“
The Scottish scout called Hamish Plenderlief spoke to his superior saying, “Sir, I have just returned from a patrol around Tynemouth Priory. My second scout and myself observed that the English King Edward II has been joined in his illegal invasion of Scotland by his queen, Isabella!
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Michael G. Kramer (Isabella Warrior Queen)
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I stepped out of the circle of his arms with reluctance and patted him on his butt. “That’ll do, donkey,” I said, in my best Scottish accent.
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H.D. Gordon (Redemption (The Alexa Montgomery Saga, #4))
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Soldiers manage by dividing themselves. They're one man in the killing, another at home, and the man that dandles his bairn on his knee has nothing to do wi' the man who crushed his enemy's throat with his boot, so he tells himself, sometimes successfully.
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Diana Gabaldon (The Scottish Prisoner (Lord John Grey, #3))
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Any self respecting Scot knows that a good tartan is the solution to everything: it tells you where you are, where you belong, who your friends and family are. Forget the Vikings: those guys just can"t hold a candle to a delicious battle-weary warrior whose fighting skills and wicked sex appeal have spawned a thousand Scottish heartthrobs.
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Trisha Telep (The Mammoth Book of Scottish Romance)
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Men are natural warriors, but a woman in battle is truly bloodthirsty.” —Old Scottish saying> <
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Cate Tiernan (Book of Shadows (Sweep, #1))
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Regretfully, he remained an alluring mystery, with fascinating lines and details she could not help but seek to examine further and memorize.
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Lily Blackwood (The Beast of Clan Kincaid (Highland Warrior, #1))
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She remembered Fiona saying something once, there was nothing more attractive than a competent man. At the time she'd been a young girl, without true understanding, but now she agreed.
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Lily Blackwood (The Beast of Clan Kincaid (Highland Warrior, #1))
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Professional wrestling is simply the most modern interpretation of an ancient tradition of stylized verbal battles between enemies. From the time that Homer recorded the Iliad, the emergence of what Scottish scholars call ‘flyting’—” “That would be a verbal battle preceding a physical one, but considered equally as important to the overall outcome,” Carwyn interjected. “Exactly. Throughout world myth, warriors have engaged in a verbal struggle that is as symbolically important as the battle itself. You can see examples in early Anglo-Saxon literature—” “You’ve read Beowulf, haven’t you, English major?” Giovanni glanced at the priest, but continued in his most academic voice. “Beowulf is only one example, of course. The concept is also prevalent in various Nordic, Celtic, and Germanic epic traditions. Even Japanese and Arabic literature are rife with examples.” “Exactly.” Carwyn nodded along. “See, modern professional wrestling is following in a grand epic tradition. Doesn’t matter if it’s staged, and it doesn’t matter who wins, really—” “Well, I don’t know about—” “What matters,” Carwyn shot his friend a look before he continued, “is that the warriors impress the audience as
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Elizabeth Hunter (A Hidden Fire (Elemental Mysteries, #1))
“
Hey, Noah, I see you’re getting back into shape. There is a race north of Atlanta that I just heard about. Look it up. I don’t know if you can do it, but if you can, I’d love to do it with you,” he said.
I told him I would check it out and call him back. I looked it up online and found out it was a Warrior Dash 5K. People dress up to run the course full of easy obstacles and a lot of mud. It looked really fun. It was even a Scottish event, and the Galloways are Scottish. I called Jerry back immediately. I was all in on this!
“This is awesome. Let’s do it! And if we do it, let’s grow full beards and wear kilts. I’ll find the kilts.”
To date, this was the only time Jerry’s wife let him grow a beard. We spent three months growing our beards and then showed up at this race in our kilts along with twenty thousand other people.
