Book excerpt: USA Today Bestselling Author Winner of the Holt Medallion for Best Historical Romance From the wild shores of the Scotland's Western Isles to the bloody fields of France to the glittering courts of Europe, the Macpherson Trilogy follows a family's fight for Scottish independence against the Tudor king, Henry VIII. Nothing could hide her passion... Fiona does not remember the years before she came to the priory on the Isle of Skye. Only the gentle Prioress knows the truth about the spirited, red-haired lass's true birth. So it is in a simple cowl and peasant's dress that she emerges from the island's mists and faces the famed warrior chief of the Highlands, Alec Macpherson. Or stop his love... Alec has served King James with his sword. Now he would give his very soul to protect this beautiful girl from the intrigue that swirls around her. But Fiona wants his heart as well, and willingly he gives it...even as the king's opponents are pushing her toward a deadly trap. For hidden in Fiona's memory is the face of her mother's killer and a secret that could topple the throne. And it will take Alec's Highland strengths pitted against a foe's cruel ambitions to prove, through blood and battle, which will reign--an army's might or the powerful passions of two lovers...