Seduced by Destiny

by Morgan, Kira

  “She isn’t tellin’ me—” Drew began.

  “Why would you want to stay,” Robert growled, “in such an uncivilized—”

  There was a loud scrape of chairs as the Scots in the room rose to their feet.

  Josselin sighed and shook her head as vile oaths and threats began to fill the inn.

  “Listen to me!” she bellowed, silencing them all. “There will be no malignin’ of anyone’s place o’ birth at my weddin’, do ye understand? The next person who utters one more word of it, I swear Drew and I will both disown ye.” She gave them all a withering glare. “Now sit down.”

  Once they were seated, she resumed. “I’m not tellin’ Drew where to live. ’Twas his choice. He makes his livin’ at golf, and he—”

  “Can’t you bat your ballocks around some sheep field in your own country?” Robert asked.

  Drew suppressed a laugh. “ ’Tis balls, Uncle, not ballocks.”

  “Well, can’t you?”

  Thomas answered his brother. “Golf’s been banned for years now in favor of archery.”

  “The lad should go where he can make the best livin’,” Alasdair added, “and the best home for Josselin and their bairns.”

  “Bairns!” Kate cried with, in Josselin’s opinion, far too much enthusiasm. “Ach, lass, are ye already with child?”

  Simon protested. “Surely, Andrew, you won’t let your son be born on Scots soil!”

  Angus narrowed his eyes. “And what’s wrong with our soil… aside from the fact it’s stained with English blood?”

  “Out!” Josselin cried, pointing toward the door. “Both o’ ye! Out! And leave your weapons here.”

  Simon and Angus scowled, but they did as they were told. They stood, slammed their daggers flat on the table, and shoved their chairs back, then began lumbering reluctantly toward the door.

  But just as they were about to exit, the door opened, and Davey the beer-wagon driver sauntered in. He had a missive for Josselin.

  Josselin took the letter from him, gasping when she saw the seal. ’Twas stamped with the royal insignia of Queen Mary. With quivering fingers, she broke the seal and, standing beside Drew, read the contents aloud.

  “My faithful and good subjects, as you may find it a difficult, indeed impossible, undertaking to return to your ancestral abode at Tintclachan in the Highlands, I am determined to grant to you, by God’s grace, at the suggestion of my secretary, Philipe de la Fontaine, and as a condition of your marriage, 200 roods at the southeastern limit of Scotland, including a links bordering on the North Sea. It is my dearest wish that you will endeavor to establish a course there for the pleasure of any who may come, and that you will erect a tavern nearby for the comfort of all. Furthermore, I trust that you will understand always the responsibility that accompanies the holding of a property so positioned. I pray God to give you a very happy and long life. From Edinburgh, this 11th of October, 1561. The Queen of Scotland, Marie.”

  While the parents blinked in confusion, Josselin grinned, and Drew swept her up in his arms, twirling her around till she grew giddy with laughter.

  “ ‘So positioned’,” Drew repeated in wonder. “ ’Tis at the border. Everyone will be able to play there—Scots, English, Catholic, Protestant.”

  Josselin nodded, pleased. Apparently, Philipe had found a way to grant them the next best thing to exile.

  “We’ll have tournaments,” he continued. “And I could start a school—a school o’ golf.”

  “I can run the tavern,” Josselin gushed. “And we’ll be ideally situated to guard the border for Mary, to defend Scotland against ruffians.”

  While they celebrated their great fortune, Drew’s uncles watched uncertainly.

  Finally Simon grumbled, “I suppose, lass, you’d consider us ruffians?”

  There was a pregnant pause.

  Finally Josselin smiled at him. “O’ course not… Uncle.”

  He scowled, but she could see the endearment pleased him.

  Drew raised his tankard from the table. “A toast to kith and kin livin’ in peace and harmony!”

  “Aye,” Josselin added, eyeing Simon and Angus, “and if ye ever dispute that, ye’ll have to fight it out with clubs and balls on our links.”