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Noah Galloway (Living with No Excuses: The Remarkable Rebirth of an American Soldier)
“
The first time Christina and Lachlan Meet
...Christina wasn't about to stop fighting—not until she took her last breath. Boring down with her heels, she thrashed. "Get off me, ye brute." She would hold her son in her arms this day if it was the last thing she did. And by the shift of the crushing weight on her chest, she only had moments before her life's breath completely whooshed from her lungs.
The very thought of dying whilst her son was still held captive infused her with strength. With a jab, she slammed the heel of her hand across the man's chin. He flew from her body like a sack of grain. Praises be, had the Lord granted her with superhuman strength? Blinking, Christina sat up.
No, no. Her strike hadn't rescued her from the pillager.
A champion had.
A behemoth of a man pummeled the pikeman's face with his fists. "Never. Ever." His fists moved so fast they blurred. "Harm. A. Woman!"
Bloodied and battered, the varlet dropped to the dirt.
A swordsman attacked her savior from behind.
"Watch out," she cried, but before the words left her lips the warrior spun to his feet. Flinging his arm backward, he grabbed his assailant's wrist, stopped the sword midair and flipped the cur onto his back.
Onward, he fought a rush of English attackers with his bare hands, without armor. Not even William Wallace himself had been so talented. This warrior moved like a cat, anticipating his opponent's moves before they happened.
Five enemy soldiers lay on their backs.
"Quickly," the man shouted, running toward her, his feet bare.
No sooner had she rolled to her knees than his powerful arms clamped around her. The wind whipped beneath her feet. He planted her bum in the saddle.
"Behind!" Christina screamed, every muscle in her body clenching taut.
Throwing back an elbow, the man smacked an enemy soldier in the face resulting in a sickening crack.
She picked up her reins and dug in her heels.
"Whoa!" The big man latched onto the skirt of her saddle and hopped behind her, making her pony's rear end dip. But the frightened galloway didn't need coaxing. He galloped away from the fight like a deer running from a fox.
Christina peered around her shoulder at the mass of fighting men behind them. "My son!"
"Do you see him?" the man asked in the strangest accent she'd ever heard.
She tried to turn back, but the man's steely chest stopped her. "They took him."
"Who?"
"The English, of course."
The more they talked, the further from the border the galloway took them.
"Huh?" the man mumbled behind her like he'd been struck in the head by a hammer. Everyone for miles knew the Scots and the English were to exchange a prisoner that day.
The champion's big palm slipped around her waist and held on—it didn't hurt like he was digging in his fingers, but he pressed firm against her. The sensation of such a powerful hand on her body was unnerving. It had been eons since any man had touched her, at least gently. The truth? Aside from the brutish attack moments ago, Christina's life had been nothing but chaste.
White foam leached from the pony's neck and he took in thunderous snorts. He wouldn't be able to keep this pace much longer. Christina steered him through a copse of trees and up the crag where just that morning she'd stood with King Robert and Sir Boyd before they'd led the Scottish battalion into the valley. There, she could gain a good vantage point and try to determine where the backstabbing English were heading with Andrew this time.
At the crest of the outcropping, she pulled the horse to a halt. "The pony cannot keep going at this pace."
The man's eyebrows slanted inward and he gave her a quizzical stare. Good Lord, his tempest-blue eyes pierced straight through her soul. "Are you speaking English?
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Amy Jarecki (The Time Traveler's Christmas (Guardian of Scotland, #3))
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She hadn't said a word about his comment concerning marrying her. If she was of the French nobility, she might not wish to marry him. But still, he was of the mind he would change her thoughts concerning the matter - despite that he had no title or lands to call his own. What Highlander could say that he had a wife who would fight a Highland warrior, wielding only a pitchfork, or that she would raise a Highlander's sword to fight a Viking warrior to protect him?
Her stories fascinated him, and he was thinking that if he had a bairn with her, how she would tell the child her delightful tales. And he would settle down with them to listen, too. Most of all, he loved the way she worried about his health, snuggled with him as if it was for more than warmth, and even kissed him back when he weakly attempted to kiss her earlier.
