An Innocent Burn With A Bloody History
The United Kingdom today includes Scotland, Wales and Britain, but it took centuries and blood to unite them…especially Scotland, which didn’t take kindly to the idea at all.
Scotland still considers itself an independant country, in spirit at least, and it fought for two centuries and two bloody wars for that right.
BRAVEHEART. The Battle of Falkirk
The first of those wars is probably the most famous thanks to Mel Gibson, who brought the first half of the Scottish War of Independence to the big screen in the runaway best-selling movie, Braveheart. William Wallace didn’t survive to see the success of the war. He was executed shortly after the decisive Scottish vistory at Falkirk, but his influence helped shape the events in the rest of the war.
Robert The Bruce – King of Scotland
The English withdrew most of their presence from Scotland after Falkirk, to lick their wounds. But they did keep hold of Stirling Castle, one of the most strategically important and strongest castles in Scotland. The Bruces, the ruling Scots clan, promptly laid seige to the Castle, with Edward Bruce, the King’s brother, in charge.
King Edward “Longshanks” – King of England
Edward bargained with Sir Phillip Mowbray, who was in command of the castle, giving him until mid-summer to give up the castle. This tactic had worked before with other, lesser castles. But Stirling was too important to meekly hand over and the seige lingered on, while the English King Edward rounded up a mighty army to come north and face the Scots once and for all.
The river that ran past the castle was called the Bannock River or, as the Scots called them, a ‘burn’. The Bannock Burn.
It was here that Edward and Robert “The Bruce” met in battle on June 24 in 1314, in a battle that was to last for two days, and would become known as the Battle of Bannockburn.
The Scots won, sending the English from Scotland and declaring Scotland independant. That independence would be formalized with the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328.
Alas, Scotland’s independence wouldn’t last. They would have to fight to preserve it a second time. The Second War Of Independence lasted from 1332 to 1357, but Scotland won that war, too.
One of the interesting things to come out of both wars was the use of the long bow. The wars proved how efficient the long bow was as a killing machine, and the long bow became the general weapon of choice across Europe for knights and foot soldiers for the rest of the late medieval period.
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Bannockburn Binding
by Tracy Cooper-Posey
Time is theirs to keep. But it comes with a price.
MMF Urban Fantasy Futuristic Time Travel Romance Serial
In the early 23rd Century, vampires learned how to travel back in time, and created a time-tsunami that threatened life as we know it, until they corrected their mistake. They created the Chronometric Conservation Agency, which is tasked with preserving history and therefore protecting humanity’s future. The Touring arm of the Agency offers trips back into the real past, with vampire guides, called travellers.
When Natalia (Tally) Marta, vampire and traveller, takes her client to visit the siege of Stirling Castle in 1314, she is caught and held hostage for ransom by Robert MacKenzie, a Bruce clansman. Rob finds himself drawn to the wilful, stubborn and very different English lady he has captured and the relationship becomes an intimate, highly-charged sexual pairing. Swiftly, Tally and Rob realize their bond is more than sexual, that the emotions stirring their hearts are true.
Christian Lee Hamilton, vampire, one of the last true southern gentlemen, and Tally’s ex-lover, knows the 1314 time marker enough to jump back and help Tally return home. His arrival at Bannockburn adds complications, for Christian finds himself drawn to Rob MacKenzie as much as Tally is. But neither of them can stay in the past forever. To do so means certain death.
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An Excerpt From: BANNOCKBURN BINDING
Copyright © TRACY COOPER-POSEY, 2011
All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © TRACY COOPER-POSEY, 2011
All Rights Reserved.
Rob dragged the servant and his lady into the encampment shortly after the mid-day lull, when everyone was busy with new-found energy and enthusiasm. It also meant everyone would be focused on the castle, and his two captives would rouse the least amount of interest.
He avoided asking himself why he wanted to draw no attention. Later, he would think about it.
For now, the woman’s servant was trouble enough to deal with. He pushed his boot into the man’s behind, encouraging him to keep moving. The man was staggering and moving slowly, making hard going of it.
Rob was puzzled by the man’s over-reaction to the bloody nose and having his hands fastened behind his back. The man was simply terrified, making Rob wonder how long he had been in the service of gentry. In this day and age, capture and ransom was the way of things. Rob had been gentle enough with him, considering.
Rob tugged on Thunder’s halter, encouraging the horse to follow the man’s uneven progress. He glanced up at the woman on Thunder’s saddle. She had managed to arrange her gown so that not even an ankle was revealed, despite her hands being tied to the horse.
“Do ye have a name you’ll give me?” he asked of her.
She glanced at him. “One ye’ll believe is mine?”
She had him there.
“But if ye give me ye name,” Rob countered, “The quicker this’ll all be done with. If ye don’t, we must figure out who ye be and it’ll all take the longer. An army camp is no place for a lady, I assure ye. Even an English one.”
“Especially an English one, in this camp,” she amended. “But you fail to mention that the English king will be here to save his castle before midsummer, and if I am English, I will be saved, also.”
Rob snorted. “Yon Edward won’t move his buttocks out of England, not even for his last Scottish castle. Dinna hold ye breath for that.”
“He will,” she said softly. Firmly. “You’ve given him just the excuse he needs to march his army into Scotland and break King Robert and every last man of ye.”
Rob halted the horse and looked up at her. “How’s a fine young thing as you get to know of such matters?” he said sharply.
She hesitated, and he could feel her caution. “I am a woman. Men speak freely in front of me because I am of no account. So I hear things.”
