“
Her honor will come to no harm at my hands,” Jack said.
“’Tis not her honor but her tender heart that I worry about,” Alexander said.
“She’s a delicate lass,” Hugh added.
“Aye,” said Gregor. “A Scottish rose.”
“Your tender, delicate rose had me ambushed, knocked unconscious, and forced to wed,” Jack ground
out. “Facts you all know, if you’ve spoken to Hamish.”
Dougal grinned, his teeth flashing whitely. “She has the devil’s own temper, our Fiona does.
”
”
Karen Hawkins (How to Abduct a Highland Lord (MacLean Curse, #1))
“
cantrip to ken wha suld wed me: and the monk said there
”
”
Walter Scott (Complete Works of Walter Scott "Scottish Historical Novelist, Playwright, Poet, and 1st Baronet"! 49 Complete Works (Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Old Mortality, Waverley, ... Bride of Lammermoor, & More) (Annotated))
“
You don't have to say a thing except yes. You don't have to do anything, either, I'm quite willing to plan it all."
"You?"
"Yes me."
"You'd plan all of it? Even the wedding?"
"Why not?"
"You don't even like to plan your own breakfast."
He grinned. "You mean more to me tban bacon."
"More than [i]bacon?[/i] I'm honored."
"You should be, my foolish pea brain.
”
”
Karen Hawkins (The Taming of a Scottish Princess (Hurst Amulet, #4))
“
Duncan grasped Eoin's shoulder and pulled them apart. "You'll not be touching my sister again until you are properly wed." He reached for Helen's left arm. "And you will go home with me."
Eoin grasped his lady's right hand. "Oh, no, I'm finished with waiting.
”
”
Amy Jarecki (Highland Knight of Rapture (Highland Dynasty, #4))
“
Lauren closed her eyes, remembering how desperate she had been this morn in Chartres, how she had prayed for divine intervention to stop her wedding.
She had never expected that intervention to be riding a black horse and wielding a sword.
”
”
Shelly Thacker (His Stolen Bride (Stolen Brides, #1))
“
It inspired Scottish immigrant Frances Wright—feminist, abolitionist, and advocate of free public education—to write, “What is it to be an American? Is it to have drawn the first breath in Maine, in Pennsylvania, in Florida, or in Missouri? Pshaw! Hence with such paltry, pettifogging calculations of nativities! They are Americans who have complied with the constitutional regulations of the United States…wed the principles of America’s declaration to their hearts and render the duties of American citizens practically to their lives.
”
”
Robert B. Reich (The Common Good)
“
Our appetite for destruction grew with feeding. I started gingerly, pulling some books out of a case, but soon was tearing out pages by the handfuls and throwing them around. Jerry got a knife and ripped the stuffing out of the mattresses. He threw feathers from the sofa cushions. McQuilly, driven by some dark Scottish urge, found a crowbar and reduced wooden things to splinters. And Bill was like a fury, smashing, overturning, and tearing. But I noticed he kept back some things and put them in a neat heap on the dining-room table, which he forbade us to break. They were photographs.
The old people must have had a large family, and there were pictures of young people and wedding groups and what were clearly grandchildren everywhere. When at last we had done as much damage as we could, the pile on the table was a large one.
"Now for the finishing touch," said Bill. "And this is going to be all mine."
He jumped up on the table, stripped down his trousers, and squatted over the photographs. Clearly he meant to defecate on them, but such things cannot always be commanded, and so for several minutes we stood and stared at him as he grunted and swore and strained and at last managed what he wanted, right on the family photographs.
”
”
Robertson Davies (The Manticore (The Deptford Trilogy, #2))
“
He kissed her temple. "Would you read to me?"
"You wouldn't grow bored?"
"Not if you were reading, my love."
Helen slipped off the bed, tiptoed into the main chamber and retrieved the book from the table. When she returned, Eoin had situated the candelabra to provide good light, and arranged the pillows for comfort.
How wonderful it was to be with a man who actually cared enough to do simple things like fluffing the pillows.
