Pagan Bride

By Patricia Grasso

Lady Avril Gordon has a psychic gift that she has always kept hidden or risk being burned at the stake. When Avril travels from her Highland home to Queen Mary’s court to begin her married life with Duke Magnus Campbell, she decides to use her abilities to steer her and her husband safely through the various intrigues and threats at Court. But when she sees something that would potentially lead to a tragic mistake for Queen Mary—Avril is torn between warning the Queen and exposing herself to a great danger.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lachesis Publishing Inc
• Release date: Feb 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9781897562925

Patricia Grasso

Patricia Grasso lives in Massachusetts. Winner of the National Readers' Choice Award, Patricia is the author of eight best-selling romances which have been translated into ten languages. Her most recent historical romances have all dealt with Princes.

Book preview

cover.jpg

PAGAN BRIDE

by

PATRICIA GRASSO

img1.jpg

www.lachesispublishing.com

Published Internationally by Lachesis Publishinfg

RR # 1, Dunrobin, Ontario

Canada K0A 1T0

Copyright © 2011 Patricia Grasso

Exclusive cover © 2012 Laura Givens

Inside artwork © 2012 Louise Clark

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the publisher, Lachesis Publishing, is an infringement of the copyright law.

Originally published in print in the anthology The Mammoth Book of Scottish Romance (Running Press).

Published 2012 in e-book format by

Lachesis Publishing, Dunrobin, Canada.

A catalogue record for the Ebook is available

from the National Library of Canada

Ebooks are available for purchase from

www.lachesispublishing.com

ISBN 13: 978-1-897562-92-5

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 any person or persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

PAGAN BRIDE

Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 1565

Hot as a hare, blind as a bat, dry as a bone, red as a beet, mad as a hatter.

Standing beside the boy’s pallet, Avril Gordon recalled her late-mother’s instructions and placed her palm against his burning forehead. His lips looked parched, his face crimson. She snapped her fingers in front of his unseeing eyes, and he mumbled nonsense as if caught in a nightmare.

Gavin has eaten nightshade berries. Avril turned to the earl’s farrier, the man’s ashen-faced wife, and his oldest son.

I dared him to eat the berries, ten-year-old Duncan admitted, his misery apparent. I promised to do his chores for a week.

Avril slid her gaze to Duncan’s. You may be doing his chores forever.

The farrier slapped the ten-year-old. You’ve killed your brother.

Fergus, beating this son will not cure the other. Avril looked at Duncan, Fetch me a cup of water.

Avril set her mortar and pestle on the table and removed two packets of herbs from her satchel. Placing both herbs into the mortar, she ground them into a powder and stirred the powder into the water.

Carry Gavin outside, she ordered the farrier. Hold him in a kneeling position.

Outside, Avril crouched beside the eight-year-old and pressed the cup to his lips. Drink, Gavin. Small sips will cure what ails you.

I hope. Murmuring soothing words of encouragement, Avril managed to get the boy to down the water.

What now? Fergus asked.

We wait.

Several minutes later, the eight-year-old vomited and vomited and vomited. Avril placed her palm against his forehead and gazed into eyes that seemed more focused. His babbling had ceased, his high color beginning to recede.

Gavin will sleep. Avril said, standing, and all will be well.

Lady Avril, you are a credit to your mother’s memory. The farrier carried his youngest inside.

I owe you my son’s life, the wife said. "Whatever will we do when you marry