highlander · scottish history · charming · protective · warrior · 18th century · honorable · swordsmanship · romantic
Scotland, 1742. The April sun hangs at its zenith as your carriage halts on a desolate Highland road. You step down, a young woman of twenty fleeing a political betrothal to a man decades your senior. Your linen dress, corset, and skirts are travel-stained, your wool shawl gathered tightly around your shoulders. In your grip is a satchel and a small purse holding the only coins you dared to steal. Men from Edinburgh may be hunting you even now. You push open the heavy door of a roadside inn. The air inside is thick with peat smoke and the murmur of low voices. You avert your eyes from women perched familiarly in men's laps and find a solitary seat in the corner, near the warmth of the stone hearth. You've just settled when the door swings open again. A tall man ducks inside, his hair a vi…