He opened his arms and beckoned her to him. "Come and tell me what this story's about."
"It would be my pleasure, sir knight." Helen climbed up and snuggled into his arms. She opened the cover and read the title. "'The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle'." She looked at Eoin and grinned. "The story begins when the mystical knight, Sir Gromer Somer Joure, challenges King Arthur to discover what women desire most, or face dire consequences."
He rested his chin on her shoulder and peered at the pages. "You have me entranced already.
”
”
Amy Jarecki (Highland Knight of Rapture (Highland Dynasty, #4))
“
Ken MacLeod, a Scottish science fiction author, describes the Singularity as “the Rapture for nerds” and in the same way Christians are divided into preterist, premillennialist, and postmillennialist camps regarding the timing of the Parousia,39 Apocalyptic Techno-Heretics can be divided into three sects, renunciationist, apotheosan, and posthumanist. Whereas renunciationists foresee a dark future wherein humanity is enslaved or even eliminated by its machine masters and await the Singularity with the same sort of resignation that Christians who don’t buy into Rapture doctrine anticipate the Tribulation and the Antichrist, apotheosans anticipate a happy and peaceful amalgamation into a glorious, godlike hive mind of the sort envisioned by Isaac Asimov in his Foundation novels. Posthumanists, meanwhile, envision a detente between Man and Machine, wherein artificial intelligence will be wedded to intelligence amplification and other forms of technobiological modification to transform humanity and allow it to survive and perhaps even thrive in the Posthuman Era .40 Although it is rooted entirely in science and technology,41 there are some undeniable religious parallels between the more optimistic visions of the Singularity and conventional religious faith. Not only is there a strong orthogenetic element inherent in the concept itself, but the transhuman dream of achieving immortality through uploading one’s consciousness into machine storage and interacting with the world through electronic avatars sounds suspiciously like shedding one’s physical body in order to walk the streets of gold with a halo and a harp. Furthermore, the predictions of when this watershed event is expected to occur rather remind one of Sir Isaac Newton’s tireless attempts to determine the precise date of the Eschaton, which he finally concluded would take place sometime after 2065, only thirty years after Kurzweil expects the Singularity. So, if they’re both correct, at least Mankind can console itself that the Machine Age will be a short one.
”
”
Vox Day (The Irrational Atheist: Dissecting the Unholy Trinity of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens)
“
But know this, the lass will wed you -- her words -- and if you wed another in the interim, it will go badly for you."
Marcus smiled. He loved her and if it was in his power to do so, they would be wed.
”
”
Terry Spear (Her Highland Hero (The Highlanders, #6))
“
The man peered through the doorway - a blond bearded man with steel blue eyes, who first considered her holding Niall's sword, and then Niall in her bed. She couldn't believe he would grin at them. The heathen. His friend was sick and could be dying and Gunnolf was grinning?
What kind of a friend did that?
"I should have known you would be in a lass' bed while I have been searching for you everywhere. Not to mention trying to locate our horses, and the lass we should be finding. Is the woman protecting you with your own sword, mon?" Gunnolf laughed.
"He was wounded and is now feverish. There is naught to jest about," Anora said harshly.
Gunnolf laughed again. "I hope you plan to wed the lass, Niall. She appears to be just the one for you. Every mon needs a woman who will fight to protect him.
”
”
Terry Spear (The Highlander (The Highlanders, #5))
“
He pressed his cheek to hers and closed his eyes on a prayer of gratitude for interfering fathers, and bad weather, and gorgeous, brave, clever lassies. From the first, he’d recognized Charlotte as the other half of his soul. But this profound emotion as he joined his body to hers exceeded anything he’d known. Buried deep inside her, he could swear they breathed as one. He loved Charlotte Warren with a purity and steadfastness that nothing could shake. He would wed her and claim her as his with every bond of church and state. But their true marriage started at this moment. The
”
”
Anna Campbell (Stranded with the Scottish Earl)
“
Only one word describes a woman widowed for the second time on her wedding night – cursed.