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Terry Spear (The Highlander (The Highlanders, #5))
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Seeing kilted warriors flow into the hall and hearing their deep masculine laughs made Ravenna feel like her breath was cut off. These men were a massive, self-confident bunch.
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Victoria Roberts (My Highland Spy (Highland Spies, #1))
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Jamie Fraser looked across the field to where Twelvetrees stood with his two companions, then looked soberly down at Grey. “He must not live. Ye may trust me to see to that.” “If he kills me, you mean,” Grey said. The electricity that ran in little jolts through his veins had settled now to a fine constant hum. He could hear his heartbeat, thumping in his ears, fast and strong. “I’m much obliged to you, Mr. Fraser.” To his astonishment, Fraser smiled at him. “It will be my pleasure to avenge ye, my lord. If necessary.” “Call me John,” he blurted. “Please.” The Scot’s face went blank with his own astonishment. He cast down his eyes for a moment, thinking. Then he put a hand solidly on Grey’s shoulder and said something softly in the Gaelic, but in the midst of the odd, sibilant words, Grey thought he heard his father’s name. Iain mac Gerard … was that him? The hand lifted, leaving the feel of its weight behind. “What—” he said, but Fraser interrupted him. “It is the blessing for a warrior going out. The blessing of Michael of the Red Domain.” His eyes met Grey’s squarely, a darker blue than the dawning sky. “May the grace of Michael Archangel strengthen your arm … John.
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Diana Gabaldon (The Scottish Prisoner (Lord John Grey, #3))
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Ewan Gilroy possessed the
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Adrienne Basso (Bride of a Scottish Warrior)
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As hospitality demanded the invitation, courtesy demanded acceptance,
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Patricia Potter (The Scottish Highland Series: Beloved Impostor, Beloved Stranger, and Beloved Warrior)
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The cat let out a low, anguished yowl, and all three warriors jumped to attention and looked at the creature. Beelzebub prowled in a circle, then flopped over onto his side.
"He's dying," Jock whispered.
The cat gave an exasperated sigh and shut his eyes.
Dair regarded Fia's pet. "He wants a lass, a female cat," he said....
He looked at the cat again, at the bored expression, the edgy swish of his tail, the tense, restless muscles, and knew just how the beast felt.
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Lecia Cornwall (Beauty and the Highland Beast (Highland Fairy Tales #1))
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What was this future world where people aged so slowly? Were they protected in cocoons of silk? "What say ye? Are there no warriors?"
"There are soldiers who join the army - and they learn combat, but most of the fighting is done..." She glanced aside.
"Pardon?"
"You wouldn't believe me."
He snorted. "The fighting is done by banshees and fairies?
She threw back her head with a belly laugh. "Now that would be a good name for a video game.
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Amy Jarecki (In the Kingdom's Name (Guardian of Scotland, #2))
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Macbeth [1623]: A Scottish warrior gets pressured into murdering his king by three random witches and also his wife. Women, am I right?
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Dana Schwartz (The White Man's Guide to White Male Writers of the Western Canon)
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For the first time in his life he knew what it meant to be a man - not just a warrior or a chieftain, but a man you loved a woman so much it hurt.
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Amy Jarecki (A Highland Knight to Remember (Highland Dynasty, #3))
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If we continue, we die," Baylon said.
Jordyn touched his face. "If I don't have you inside me, I die.
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Donna Grant (Dark Alpha's Claim (Reaper #1; Dark World #22))
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Teachers don’t always know when they’ve lit the torch paper. But MacGhiolla knew. He knew he’d entered Virgil Swain’s imagination and held up a flame when he told him of a boy who fell in love with a girl called Emer who said he could not have her unless he completed Impossible Tasks. The boy was sent to study warcraft in Scotland under the tutelage of the female warrior Scathach-the-Shadow. Scathach-the-Shadow was about twenty centuries ahead of Marvel Comics. Gaming was in the early development stages back then. One in every two gamers died. Being Scottish and a warrior meant that Scathach was ferociousness itself. She didn’t have a Console, she had a hawk with talons. The boy was sent to her to learn how to achieve the impossible, and when he did, when Scathach had brought him up through all the Levels, showed him all the Cheats, and listed him on the Roll of Honour as All-Time Number-One Player, he came back and entered the fortress where Emer was guarded. He entered it by going upriver against the current. The method he used was salmon-leaps. Not kidding.
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Niall Williams (History of the Rain)
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Through the Grace of God and His medicine I am healed.” The prayer was accompanied by a vision straight out of Braveheart, a line of Scottish Highland warriors in kilts with huge shields and long spears marching in brave unison and attacking and killing the cancer. They were advancing, towards the cancer, striking and killing it with strong accurate thrusts from their sharp spears. The vision was so strong I could hear marching feet, and visibly see the cancer in me dying. “Through the Grace of God and His medicine I am healed,” became my constant prayer. The prayer awakened with me each day, coming on the wings of the morning. It followed in my heart through the day, and was on my lips as I drifted to sleep at night.
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Edie Littlefield Sundby (The Mission Walker: I was given three months to live...)
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They couldn’t turn back time. What was done, was done.
He dropped his arms and lowered his head. Despondency filled him to the very brim. He was a dragon. A creature of magic and fire. A being that was lethal and dangerous.
The Kings had forgotten that. All but one.
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Donna Grant (Firestorm (Dark Kings, #10))
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David strode through the battle raging between his men and the castle defenders in the courtyard and headed straight for the keep, intent on his goal.
The castle would fall quickly. The defenders lacked leadership and were in disarray. His only concern was whether the castle had a secret tunnel for escape. During the siege, he had spread his men out through the fields surrounding the fortress to keep watch. But he had concentrated his forces for the attack and most were now inside the castle. If there was a tunnel, he must secure the widow and her daughters before they had a chance to escape. He did not relish the idea of having to chase them down through the fields with dogs.
The defenders had foolishly waited too long to withdraw to the keep, and most were caught in the courtyard when David’s men burst through the gate. He barely spared them a glance as he ran up the steps of the keep.
With several of his warriors at his back, he burst through the doors brandishing his sword. He paused inside the entrance to hall. Women and children were screaming, and the few Blackadder warriors who had made it inside were overturning tables in a useless attempt to set up a defense.
“If ye hope for mercy, drop your weapons,” David shouted, making his voice heard above the chaos.
He locked gazes with the men who hesitated to obey his order until every weapon clanked to the floor, then he swept his gaze over the women. Their clothing confirmed what he’d known the moment he entered the hall. Blackadder’s widow was not in the room.
“Where is she?” he demanded of the closest Blackadder man.
“Who, m’lord?” the man said, shifting his gaze to the side.
“Your mistress!” David picked him up by the front of his tunic and leaned in close. “Tell me now.”
“In her bedchamber,” the man squeaked, pointing to an arched doorway. “’Tis up the stairs.”
David caught a sudden whiff of urine and dropped the man to the floor in disgust. The wretch had wet himself.
“Take him to the dungeon,” he ordered. The coward had given up his mistress far too easily.
”
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Margaret Mallory (Captured by a Laird (The Douglas Legacy, #1))
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David started up the wheeled stairs to the upper floors with his sword at the ready. He expected to encounter Blackadder warriors, protecting the lady of the castle. But there were none on the stairs and none guarding the door on the first floor.
Damn it. She must have escaped. He gritted his teeth as he envisioned the lady’s guards leading her through the tunnel.
He was about to open the chamber door to make sure it was empty when Brian, one of his best men, came down the stairs.
“Laird, I checked all the chambers while ye were in the hall,” he said.
David’s jaw ached from clenching it.
“There’s one door on the floor just above us that wouldn’t open with the latch,” Brian said. “Shall I break it down?”