  Everyone raised a cup in accord. By the wee hours of the night, the sworn enemies—their tongues and hostilities mellowed by an excess of beer and merrymaking—were toasting one another’s health and swapping tales of the married couple’s childhoods. When Will began gleefully relating the story of how Jossy, at four years of age, offered to defend her first love—Rane MacAllister, the lord sheriff’s huntsman—with a wooden sword, she decided ’twas time to retire.

  She stole up the stairs with Drew, closing the door on the festivities below. The two of them had their own celebrating to do.

  The morn was halfway gone when the happy bride collapsed back onto the pillow, spent. Her chemise was halfway down her arms. Her skirts were bunched around her waist. One of her stockings had gone missing. But somehow she couldn’t summon the energy to care.

  Beside her, the bridegroom, too, lounged in apathetic splendor. He wore a self-satisfied smile and little else. His shirt was torn, revealing his still heaving chest. His legs were splayed casually across the bed, with his trews slung around one ankle.

  If they continued much longer like this—dozing blissfully off, only to awaken again for another round—they might remain at The Sheep Heid forever and never make it to their new home.

  Josselin sighed. She supposed she should drag herself out of bed. Change was in the wind, and they had a future to plan. Drew would want to inspect every inch of their seaside property to determine how to arrange the course. And Josselin had ideas for the magnificent tavern she’d build.

  “The Silver Thimble,” she mused, gazing at the wedding ring on her finger, which had been fashioned out of the thimble Drew had given her.

  “Hm?”

  “Our tavern.” She turned on her side and idly ran her knuckles down Drew’s arm. “We have to have a name for it.”

  “How about The Blue Cods?” he replied, too exhausted to open his eyes.

  She gave him a light punch on the shoulder. “Ye’re a filthy lad.” With the attention she’d lavished on them all night, his cods were anything but blue.

  He grinned with his eyes still closed.

  Josselin frowned up at the heavy-beamed ceiling. ’Twould be clever, she thought, since she and Drew had overcome the differences of their birth, to unite the symbols of their two countries. “The Cross and Lion,” she tried.

  He snorted, countering with, “The Fig and Prick.”

  “Drew!” she scolded, dropping her jaw. “I’m serious. ’Tis an important consideration.”

  He opened one lusty blue eye to gaze at her. “Darlin’, how can I consider anythin’ but swivin’ when ye’re lyin’ there, all naked and lovely and temptin’?”

  She might be flushing with pleasure at his smoldering glance, but she wasn’t going to fall for his flattery again. They’d been swiving all night. Enough was enough.

  She gave him a chiding smirk, tugging the bedlinens up over her breasts, and he sighed in exaggerated disappointment, closing his eyes again.

  Maybe the name of the tavern should reflect something of the legacy of warfare they were leaving behind and the new journey of peace upon which they were embarking. “The Rusty Dagger,” she suggested.

  One corner of Drew’s mouth curved into a smile. “The Frisky Yard,” he insisted.

  She had to bite back a laugh at that one, then shook her head. Drew MacAdam was incorrigible. But she supposed that was one thing she loved about him. After all, if he was a man to give up easily, he would never have pursued the cursing, trews-wearing, brawling lass with whom he’d crossed paths on the Royal Mile. He would never have chased halfway across the countryside to keep her safe. And he would never have risked the wrath of his uncles and her da’s to marry her.

  She smiled. Their parcel of land
wasn’t going anywhere. The day was still young. And they had years ahead of them.

  “I know,” she said with a wicked glint in her eyes, walking her fingers down his chest. “The Withered Cock.”

  Drew opened his eyes and lowered a disapproving brow at her. Then he clasped his hands behind his head and gave her a slow grin as his trusty staff responded boldly to her rousing touch.

  With a smug growl, he tore off her coverlet, rolled atop her, and sank into her welcoming warmth. “The Longnose Club,” he told her in no uncertain terms.