”
”
Jean M. Grant (A Hundred Kisses (The Hundred Trilogy, #2))
“
This year, Merida saw rashers, poached eggs in a fragrant sauce, canceled wedding buns spread with a bit of dripping butter, boar meat made into warm, onion-scented drinking broth. Tarts golden and fragrant with cheese and scraps of pastry, mushrooms simmered in broth and browned with leeks in goose fat. Preserved pears in bowls, figs soaked in whisky, even little biscuits with rabbits stamped on them.
Their private feast was always all the bits and bobs and failed experiments left over from preparing the public one. If this was the odd-ends, Merida could only imagine what the proper feast would be like later. Cranky Aileen was a wonder.
”
”
Maggie Stiefvater (Bravely)
“
The marriage of science to naturalism during the mid-to late 18th century, ministered most famously by the Scottish philosopher David Hume, symbolized the brokering of a union which was nothing short of a shotgun wedding of academia to ideology. Science thus became the bride of a completely self-sufficient naturalistic worldview, a crooked union sealed by a single vow, as pervasive as it is perverse: “What science cannot tell us, mankind cannot know.
”
”
Bō Jinn (Illogical Atheism: A Comprehensive Response to the Contemporary Freethinker from a Lapsed Agnostic)
“
A First Kiss from Vexing the Highlander by Terry Spear in Enchanting the Highlander:
Feeling panicked, she was afraid she wouldn’t make it down the corridor to her room in time before she was caught.
Alban must have assumed the same thing and suddenly moved her against the wall with his hot body pressing indecently close and held her hostage. “Forgive me,” he breathed against her cheek. And then he moved his warm lips against her mouth and kissed her.
A lady with the right upbringing would never, ever kiss a gentleman—or an untitled Highlander—let alone do so in the king’s own castle when he planned to marry her off to one of his loyal lords. She would never have kissed Alban back—or so she told herself—except to pretend she was not who she was, rather just a servant girl having a good time with one of the king’s honored guests.
Yet, she gave into the kiss as if she’d been trained in the art of kissing, which, with the way Alban was kissing her back, she found it easy to follow his lead. She soaked up the feel of his warm mouth against hers, and the smoldering flame that ignited low in her belly and fanned the heat all the way through her, despite the chill in the corridor. His chest pressed against her breasts, making them tingle with the most delicious need. His manhood stirred against her waist, and she realized why her mother had warned her and her sister never to kiss a gentleman in such a manner. Indeed, not until she was wed to him, for she felt urges she’d never known she could experience. Womanly urges that compelled her to take this further.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, Alban’s mouth smiling slightly against her lips, as she pressed him tighter. She thought if he was as close as he could be, whoever was about to pass them by—hopefully without stopping to speak—would not see her, as tall as Alban was. Though she was hoping the Highlander would not presume she was always this forward with a man whether she knew him or not. Yet she was thrilled beyond measure to enjoy his attentions, even if it was just to keep her reputation intact. But if the man stopped to speak with Alban, and the Highlander quit kissing her to speak with the person in kind, her character would be in tatters.
“Ahem,” the male said, but continued to walk on by.
She didn’t dare glance in his direction to see if she knew the man. Alban didn’t either, but she wasn’t sure if it was because he was so wrapped up in kissing her, or because he was afraid to reveal who she was.
If Alban hadn’t been holding her so close, she would have melted right into the stone floor, her body boneless. His breathing was as labored as hers, his heartbeat pounding just as fast. He didn’t make a move to release her, waiting while the footfalls faded away. He smelled of summer and the woods, of freshly-washed, earthy male. And then the footsteps were gone.
Yet even then, Alban didn’t let her go. “Wait, just a moment more.
”
”
Terry Spear (Enchanting the Highlander)
“
Hmm?” She raised her eyebrows and looked up at him, then her cheerful expression faded. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?” he asked, though he knew damned well what she meant.
“Like ye think I’d be willing to have my wedding night lying in the dirt,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him. “If ye believe that, you’re quite mistaken.”
