king and the Highland Guard, his elite fighting force of legendary warriors, battle for land . . . and love. Prized for his snakelike stealth and deadly strikes, Lachlan "Viper" MacRuairi is a warrior to enlist but not to trust. His only loyalty is to his purse, his indifference sealed by bitter betrayal. All that changes when Lachlan is tasked to protect and deliver Bella MacDuff to the king's coronation-and the proud, lushly sensual countess unwittingly challenges him to his greatest battle yet: to love again. Passionate and devoted, Bella has defied Britain's king and her own husband to place the crown on Bruce's head, and for this she pays a terrible price: Losing her daughter and her freedom to her husband's vengeance. Imprisoned with barbaric cruelty, she vows to reclaim her child, even if it means selling her soul-and her body-to a dark, lethal warrior whose eyes glint like steel, but who makes her skin tingle and her breath race. Together they embark on a rogue mission with sinister twists and turns that threatens not only Bella's gamble to save her daughter-but also her heart.Prologue   “Because she has not struck with the sword, she shall not die by the sword, but on account of the unlawful coronation which she performed, let her be closely confined in an abode of stone and iron made in the shape of a cross, and let her be hung up out of doors in the open air at Berwick, that both in life and after her death, she may be a spectacle and eternal reproach to travellers.” --  Order of Edward I imprisoning Isabella MacDuff, Countess of Buchan   Berwick Castle, Berwick- Upon- Tweed, English Marches, Late September 1306   They’d come for her.   Bella heard the door open and saw the constable fl anked by a handful of guardsmen, but her mind still didn’t want to accept the truth.   This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening.   In the weeks it had taken them to build her special prison, she’d told herself that someone would intervene. Someone would put a stop to this barbarity masquerading as justice.   Someone would help her.   Perhaps Edward would relent, as he’d done for Robert Bruce’s daughter and wife, and send her to a convent instead? Or maybe Bella’s erstwhile husband, the Earl of Buchan, would see beyond his hatred and plead for mercy on her behalf?   Even if her enemies did nothing, surely she could count on her friends? Her brother might use his influence as a favorite of the king’s son to help her, or Robert . . . Robert would do something . After all she’d risked to crown him king, he would not forsake her.   In her weaker moments, she even convinced herself that she might have been wrong about Lachlan MacRuairi. Maybe when he heard what Edward planned to do to her, he would come for her and find a way to get her ou...

Product details

• Authors: Monica McCarty
• Publisher: Ballantine
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 18.10.2011
• EAN: 9780345528391
• ISBN: 978-0-345-52839-1
• No. of pages: 416
• Dimensions: 107 mm x 175 mm x 23 mm
• Series: Highland Guard; Highland Guard
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature