Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Story Overview
Christina has made her own way for as long as she can remember and juggled men for even longer. The love ‘em and leave ‘em type, she finally said goodbye to Virginia, moved to Maine, and made a fresh start. Or so she thought until her best friends were pulled back in time. Better yet, when a stubborn Claddagh ring on her finger declares she can run but can’t hide. Not when it comes to men from medieval Scotland.
First-in-command of MacLomain Castle, Graham MacLomain has more secrets than most and wants nothing to do with a lass from the future. Especially not one who is promised to King Robert the Bruce. Yet the moment he makes contact with Christina before she travels back in time, he is drawn to her. Soon enough, despite his own commitments and a life that can never include her, he’s eager to be by her side.
Friends from the start, Graham and Christina devise a plan to pretend true love found them. Now they can discreetly dodge destiny and follow their own paths. The only problem? Destiny is unavoidable. Passion sparks and love ignites. Days before the Battle of Bannockburn, they’ll have to face the truth and make a heartbreaking choice. Give in to how they truly feel and destroy all those they care about or turn away, and save Scotland from ultimate ruin.
Series Overview
The term a new beginning brings to mind many things. Hope and opportunity. A fresh start. For the MacLomains and the rest of Scotland, the year twelve ninety-six meant anything but. Instead, it marked the beginning of a new and oppressed era fraught with two long wars with England. This particular series revolves around the First War of Scottish Independence that took place from twelve ninety-six to thirteen twenty-eight.
Heroes are often lost to time and folklore, especially when magic is involved. The MacLomain Series: A New Beginning shares those mystical tales. Stories about Scottish lairds that came to the aid of Sir William Wallace and King Robert the Bruce. Brave warriors and their lasses who single handedly changed the face of history...or so the story goes.
Best Reading Order
Sworn to a Highland Laird- Book 1
Taken by a Highland Laird- Book 2
Promised to a Highland Laird- Book 3
Avenged by a Highland Laird- Book 4
Promised to a Highland Laird
The MacLomain Series
A New Beginning
Book Three
By
Sky Purington
COPYRIGHT © 2018
Promised to a Highland Laird
Sky Purington
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Edited by Cathy McElhaney
Cover Art by Tara West
Published in the United States of America
Contents
Story Overview
Series Overview
Pronunciations
Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Coming Soon
Previous Releases-Best Reading Order
Family Trees
About the Author
Pronunciations
By popular demand, I’ll now be including a glossary of pronunciations for Scottish and Viking names and places that run a little trickier to enunciate. The following names are characters you’ll run across in this particular book.
Aðísla (ah-ue-ee-slah)
Rona (rohn-ah)
Fionn Mac Cumhaill (ˈfɪn məˈkul)
Iosbail (ees-uh-bel)
Balquhidderock (bælkˈhwɪdərˈrock)
If you come across other names or places you’d like to see included when reading my books, shoot me an email because every tale’s pronunciation glossary is a work in progress. I love to hear from readers and consider your feedback valuable. Thanks so much for reading!
Email me anytime at [email protected] or message me on Facebook.
Dedication
For Deb and Joy.
Virginian women don’t come any better than you.
Thanks for all the good times and for making my transition to the South an unforgettable experience!
Love you both.
xoxo
Acknowledgements
A little extra ‘Thank you’ to Noah as well. Your Southern input kept me chuckling.
Introduction
Still holding down the fort in New Hampshire, Christina is near her wit’s end. Most of her friends have traveled back in time, and now it seems she might be next. How else can it be when she not only dreams about Robert the Bruce but he dreams of her too? A fact she learns when she makes contact with Lindsay at Mystery Hill via some sort of time flux. If that isn’t enough, she ends up walking straight through a MacLomain Scotsman that makes her head spin in more ways than one. Though they vanished and she remains in the twenty-first century, she’s bracing for a whole lot of trouble. And so the story goes...
Chapter One
North Salem, New Hampshire
Autumn 2017
SHE SHOULD JUST MOVE back to Virginia. Life would be so much simpler.
Or would it?
Because, Lord above, life had never been all that simple down south. But this? What she had been experiencing since Milly vanished? This was just pure batshit crazy.
Christina propped her hip against the side of the barn, not sure which way she wanted to go. Certainly not back into the woods or into the house. Back the way she had come, most specifically, Mystery Hill and what she discovered there, was a bit too much for anyone. And the house? Well, that either had Jim and Blair playing their games or Jessie being a royal pain in the butt.
“Ye look as thrilled to be here as me, lass.”
She about jumped out of her skin when a woman with long flaming red hair appeared at the barn door.
Christina frowned. “Who the heck are you?”
“Rona MacLomain,” she responded as she eyed Christina. “Daughter of Niall and Nicole MacLomain.” She perked her brows as though her next words would make it that much clearer. “Sister to Graham MacLomain.”
“Graham?” Christina shook her head, not overly daunted that a strange woman had appeared out of nowhere dressed in medieval clothing. “You say th
at like it’s supposed to ring some bells, but it doesn’t, sweetheart.”
Yet she had a feeling where Rona might be going with this, so Christina kept talking. “You’ve been sent here from medieval Scotland, haven’t you?” Oh yeah, she was becoming damn good at taking all of this in stride. “And my bet is, though you look nothing like him, you’re talking about the man I just ran into at Mystery Hill.”
The larger issue, among many, was that she literally ran through him not into him, which was half the reason for her fed-up attitude right now. Then there was the astounding news that Milly had traveled back in time and hooked up with some highlander. If that wasn’t enough, one of his relatives showed up here a few days ago. Better yet, appeared out of thin air with Jim.
Then let’s not forget her dream or what just happened this morning. First, seeing Lindsay in a place that was clearly not the stone dwellings at Mystery Hill before sort of merging with a man then shooting out the other side of him.
Way too much. All of it.
Hence her debate about heading south.
“Aye, ‘twas my brother ye ran into,” Rona said. “And if I heard correctly, ye also ran into Lindsay, and she caught ye up on what was happening.”
Right. Lindsay. Another friend who had apparently traveled back in time.
“And how is Linds since the last time we spoke?” Christina asked, rather nonplussed about all this though she should be freaking out. “Did she find her one true love like Milly did?”
Say no.
Say this was all some sort of mistake and the ring Christina now wore was part of an elaborate hoax. That the Claddagh ring that had mysteriously appeared on her finger a few days ago was one big joke.
“Aye, Lindsay did find her true love,” Rona conceded, her eyes never leaving Christina. “My best friend and cousin, Laird Conall Hamilton.”
Well, shit.
If Lindsay, who swore off men years ago, had hooked up with a man, then that was that.
It wasn’t looking good for Christina.
She sighed and shook her head. About the last thing she needed was for any of this to be true but pretty much figured it must be at this point. Now she just had to continue remaining calm like she had all along. More than that? She needed to make sense of her dream.
“So.” She tried to sound like she wasn’t all that concerned. “Lindsay and Milly have met both William Wallace and Robert the Bruce?”
“They have.”
Rona kept eying Christina, and it was starting to get on her last nerve. About to say as much, she bit her tongue when Blair appeared at the front door of the house, shaded her eyes from the sun and called out, “Bloody hell, is that ye, Rona?”
“Aye.” Rona grinned and headed in her direction. “’Tis good to see ye, Cousin.”
Right on time and riding Blair’s wake, Jim appeared at the door as Rona and Blair embraced. Christina met his eyes and shook her head before she headed into the barn, content to let him deal with yet another time-traveler.
She should have known better though. The minute she settled in a chair toward the back, ready to pretend to hide in a good book, he joined her. Quiet the whole time, he plunked down on a stool and eyed her in that annoying way he’d adopted over the last few days.
“What?” She frowned and shook her head. “I know what Rona’s here for, and I don’t need a pep talk.”
As it turned out, Jim had already traveled back in time with Milly. That, of course, was where he met Adlin’s cousin, Blair. Adlin, naturally, was the wizard Milly was in love with now. So in love, she hadn’t returned.
“It’s not like you to hide away in a corner when yet another interesting character shows up.” Jim eyed her e-reader and shook his head. “Not the best prop of avoidance you’ve ever used either.” The corner of his mouth shot up in amusement. “But I suppose Blair and Rona don’t know that, eh?”
“That I don’t like to read?” She winked. “Nope.”
“We both know you like to read.” He gestured at her device. “Just not on that thing.”
She shrugged, not much in the mood to talk about her reading preferences when there were bigger fish to fry. “So we know why I’m hiding out here.” There was no stopping her grin. “Question is why are you hiding?”
Jim didn’t bother denying it but leaned back against the stall, crossed his long legs out in front of him and scowled in the direction of the house. “That woman drives me crazy.”
That woman being Blair.
Christina shook her head and snorted. “Yeah, in more ways than one.”
