"Tears rolled down her cheeks. Damn him for doing this to her! Until he burst into her life like a siege engine, she'd been happy on her own. Content with the life she had planned.
She wiped the tears away with an angry jerk, determined to be so again. Her work was the only thing that mattered now. It was the only thing she had left.
She was better off alone. Hadn't she always known that?"
from The Hunter
I have just finished reading the seventh novel in the Highland Guard series, which follows the fortunes of the Hunter, Ewen Lamont. As part of King Robert the Bruce's special army, Hunter's role is to track, trace and hunt down the enemy, and to help rescue allies. A chieftain of a decimated clan, Hunter hopes to use his skills to prove himself to the Bruce and in doing so, win back vital clan lands. All is going well, until the Bruce sends him on a mission to bring back one of his most successful spies.
Janet of Mar is thought to be dead. Very few know that she is actually working incognito for the king, carrying messages back and forth across the border. Working in both England and Scotland means that Janet has become a mistress of disguise and lies. She changes her persona at the drop of the last hat she wore, moving on to a new village with a new name and a new story, gathering intelligence as she goes. Her main disguise is as a nun and she has played this role so well, that she has almost convinced herself to take her vows for real as soon as her work for the Bruce is done.
But then along comes Ewen Lamont, ordered to fetch her back to the court of King Robert, where she is to be betrothed. Ewen has very traditional ideas about what a woman's place should be - married, with children and a home, to keep her occupied. So when he meets Janet, who has no intention of marrying, and who would rather live a life of danger as a spy for the King of Scots, he doesn't dare to tell her that he has been sent to carry her off to her future husband. Nor does he expect to betray his king by falling in love with his slippery charge, who runs off on her own every chance she gets, leaving him to track her repeatedly. And as the two get to know one another, the very last thing he expects is that her feminine wiles will work their charm on him, leaving the Hunter to feel more like the hunted!
As Janet falls more deeply in love with this brave man who swept into her life out of nowhere and turned her inside out, she wants nothing more than his admiration and respect - not for her beauty and her body, but for the important work she carries out for the king. She wants the man she loves to acknowledge that although she has no military training, she still has courage and an indomitable fighting spirit in her, and that she is just as entitled as he is to fight for Scotland, but in her own way. Alas for Janet, Ewen has made up his mind that her job is too dangerous for a woman and he makes no secret of his opinion, all the while battling against his own feelings for her, in his determination to complete his mission and present her to the king as fodder for a political marriage.
For all his military training, the Hunter is a fool, who cannot see that his ceaseless dedication to his long, drawn out call of duty, is pushing away the woman he loves, and that somewhere far beyond his notice, she is quietly slipping away from him for good.
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