  ’Twas a long while before Drew and Josselin left their room at The Sheep Heid Inn to venture to their new home, but when they did, two pieces of their destiny had been determined. One was that their tavern would be called The Rose and Thistle. The other was that their first son would be born exactly nine months hence.

  THE DISH

  Where authors give you the inside scoop!

  From the desk of Hope Ramsay

  Dear Reader,

  Picture, if you will, a little girl in a polka-dot bathing suit, standing on a rough board jutting out over the waters of the Edisto River in South Carolina. She’s about six years old, and standing below her in the chest high, tea-colored water is a tall man with a deep, deep Southern drawl—the kind that comes right up out of the ground.

  “Jump, little gal,” the man says, “I’ll catch you.”

  The little girl was me. And the man was my Uncle Ernest. And that memory is one of those touchstone moments that I go back to again and again. My uncle wanted me to face my fear of jumping into the water, but he was there, big hands outstretched, steady, sturdy, and sober as a judge. He was the model of a man I could trust.

  I screwed up my courage and took that leap of faith. I jumped. He caught me. He taught me to love jumping into the river and swimming in those dark, mysterious waters, overhung with Spanish moss and sometimes visited by snakes and gators!

  I loved Uncle Ernest. He was my favorite uncle. He’s been gone for quite a while now, but I think of him often, and he lives on in my heart.

  There is even a little bit of him in Clay Rhodes, the hero of my debut novel WELCOME TO LAST CHANCE. Jane, the heroine of the story, has to learn that Clay is the type of guy she can always trust. A guy she can take a leap of faith with. A guy who will always be there to catch her, even when she has to face her biggest fears.

  And isn’t love all about taking a leap of faith?

  I had such fun writing WELCOME TO LAST CHANCE because it afforded me the opportunity to go back in time and remember what it was like spending my summers in a little town in South Carolina with folks who were like Uncle Ernest—people who made up a village where a child could grow up safe and sound and learn what makes a life meaningful.

  I hope you enjoy meeting the characters in Last Chance, South Carolina, as much as I enjoyed writing them.

  Ya’ll take care now,

  www.hoperamsay.com

  From the desk of Cynthia Eden

  Dear Reader,

  Have you ever wondered how far you would go to protect someone you loved? What would you do if the person you loved was in danger?

  Love can make people do wild, desperate things… and love can certainly push people to cross the thin line between good and evil.

  When I wrote DEADLY LIES, I created characters who would be forced to blur the lines between good and evil. Desperate times can call for desperate measures.

  The heroine of this book is a familiar face if you’ve read the other DEADLY books. Samantha “Sam” Kennedy was first introduced in DEADLY FEAR. Sam lived through hell, and she’s now fighting to put her life back on track. She knows what evil looks like, and she knows that evil can hide behind the most innocent of faces. So when Sam is assigned to work on a serial kidnapping case, she understands that she has to be on her guard at all times.

  But when the kidnapper hits too close to home and her lover’s stepbrother is abducted, the rules of the game change. Soon Sam fully understands just how “desperate” the victims are feeling, and she vows to do anything in her power to help Max Ridgeway find his brother.

  Anything. Yes, desperation can even push an FBI agent to the edge of the law. Lucky for Sam, she’ll have back-up ready to help her out—all of the other SSD agents are back to help track the kidnappers, and they won’t stop until the case is closed.

  I’ve had such a wonderful time re-visiting my SSD Agents in this book. And I hope you enjoying catching up with the characters too!

  If you’d like to learn more about my books, please visit my website at www.cynthiaeden.com.

  Happy reading!

  From the desk of Robyn DeHart

  Dear Reader,

  There have always been certain things that fascinate me—the heinous crimes of Jack the Ripper; why cats get up, turn around, then settle back into the exact position they were just in; people who can eat only one Oreo cookie; and the ancient legend of the Loch Ness monster. Recorded sightings of the creature date all the way back to the 7th century, and not all of these sightings have been water-based—there are those who claim to have seen the monster walking on land.

