Lion's Legacy. Suzanne Barclay

      

      “I’ve been taught how to attend a man in his bath, but if it tweaks your modesty, I’ll withdraw,” Letter to Reader Title Page About the Author Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Copyright

      “I’ve been taught how to attend a man in his bath, but if it tweaks your modesty, I’ll withdraw,”

      Laurel offered pleasantly.

      “’Tis not my modesty that will be strained,” Kieran growled.

      “Oh? Will it ease you if I promise I will not look?”

      “I doubt it.”

      Her expression turned gentle; her hand came up to cup the line of his jaw. “You should do that more often, you know.”

      “What?” he managed to ask past the sudden tightness in his chest

      “Smile. At least I think it was a smile. The corners of your mouth turned up. And you’ve a dimple, here,” she pointed out, drawing her fingers across his cheek.

      Fleeting as her touch was, it left him aching for more. “Knights don’t have dimples.” He tried to be stern, failed

      “You do. Though you keep them carefully hidden...like so many other things....”

      Dear Reader,

      In Lion’s Legacy, the third book of Suzanne Barclay’s Lion Trilogy, a Scottish warrior is hired to protect a tower from English raiders, and discovers that his benefactor has nothing to give him in return for his services but the hand of his unwilling granddaughter. The first book in the series, Lion’s Heart, earned the author a 5

rating from Affaire de Coeur, and The Medieval Chronicle describes Lion’s Legacy as “absolutely captivating.” We hope you’ll agree.

      With Twice Upon Time, her second Harlequin Historical time-travel novel, author Nina Beaumont weaves an exciting tale of an ancient curse and a passion too strong to be denied. And in Emily French’s new book, Illusion, the growing love between an ex-soldier and an heiress who have been drawn into a marriage of convenience is threatened by embezzlement and extortion.

      Diamond, the fourth title for the month, is the first in Ruth Langan’s new Western series. The Jewels of Texas, featuring four sisters who think that they are only children until the death of their father brings them all together at his ranch in Texas.

      Whatever your taste in reading, we hope that Harlequin Historical novels will keep you coming back for more. Please look for them wherever books are sold.

      Sincerely,

      Tracy Farrell

      Senior Editor

      Please address questions and book requests to:

      Harlequin Reader Service

      U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

      Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

      Lion’s Legacy

      Suzanne Barclay

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      SUZANNE BARCLAY

      has been an avid reader since she was very young; her mother claims Suzanne could read and recite “The Night Before Christmas” on her first birthday! Not surprisingly, history was her favorite subject in school and historical novels are her number one reading choice. The house she shares with her husband and their two dogs is set on 55 acres of New York State’s wine-growing region. When she’s not writing, the author makes fine furniture and carpets in miniature.

      To Linda, for listening to Lion’s story and for steering me to the wild and wonderful Border Country of Scotland for its conclusion

      Chapter One

      Edin Tower, June 1381

      Danger!

      It whispered on the wind and moaned through the trees, making them sway around the tiny, moonlit clearing. Laurel’s heart leapt, then thudded wildly as she whirled around. “Who’s there?” she whispered, scanning the thrashing brush.

      No one answered, yet she could feel something out there waiting, watching her. The hair at her nape rose. The forest seemed to press in on her from all sides, dark and mysterious. Then through the trees she saw Edin Tower standing out black against the gray sheen of the loch.

      Home! There was home and safety. A single light burned in the tower’s uppermost window. ’Twas likely Aunt Nesta waiting up, wondering where she was. As Laurel unlocked her frozen limbs and took a step, the wind abruptly died away. In the terrible, unnatural silence that followed, she heard a sound. Halfway between a whisper and a whimper.

      “Who’s there?” she asked, gooseflesh chasing down her arms and legs. No one answered. She tested the air like a hunted hare, smelled danger lurking beneath the innocent scent of rich loam and trampled herbs. Behind her, a twig snapped.

      Laurel spun around, a scream lodged in her throat.

      The brush parted, and a stallion stepped into the clearing. Black as the night that had spawned him, he halted at some unspoken command from his rider and pawed the ground, breath billowing like dragon smoke. Laurel’s eyes rose from the gauntleted hands that held the great beast in check to the man himself. He was big, his wide shoulders and thick chest encased in gleaming metal armor.

      “Who are you?” she whispered.

      If he heard, he made no reply, merely raised the visor on his helmet and stared in the direction of Edin Tower. Pale, eerie moonlight slanted across his features, illuminating them.

      Sweet Mary! ’Twas him! The man who’d haunted her dreams this