“And remember them, aye?” Rob nudged Thunder back into motion. “Ye confirm with every word yer high status, my lady. I’m thinking ye’ll raise a goodly number of coins.”
“I think you’ll be surprised,” she returned, still speaking softly. Her assured manner was more the fit of a much older woman, or even a man seasoned in battle or politics. Yet she seemed barely to have blossomed into womanhood.
And a fine, fine womanhood it was, a voice whispered in Rob’s mind.
He tugged at Thunder’s halter irritably, making the big beast snort a protest, for he was already moving forward. Rob scowled at the muddy ground they were crossing, trying not to glance over his shoulder at the fresh young thing sitting on his saddle. The English army might think nothing of returning a woman to her family with her virtue spoiled and her innocence gone, but that didn’t happen in Robert’s army. Well, not in Edward Bruce’s army, at least.
Rob kicked the whimpering manservant again, as he amended the thought. Not in my charge, then. Not while she belongs to me.
“You’d better hope your English king hurries himself,” he told her, keeping his eyes on his tent, fifteen paces ahead, where he could lock her away from his sight and his thoughts. “If ye’ll not tell me who ye are, he is ye best hope for rescue.”
“He is not my king,” she returned, “Any more than he is your king.”
“So ye say.” It was a feeble retort, but the best he could manage. Suddenly, he was desperate to return to the mindless watch at the base of the castle and the ribald masculine chatter around the building of the siege engines. Even Prince Edward’s sharp tongue would be welcome.
He reached up and released her hands from their bonds and grasped the trim waist to assist her down. His fingers nearly met, and his body tightened in response. He could feel warmth and soft flesh, beneath the cloth of her gown.
He cleared his throat. The rope was still fastened around each wrist and he gripped it, looking at her. “Ye give me ye word ye won’t try to escape, and I’ll leave the bonds be.”
“I canna do that.”
He sighed and pulled her into the warm, dim tent, leaving her manservant crouched, whimpering, on the ground beneath Thunder’s nose. He’d deal with him after.
The inside of the tent, he was relieved to see, had been tidied by the pageboy he shared with four other officers. It had been a half-hearted attempt, but the tent at least looked somewhat civilized. The furs on the ground had been beaten and re-laid, and his personal belongings stowed in the chest.
Rob lifted the rope around the woman’s wrist up and hitched it to the tent pole, high up above her head so she could not lift the rope off by herself. It raised her hands very high. For a moment, they stood face to face, with only the heavy bole of the tent support between them.
Sweet temptation soared through his veins in a scalding, aching rush. He had only to drop his hand from the rope, slide it down the length of her arm, to tuck his hand beneath the heavy swell of her breast where it lifted her gown in a full, ripe mound….
She was looking him square in the eye. There was not a single whisper of coyness in her glance. He wondered for an insane moment that if he dared let his gaze linger in the depth of her eyes, would he see mutual knowledge there?
He made himself step away. His whole body seemed to pound with the effort it took to move from her.
“Ye arms will lose feeling,” he told her, his words more brusque than he intended them to be. “Then they’re going to throb, the like of which ye’ve never felt before. Then they will start to burn. Ye may want to reconsider giving me your word, before then.” He turned to go.
“Wait!”
He turned back and lifted his brow. In this low light she almost seemed to glow, so pale and flawless was her flesh. Her lips were full and tempting beyond belief.
“My manservant. What do you intend to do with him?” she asked.
“What do ye care? He led you into danger.”
“He…has sentimental value to my family. I would rather he stay by my side.”
“So he can untie ye the moment my back is turned? What sort of fool do ye take me for, m’lady?”
Rob stalked out of the tent, his black temper roused beyond belief. He kicked the servant up off the ground where he lay shivering, to alleviate his mood.
Such scattered, inane thoughts over a pair of dark eyes and pink lips. He was addled.
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- Now Available
- Erotic MMF romance, time travel, urban fantasy story line, on-going serial storylines.
- This is the first book in the BELOVED BLOODY TIME series.
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- Pages: 162 in PDF, including front matter. (Short novel-length story)
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Tracy Cooper-Posey is a national award winning author, with more than 35 romance titles published since 1999. She writes mainly romantic suspense and paranormal romance, with brief forays into other romantic genres here and there. She has been nominated for three CAPA’s for best paranormal romance, one CAPA for best historical romance, and the CAPA for Favourite Author, and has won the Emma Darcy Award.
…an author I’ll pick up simply because her name is on the cover.
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…reminded me of why I fell in love with reading in the first place.
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…touches the heart and makes you feel everything.
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…writes books which deserve a place on keeper shelves everywhere!
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EROTIC MMF URBAN FANTASY ROMANCE
Winter, a professional thief who can manipulate others’ biologies by touch, accidentally “healed” her former partner—and former vampire—Sebastian, whom she secretly loves. Her healing created a symbiot pairing between them that neither of them wants.
Nathanial, a sexy thousand-year-old vampire and Sebastian’s ex-lover, talks Sebastian and Winter into stealing evidence that will expose all vampires to the world. But Nathanial is a puppet-master who doesn’t believe in falling in love with humans, leaving Winter unsure of his real feelings for her once he seduces her, or how he feels about Sebastian, the former vampire-now-human whose life he has turned upside down once more.
But the evidence they steal is hot property. The future of all vampires is on the line and others will stop at nothing to get it, leaving Sebastian, Winter and Nathanial with no allies but each other. They must trust each other to survive. Only…can they?
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