Defiant (52 page)

He’d never thought of it in that way. “I cannae argue wi’ that.”

“My parents never knew me, never wanted to know me. When I most needed them, they beat me, starved me, left me alone. But Uncle William knew what was in my heart, and so did you.” She cupped his face between her palms. “You accepted me as I was from the start.”

Connor pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “I’ve only ever wanted for you to be safe and happy.”

“I am happier than I knew it was possible to be.” She looked deeply into his eyes, her gaze holding nothing back from him. “I know why you asked me this, Connor. Some secret part of you wonders whether I married you simply because I carried your child and could not return to London. Let your heart be at ease. I married you because I love you.”

He let out a breath, relief making his heart lighter. “I dinnae ken what I did to deserve you.”

“Oh, Connor!” She shook her head, smiled, her hand closing over his. “You may not be a nobleman, but you are the most noble man I know.”

Her words brought a smile to his face. “And you dinnae mind livin’ in a cabin instead of a castle, Princess?”

She laughed, wiped her tears away. “Joseph was right. This
new life
is
a gift. I want us to live it with strength and joy, cherishing every day we have together.”

Connor drew Sarah into his arms and buried his face in her hair, love for her welling up inside him until he feared he might burst. “And that is what we shall do—each of us for the sake of the other.”

T
he seed for the MacKinnon’s Rangers series was planted in 2004, when I was doing research for
Ride the Fire
and came across repeated references to Robert Rogers and Rogers’ Rangers, to whom incredible feats of wilderness warfare, woodcraft, and survival were attributed. Curious, I did a bit of extra reading—I never get tired of research—and found myself in awe of this group of fighters. Rangers had been used in colonial warfare in the past, but Robert Rogers took the style of guerrilla warfare common to American Indian inhabitants of the wilderness, broke it down, and organized it, distilling it into a set of twenty-eight rules, known as the Rules of Ranging. Although he could never have imagined it, his genius in crafting the Rules made him the father of a new kind of fighting and the leader of North America’s first true special operations force.

I was amazed by what I learned about Rogers and his Rangers. Imagine trekking hundreds of miles through a snowy forest with nothing warmer than buckskin and wool—no polypro, no GPS, no rescue helicopters, no MREs. Or fighting battles on primitive snowshoes. Or going for so long without food that “stew of boiled moccasin” sounds appetizing. But as fascinated as I was by Rogers, he wasn’t a suitable hero for a romance, in part due to his involvement in a counterfeiting scheme prior to the war.

Instead of using the figure of Rogers himself, I developed MacKinnon’s Rangers, putting them in the same location where Rogers was stationed—Rogers Island, which I called Ranger Island, at Fort Edward in upstate New York. To say that I fell in love with this period of history and with the landscape in which the events of the French and Indian War took place would be a gross understatement. It has become an obsession.

I had the good fortune of visiting Fort Edward and Rogers Island, as well as taking the route the Rangers so often traveled, heading north along Lake George to the La Chute River and over to Fort Carillon/Ticonderoga. I was also able to take a pontoon trip on Lake George and go hiking on the eastern shore of the lake where the forest is largely undeveloped. Being there gave me a sense of how dense the forest had been and how easy it was to be ambushed or to get lost. If you can make it to the Rogers Island Visitor Center on Rogers Island in Fort Edward, I heartily recommend it.

I have tried, whenever possible, to remain true to the history, not only in the bigger details of the war, but also with regard to the details of daily life—what a Ranger carried in his tumpline pack, what he ate, how he spent his free time, how he fought. Even Lord William’s dinnerware is based on archaeological findings from the site. So, although every event in this series and this story is not historically accurate, the environment of the story is. Some of the characters are based on real people, as well, including Jabez Fitch Jr., whose diaries tell of his time as a Ranger. As a fiction writer with a specific story to tell, I was forced to take a few liberties in this book, most notably with the fateful battle in which Lord William Wentworth finally follows his heart. No such battle happened on the army’s northward march from Ticonderoga to Crown Point in the summer of 1760. (However, it is true that men were occasionally sentenced to a thousand lashes. Unfortunately, I did
not
make that up.)