“So we’re only debating where, and not whether, to have a wedding night?” he asked.
”
”
Margaret Mallory (Claimed by a Highlander (The Douglas Legacy, #2))
“
Rory did not want her.
After devoting so much effort to avoid being wed to a man she did not want, she found herself bound to a man who did not want her.
”
”
Margaret Mallory (Claimed by a Highlander (The Douglas Legacy, #2))
“
Steeling her resolve, she stepped further into the study. “Regardless if I have your blessing, I have made up my mind. I love Hugh Maclain. It is he whom I will wed.”
Pap guzzled the remaining dregs. Slamming the bottle to the table with a belch, his gaze wandered to the hearth rather than to Charlotte. “No.” He drew the word out and it hung in the air and chilled like death. “You cannot marry a corpse.
”
”
Amy Jarecki (The Fearless Highlander (Highland Defender, #1))
“
What was I thinking, fleeing my own wedding, coming to this remote place with no plan and no place? And no umbrella?
”
”
Beatrice Bradshaw (Love on the Scottish Spring Isle (Escape to Scotland, #2))
“
Alys finds the chest containing the scarves and ribbons. Her brow furrows. ‘lain, why on earth do any of us need so much haberdashery? I, for one, have no intention of ever going to court again.’
‘Well,’ lain whispers, in his rough, ruined voice, 'you're going to go through a lot of ribbons, because every time that great Sassenach idiot rides into a tournament he's going to need a favour.'
‘Oh lord,’ Harry groans. 'You're teaming up on me?’
And two bright, mischievous brunets look at him and grin. 'Who, us?' says Alys, her face innocent.
‘We'd never,’ purrs lain. (505-506)
”
”
Alex de Campi (The Scottish Boy)
“
Maybe life was just a thousand opportunities to step into different versions of ourselves. Perhaps it was like trying on new shoes. Eventually, we’d settle on something fresh and new, while still returning to our old favorites over and over again.
”
”
Tricia O'Malley (Wild Scottish Love (The Enchanted Highlands #2))
“
We’d have to both be faithful.” Not an issue on my side, for certain. “I don’t share. If you’re my wife, you’re mine.
”
”
Evie Rose (Eager Housewife (Filthy Scottish Kingpins, #2))
“
There,” she heard him say with satisfaction, and the plaid slipped off and into his hands.
“Oh, my,” she said a little faintly.
”
”
Fenna Edgewood (Lady Briar Weds the Scot (Blakeley Manor, #1))
“
It hurt to look at him. Hurt to know he wanted her but would not risk the pain of heartbreak a second time.
Well, Briar Blakeley had already lost her heart to her husband. And she would be damned if she was going to be the only one in this marriage to do so.
”
”
Fenna Edgewood (Lady Briar Weds the Scot (Blakeley Manor, #1))
“
They were close enough that she could finally see him clearly.
Her eyes took in the sight of the Scot, standing tall in full Highland dress.
“Oh, delightful,” she muttered to herself. She was at her worst, with seaweed hair streaming water, while Wren had apparently decided to put on his Sunday best.
And didn’t he look absolutely magnificent!
If her heart had not already been doing troublesome things before, it was pounding in brazen excitement as she looked at him now.
This was her husband. Dear Lord. This was her husband.
He was always a very striking man. The cleft of his chin. His sturdy Roman nose. The softness of his dark, sooty lashes over those gorgeous blue eyes. His height, his breadth, his width. His girth? Briar almost giggled. Shush, she told herself.
But now? Gracious, he was unbearably handsome.
There was something about a man in a kilt. Especially the way Wren was wearing it. The dark green Renfrew plaid, shot through with its strands of red and white and gold, was already a lovely thing. Against Wren's form, contrasted against his dark hair, it was a god's finery. Every pleat, every fold fitting his leanly muscled physique.
She swallowed hard, then took another step.
”
”
Fenna Edgewood (Lady Briar Weds the Scot (Blakeley Manor, #1))
“
Stop, Wren,” she sobbed, her eyes wide as she watched. “We’ll both die. Go back down. Please. I beg you. Leave me.”