Jim didn’t quite meet her eyes. “Do you blame me?”
“Seeing how I’m not into women, I can’t really comment.” She rolled her eyes. “One thing’s for sure though, you two need to decide if you’re in love or hate because listening to you guys is gettin’ old fast, honey.”
Jim was Milly’s ex and best friend and had from time to time crushed on Lindsay and Christina. What sparked between him and Blair, however, was another whole brand of something.
Something annoying mostly.
“I’m just not used to dealing with medieval women,” he muttered. “Especially one like her.”
“You mean one that knows she can kick a man’s butt anytime she pleases?” Christina gave him a pointed look. “Or one who lost her brother and is courageous enough to want to avenge his death?”
Christina might not entirely know what to make of Blair, but she knew one thing. She was her kind of woman.
Jim gave her a look that said all she needed to know.
“Ah, so you weren’t referring to any of those things. No, I’d say you were getting at the endless push and pull between you.” She shook her head. “Why don’t you just sleep together and get it over with already? It’d make life easier for everyone in the immediate vicinity.” Her brows shot up. “Namely me.”
“We’re not that bad,” he argued.
“You are and need to figure things out one way or another.” She set aside her tablet and stood. “Meanwhile, I better get back to watching Jessie seeing how you’re in here.”
“Blair won’t let her go anywhere.” He stood and caught her elbow before she got too far. “Hey, what happened this morning anyway?”
Following his example, she didn’t quite meet his eyes. “Not sure what you mean.”
“The hell you don’t.” He sighed and tugged at her arm a little until she looked at him. “I’ve never seen you act so strangely. Out of it. Like you’d seen a ghost or I don’t know...something. What happened?” His eyes narrowed. “You’ve been pretty laid back through everything that’s been going on, but you weren’t this morning. Care to share?”
“My guess is she was dreaming of a famous Scottish king,” Rona said as she leaned against the entrance to the barn yet again, this time facing inward as she raised a brow at Christina. “Or am I wrong?”
Though by now it shouldn’t seem bizarre that a perfect stranger knew what she had just shared with Lindsay at Mystery Hill, it was. She might be trying to convince herself otherwise, but there was no getting used to what was happening around here. It was something out of anyone’s wildest imagination. Even so, she supposed she better deal with things sooner rather than later.
So she brushed by Rona, saying over her shoulder, “C’mon then, let’s go inside, have a drink and talk about why you’re really here.”
Christina winked at Blair in passing. The Scotswoman nodded as she leaned against the old oak tree out front sharpening a dagger, likely to get a rise out of Jim. He had been telling her since she arrived she didn’t need weapons, but she kept them visible and sharp at all times regardless.
As usual, Jessie was sitting in the living room with a small, ancient looking book in her hand as she stared at the fire. A fire that Christina had kept going for nearly five days now. Since the night she, Milly, Lindsay, and Jessie had come together here to celebrate Milly’s new home.
A house, it seemed, that had been with Milly for sever
al lifetimes.
“Hey there, sweet pea,” she said softly, plastering on her warmest smile as she crouched in front of Jessie. “You need anything? Tea? Something to munch on?”
“No, I’m fine.” As always, Jessie’s face remained emotion free as her eyes met Christina’s. “You heard from Lindsay, didn’t you?”
An herbalist recluse from upstate Maine, Jessie was a recently declared empath and one of the strangest people she had ever met. Yet like Christina, she had Broun heritage, and that was the tie that had brought them together online a few years ago. A forum, as it happened, that was created by Cassie, a woman who had already traveled back in time to medieval Scotland and found her one true MacLomain love. Blair, as she recently discovered, was their daughter.
“I did hear from Lindsay,” Christina acknowledged as she squeezed Jessie's hand. She was more worried about her friend than she would admit. “How’d you know that, honey?”
Jessie gave her the same look she always did. One that hinted at a far more rational mind than she typically displayed. No offense to her but she was remarkably different from most people with her distant nature and voodoo-like way of living.
“My gifts might be quite different than yours,” Jessie said softly, her eyes all-knowing as they held Christina’s. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t know when things are happening to you.” She squeezed her hand right back. “Intense things that are overwhelming you.”
“Not sure what you’re talking about,” Christina began before Jessie cut her off.
“I’m talking about you dreaming about Robert the Bruce.” She cocked her head. “Then running into a man that made your head spin.”
That’s pretty much how it went too.
Christina hid behind a warm chuckle and shook her head. “You’re reading too much into it.”
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