Mariota Macnicol has been disowned by her family for choosing to be with Hugh the Bastard (a bad choice.) She finds Hugh in bed with Elizabeth the Alewife and when Hugh catches sight of Mariota, he has a heart attack and dies. Infuriated, Elizabeth snatches Mariota’s dirk and plunges it into his chest, then climbs out the window. The guards, having heard the ruckus, rush into the room to see Mariota standing next to Hugh with her knife plunged deep into his chest. Hugh's guards assume she killed him, and drag her off to the dungeon.

“Pigs will sing from trees the day I take a wife." Kenneth Mackenzie speaks his mind loudly in his uncle's great hall. All he wants is peace, which he has earned at a high price. He had been born a bastard but still given his father's name. Kenneth has recently been welcomed into the clan and they have knighted him and named him Keeper of Cuidrach, a long abandoned keep set aside for the clans by-blows. Upon his arrival at the keep he finds two women hiding inside his castle.

Mariota, not knowing he's the new Lord, claims to be his wife. He is honor-bound to keep her there after he hears her plight. But Sir Kenneth has every intention of removing her from his castle, even if he has to marry her off to someone else.

I loved this story. Mariota is headstrong and willful, and Kenneth is honorable, intelligent, and determined to keep her. They've both been burned before so they are wary of each other. The characters are well developed, spirited and quick-witted which makes for some interesting verbal dueling. The author also uses the dialect of the time, which I believe makes it more real.

I couldn't stop reading, and just had to know what happened next. The plot is full of surprises and the story leaves a few subplots left open. I’m really looking forward to Bride for a Knight, when hopefully they will be resolved.

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Publisher: Warner Forever (July 1, 2006)
ISBN: 0446617296
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