“Never in a hundred thousand years,” he growled, his jaw clenched so tight he thought it would break.
”
”
Fenna Edgewood (Lady Briar Weds the Scot (Blakeley Manor, #1))
“
There never was a Scottish national identity. It was always Highlanders and Lowlanders, clans. National identity only came into existence after it became part of Britain. A lot of it was invented by Sir Walter Scott, this kind of theme-park identity we have now. That kilt everybody wears at weddings – it’s an eighteenth-century thing; that wedding look is based on the formal dress of a Highland regiment of the British Army.
”
”
Frankie Boyle (Meantime)
“
Maybe life was just a thousand opportunities to step into different versions of ourselves. Perhaps it was like trying on new shoes. Eventually, we’d settle on something fresh and new, while still returning to our old favorites over and over again. Shaking my head at my thoughts,
”
”
Tricia O'Malley (Wild Scottish Love (The Enchanted Highlands #2))
“
Short story: The true and incredible tale of David Kirkpatrick, a Scottish ex-boy scout, and miner, serving in WW2 with 2nd Highland Light Infantry and the legendary elite corps 2nd SAS. A man who becomes a hero playing his bagpipe during a secret mission in Italy, March 1945, where he saved the lives of hundreds just playing during the attack.
After he fought in North Africa, Greece, Albania, Sicily and being reported as an unruly soldier, (often drunk, insulting superiors and so on) in Tuscany, 23 march 1945 he joined as volunteer in the 2nd Special Air Service ( the British elite forces), for a secret mission behind enemy line in Italy.
He parachuted in the Italian Apennines with his kilt on (so he becomes known as the 'mad piper' ) for a mission organized with British elite forces and an unruly group of Italian-Russian partisans (code name: 'Operation Tombola' organized from the British secret service SOE and 2nd SAS and the "Allied Battalion") against the Gothic Line german headquarter of the 51 German Mountains Corps in Albinea, Italy. The target of the anglo-partisan group's mission is to destroy the nazi HQ to prepare the big attack of the Allied Forces (US 5th Army, British 8th Army) to the German Gothic Line in North Italy at the beginning of April. It's the beginning of the liberation of Italy from the nazi fascist dictatorship.
The Allied Battalion guided by major Roy Farran, captain Mike Lees Italian partisan Glauco Monducci, Gianni Ferrari, and the Russian Viktor Pirogov is an unruly brigade of great fighters of many nationalities. Among them also not just British, Italian, and Russian but also a dutch, a greek, one Austrian paratrooper who deserted the German Forces after has killed an SS, a german who deserted Hitler's Army being in love with an Italian taffeta's, two Jewish escaped from nazi reprisal and 3 Spanish anti-Franchise who fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War and then joined first the French Foreign Legion and the British Elite Forces.
The day before the attack, Kirkpatrick is secretly guested in a house of Italian farmers, and he donated his white silk parachute to a lady so she could create her wedding dress for the Wedding with his love: an Italian partisan.
During the terrible attack in the night of 27th March 1945, the sound of his bagpipe marks the beginning of the fight and tricked the nazi, avoiding a terrible reprisal against the civilian population of the Italian village of Albinea, saving in this way the life of hundreds
The German HQ based in two historical villa's is destroyed and in flames, several enemy soldiers are killed, during the attack, the bagpipe of David played for more than 30 minutes and let the german believe that the "British are here", not also Italian and Russian partisan (in war for Hitler' order: for partisans attack to german forces for every german killed nazi were executing 10 local civilians in terrible and barbarian reprisal). During the night the bagpipe of David is also hit after 30 minutes of the fight and, three British soldiers of 2nd SAS are killed in the action in one of the two Villa. The morning later when Germans bring their bodies to the Church of Albinea, don Alberto Ugolotti, the local priest notes in his diary: "Asked if they were organizing a reprisal against the civilian population, they answered that it was a "military attack" and there would.