While the series itself is very much a tribute to Rogers and Rogers’ Rangers, this book also pays homage to Mary Jemison, a young woman who was taken captive by the Shawnee together with her parents and siblings and lived through the horror of having her entire family tomahawked behind her back. She endured watching as her family’s scalps were stitched onto hoops. She was later traded to the Seneca, married a Seneca man, and lived out her life as a Seneca woman. Her courage
amazes me. I have deliberately paraphrased some of what she said about her ordeal when she was interviewed late in her life by a curious reporter. I guess it’s my way of reaching out to her across the centuries.

I find it sad to think that most Americans and Canadians—this war is part of Canadian history, too—have no idea who the Rangers were or what they did. Rogers Island and Fort Edward are largely unknown to our time. And yet events at Fort Edward and on Rogers Island were crucial for the shaping of the North American continent. When I heard that even New York was removing the French and Indian War from its school curriculum, I began to fear that we are losing this special piece of history.

Of course, I didn’t write this book to provide a history lesson, nor did I write with any political message in mind. This is a love story about two people who never should have met or fallen in love, but who were thrown together by events in the midst of a war, events over which they had no control. Still, I hope that by infusing the story with real history, I might have sparked your interest in the events and people of the period. Just in case, I’ve included a short bibliography of some of the books I read in preparation for writing this series.

How important were the Rangers?

At the time, they were considered true heroes, our nation’s first celebrity warriors. King George II knew of the Rangers in general and specifically of Robert Rogers. Many men who learned to fight as Rangers went on to play key roles during the American Revolution, using skills acquired in one war to win another. During the Revolution, John Paul Jones named his ship the USS
Ranger
in honor of Robert Rogers and his Rangers.

Today, Rogers’ Rules of Ranging, modified to fit modern times, are still standing orders for the U.S. Army Rangers, who venerate Robert Rogers as their founding father. Army Rangers, both active duty and veteran, regularly visit Rogers Island to pay their respects, weeping as they walk on the ground where Rogers and his men camped, prepared for battle—and changed the course of a war.

Pamela Clare

January 20, 2012

Chartrand, René.
Ticonderoga 1758: Montcalm’s Victory Against All Odds
. New York: Osprey Publishing Ltd., 2000.

Darounian-Stodola, Kathryn Zabelle, ed.
Women’s Indian Captivity Narratives.
New York: Penguin, 1998.

The Diary of Jabez Fitch, Jr. in the French and Indian War, 1757
. Third Edition. New York: New York State French and Indian War Commemoration Commission and Rogers Island Heritage Development Alliance Inc., 2007.

Dunn, Shirley W.
The Mohican World, 1680–1750
. New York: Purple Mountain Press, 2000.

Marston, Daniel.
The French-Indian War 1754–1760
. New York: Osprey Publishing Ltd., 2002.

Parkman, Francis.
Montcalm and Wolfe: The French and Indian War
. New York: Da Capo Press, 1984.

Starbuck, David.
Rangers and Redcoats on the Hudson: Exploring the Past on Rogers Island, the Birthplace of the U.S. Army Rangers
. Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2004.

Todish, Timothy J., ed., and Gary Zaboly, illustrations and captions.
The Annotated and Illustrated Journals of Major Robert Rogers
. New York: Purple Mountain Press, 2002.

Zaboly, Gary.
American Colonial Ranger: The Northern Colonies 1724–1764
. Osprey Publishing Ltd., 2004.

Colorado author PAMELA CLARE began her writing career as a columnist and investigative journalist and eventually became the first woman editor-in-chief of two different newspapers. Along the way, she won numerous state and national honors, including the National Journalism Award for Public Service and the First Amendment Award. In 2011, she was recognized by the Colorado chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for her body of work, in particular her reporting on women in prison, with the Keeper of the Flame Lifetime Achievement Award. A single mother with two grown sons, she writes historical romance and contemporary romantic suspense. In her spare time, she enjoys urban farming and hiking in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.