  Regardless of what you believe, it’s interesting to think that there just might be some prehistoric animal hiding in a loch in the Highlands. It was this interest that compelled me to write TREASURE ME.

  Another interesting tidbit about this book is that it was actually the first romance novel I ever wrote. Okay, that’s not entirely true, but the concept of a couple who fall in love near Loch Ness, centered around adventure and action and danger, well, that was all in that first book—even the characters’ names stayed the same. But I didn’t keep anything else. When it came to the third book in my Legend Hunters trilogy, I took my basic concept and started from scratch.

  If you’ve read SEDUCE ME and DESIRE ME (the first two books in the series), then you might remember meeting Graeme, the big, brooding Scotsman who looks and sounds remarkably like Gerard Butler. Graeme has been after the authentic Stone of Destiny for years, because he believes the one sitting in Westminster is a counterfeit. He’s gone back to his family’s home in the Highlands to do some research, and meets with trouble in the form of a delectable, self-proclaimed paleontologist named Vanessa. She’s just run away from her own wedding and is determined to make a name for herself as a legitimate scientist.

  Add in a marriage of convenience, a deadly nemesis, and some buried treasure and you’ve got yourself a rollicking adventure full of intrigue and seduction that will leave you as breathless as the characters.

  Dare to love a Legend Hunter…

  Visit my website, www.RobynDeHart.com for contests, excerpts, and more.

  Enjoy!

  From the desk of Kira Morgan

  Dear Reader,

  It’s easy to write about a match made in heaven. Cinderella meets Prince Charming, they fall in love at first sight, and live happily ever after.

  But for my latest book, SEDUCED BY DESTINY, I wanted to take on the challenge of star-crossed lovers, characters like Romeo and Juliet—a man and a woman cursed by fate and thrown together by chance, who have to overcome their tragic history to find true love.

  In SEDUCED BY DESTINY, set in the time of Mary Queen of Scots, Josselin Ancrum and Andrew Armstrong each have a dark secret in their past and deadly peril looming in their future. They have little in common. They should avoid each other like the plague.

  She’s Scots. He’s English.

  She likes to stir up trouble. He likes to fly under the radar.

  She’s a tavern wench who loves to play with swords. He’s an expert swordsman who’d rather play golf.

  Her mother was killed in battle.

  His father was the one who killed her.

  Talk about Fortune’s foe…

  All this would be fine if only they hadn’t started falling in love. If they hadn’t felt that initial spark of attraction… if they hadn’t begun to enjoy one another’s company… if they hadn’t succumbed to that fir
st kiss… their story might be a simple tale of revenge.

  But Drew and Jossy, unaware of the fateful ties between them, are drawn to one another like iron to a magnet. And by the time they discover they’ve fallen in love with their mortal enemy, it’s too late. Their hearts are already tangled in a hopeless knot.

  This is where it gets even more interesting.

  To make matters worse, outside forces are working to drive them apart. What began as a personal mission of vengeance now involves their friends, their families, and ultimately their queens. Suspected of treason, hunted by spies, they become targets for royal assassins.

  The uneasy truce between Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary is mirrored in the fragile relationship between Drew and Jossy. The lovers are swept into a raging battle bigger than the both of them—a battle that shakes the foundation of their union and threatens their very lives.

  Only the strength of their fateful bond and the power of their love can save them now.

  Of course, unlike Romeo and Juliet, Drew and Jossy will triumph. Nobody wants to read a historical romance with an unhappy ending! But just how they manage to overcome all odds, when their stars are crossed and the cards are stacked against them, is the stuff of nail-biting high adventure and a story that I hope will keep you up all night.

  To read an excerpt from SEDUCED BY DESTINY, peruse my research photos, and enter my monthly sweepstakes, visit my website at www.glynnis.net/kiramorgan. If you’d like to read my daily posts and interact with other fans, become my friend at www.facebook.com/KiraMorganAuthor or follow me at www.twitter.com/kira_morgan.

  Happy adventures!

  Table of Contents

  Front Cover Image

  Welcome

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7