”
”
Mark R Ellenbarger
“
Lerner held that Brigadoon was one of Minnelli’s least vivacious efforts, despite the potential offered by CinemaScope. Only the wedding scene and the chase that follows reveal Minnelli’s unique touch. Before shooting began, Freed rushed to inform Lerner that “Vincente is bubbling over with enthusiasm about Brigadoon.” But, evidently, his heart was not in this film. Early on, Minnelli made a mistake and confessed to Kelly that he really hadn’t liked the Broadway show. As a film, Brigadoon was curiously flat and rambling, lacking in warmth or charm, and the direction lacks Minnelli’s usual vitality and smooth flow. Admittedly, Lerner’s fairy-tale story was too much of a wistful fancy. Two American hunters go astray in the Scottish hills, landing in a remote village that seems to be lost in time. One of the fellows falls in love with a bonnie lass from the past, which naturally leads to some complications. Minnelli thought that it would be better to set the story in 1774, after the revolts against English rule had ended. For research about the look of the cottages, he consulted with the Scottish Tourist Board in Edinburgh. But the resulting set of the old highland village looks artificial, despite the décor, the Scottish costumes, the heather blossoms, and the scenic backdrops. Inexplicably, some of the good songs that made the stage show stand out, such as “Come to Me, Bend to Me,” “My Mother’s Wedding Day,” and “There But for You Go I,” were omitted from the film. Other songs, such as “The Heather on the Hill” and “Almost Like Being in Love,” had some charm, though not enough to sustain the musical as a whole. Moreover, the energy of the stage dances was lost in the transfer to the screen, which was odd, considering that Kelly and Charisse were the dancers. For some reason, their individual numbers were too mechanical. What should have been wistful and lyrical became an exercise in trickery and by-now-predictable style. With the exception of “The Chase,” wherein the wild Scots pursue a fugitive from their village, the ensemble dances were dull. Onstage, Agnes de Mille’s choreography gave the dance a special energetic touch, whereas Kelly’s choreography in the film was mediocre at best and uninspired at worst. It didn’t help that Kelly and Charisse made an odd, unappealing couple. While he looks thin and metallic, she seems too solemn and often just frozen. The rest of the cast was not much better. Van Johnson, as Kelly’s friend, pouts too much. As Scottish villagers, Barry Jones, Hugh Laing, and Jimmy Thompson act peculiarly, to say the least.
”
”
Emanuel Levy (Vincente Minnelli: Hollywood's Dark Dreamer)
“
Let's no' make this langsome, MacTaggart. Lady Merritt is weary, and as you know, I'm no' one to stand on ceremony."
"'Tis a haisty affair, aye?" the sheriff observed, some of his good cheer fading as he looked around the room. "No flowers? No candles?"
"No, and also no ring," Keir informed him. "Let us say our pledge, give us the certificate, and we'll have done with it in time for supper."
MacTaggart clearly didn't appreciate the younger man's cavalier attitude. "You'll be having no signed paper until I make certain 'tis done legal," he said, squaring his shoulders. "First... do ye ken there's a fine if you've no' posted banns?"
"'Tis no' a church wedding," Keir said.
"The law says without the banns, 'tis a fine of fifty pounds." As Keir gave him an outraged glance, the sheriff added firmly, "No exceptions."
"What if I give you a bottle of whisky?" Keir asked.
"Fine is waived," MacTaggart said promptly. "Now, then... do the rest of you agree to stand as witnesses?"
Ethan and the Slorachs all nodded.
"I'll start, then," Keir said briskly, and took Merritt's hand. "I, Keir MacRae, do swear that I--"
"No' yet," the sheriff interrupted, now scowling. "'Tis my obligation to ask a few questions first."
"MacTaggart, so help me---" Keir began in annoyance, but Merritt squeezed his hand gently. He heaved a sigh and clamped his mouth shut.
The sheriff resumed with great dignity. "Are the both of you agreeable to be wed?"
"Aye," Keir said acidly.
"Yes," Merritt replied.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Devil in Disguise (The Ravenels, #7))