David waved him aside and pulled the ax from his belt as he raced up the stairs.
“Open it!” he shouted and pounded on the door.
He did not wait. She could be escaping through a secret door this very moment. Three hard whacks with his ax, and the door split. He kicked it until it swung open, then stepped through.
At his first sight of the woman, his feet became fixed to the floor. He felt strange, and his vision was distorted, as if as if he had swallowed a magical potion that narrowed his sight. He could see nothing in the room but her.
She was extraordinarily lovely, with violet eyes, pale skin, and shining black hair. But there was something about her, something beyond her beauty, that held him captive. She was young, much younger than he expected, and her features and form were delicate, in marked contrast to the violent emotion in her eyes.
David knew to the depths of his soul that a brute like him should not be the man to claim this fragile flower, even while the word mine beat in his head like a drum. He had no notion of how long he stood staring at her before he became aware that she held a sword. It was longer still before he noticed the two wee lasses peeking out from behind her like frightened kittens.
Anger boiled up in his chest. Every Blackadder man in the castle who could still draw breath should have been here, standing between him and their lady. Instead, she faced him alone with a sword she could barely lift with both hands.
It was a brave, but ridiculous gesture.
There was no defense against him.
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Margaret Mallory (Captured by a Laird (The Douglas Legacy, #1))
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The only sound was the crackle of the fire as they looked at each other. Then his mouth was on hers, moving seductively. She returned his kiss, opening for him when his tongue swept against her lips.
He enticed, he tempted.
He tantalized, he seduced.
And it was glorious.
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Donna Grant (Firestorm (Dark Kings, #10))
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Gaelic ritual also moved eastwards and Gaelic bards remembered its atmosphere. The place name of Scone is itself a memory of ancient ceremony. Bards sang of Scoine Sciath-Airde, ‘Scone of the High Shields’, probably a reference to the habit of warriors raising up a new king on their shields. As this precarious rite proceeded, another bardic name added a soundtrack. Scoine Sciath-Bhinne means ‘Scone of the Singing Shields’, the shouts and chants of acclamation as lords and warriors roared approval and support for the king raised on the high shields. Here is what John of Hexham wrote about the coronation of Malcolm IV in 1153: ‘and so all the people of the land, raising up Malcolm, son of Earl Henry, King David’s son (a boy still only 12 years old), established him as king at Scone (as is the custom of the Scottish nation).
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Alistair Moffat (Scotland: A History from Earliest Times)
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Isn’t language the backbone of cultural identity? Should I not be able to speak Scottish Gaelic, or at least speak freely in my Scots brogue?
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Maddie MacKenna (Returning to her Highland Warrior (Dancing Through Time #2))
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When he reached the edge of the inner circle, Ewan drew his sword. A gust of wind howled through the bailey, sending a shiver snaking down his spine. It all seemed so unreal, yet here he stood ready to defend his wife—or die trying.
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Adrienne Basso (Bride of a Scottish Warrior)
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He was the MacCowan warrior of her favorite family legend.
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Angela Quarles (Must Love More Kilts (Must Love, #4))
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It was during this savage campaign that some peculiarly outrageous behaviour of the borderers was first recorded by officers on both sides. The carnage would be well under way – the soldiers having orders to kill and to take no prisoners – when some Scottish and English warriors, standing less than a spear’s length from each other, were seen to be engaged in polite conversation. When they noticed the furious eye of a commanding officer, they began to prance about like novices in a fencing school, striking, as it were, only ‘by assent and appointment’. Some of those faux combatants eventually left the battlefield with half a dozen prisoners who seemed quite undismayed by their capture. This was all the more incredible since these men who seemed to be treading the planks of a stage rather than a blood-soaked mire were beyond suspicion of cowardice. These were the English and Scottish borderers whose reputation for martial skill and bravery was second to none.
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Graham Robb (The Debatable Land: The Lost World Between Scotland and England)