Onyx
Authors: Elizabeth Rose
Tags: #Highlander, #Highlands, #Historical Romance, #Love Stories, #Medieval England, #Medieval Romance, #Romance, #Scotland Highlands, #Scottish Highlander, #Warriors
| Onyx | |
| MadMan MacKeffe [1] | |
| Elizabeth Rose | |
| Elizabeth Rose (2013) | |
| Rating: | *** |
| Tags: | Highlander, Highlands, Historical Romance, Love Stories, Medieval England, Medieval Romance, Romance, Scotland Highlands, Scottish Highlander, Warriors |
Feared as a demon because of his two different colored eyes, as well as by his outlandish actions, Highlander, Onyx MacKeefe is known as a madman. While celebrating his birthday one cold night at a Lowland pub, he meets a bonnie Englishwoman who says she is searching for her father's murderer and thief.
And when he recognizes the name of the person she seeks as his own mother, his birthday takes a bad turn.
Lady Loveday de Lacy, known as Lovelle, comes looking for not only a murderer from the past, but also something that's been stolen - her mother's Book of Hours. She is desperate to find it, as she needs the help of the mystical charms at the back of the book.
But when she meets a rugged Highlander who takes her captive in order to secure his mother's life, she finds herself being reckless, and also attracted to the dangerous man.
But things only become more complicated as Lovelle and Onyx find themselves needing each other, but knowing they are enemies. And the more they try to fight off the attraction between them, the stronger it becomes.
But neither of them see the harrowing future in store for them as Onyx is faced with demons of his past and there is also an outbreak of the plague that threatens their very lives.
Can a proper Englishwoman and a Scottish madman find the strength and will to work together before impending doom overtakes them?
(
Author's note:
Onyx is the brother of the girls from the Daughters of the Dagger Series.)
Onyx
Madman MacKeefe Series
Book 1
By
Elizabeth Rose
This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarities to actual organizations or persons living or deceased is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without the author’s written permission.
Cover by Elizabeth Rose Krejcik
Cover images provided by Shutterstock
E-books by Elizabeth Rose:
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(Legacy of the Blade Series)
♛
Ruby
♛
(Daughters of the Dagger Series)
♖
Onyx
♖
Ian
(New)
♖
(Madman MacKeefe Series)
☀
The Dragon and the Dreamwalker
☀
(Elemental Series)
✛
Judging Judas
(coming soon)
✛
(Tarnished Saints Series)
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(Greek Myth Fantasy Series)
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(Short stories)
The Caretaker of Showman’s Hill
(vampire)
Curse of the Condor
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Familiar
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Website:
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Table of Contents:
Author’s Note:
While Onyx is a stand alone book, he is also the brother of the
Daughters of the
Dagger
. If you haven’t read that series, you may want to read it to find out about his sisters. And if you haven’t read the FREE prequel to the
Daughters of the Dagger
series, it would help for you to know more background about Onyx and his family when he was born. Click this link to get it FREE now.
Prequel.
Either way, you will be able to understand and enjoy this book without prior knowledge of the others.
And back by popular demand from
Lady Renegade
of my
Legacy of the Blade
series, you will see Storm MacKeefe and his family nine years after his story ended.
Now sit back and enjoy your visit to the Highlands, Lowlands
, and medieval England, and the story of a man thought to be dead.
Elizabeth Rose
Prologue
Blackpool, England, 1341
Fenella MacKeefe waited in the shadows, watching as one of the earl’s guards stood on the docks trying to convince the ship’s captain to take whatever it was in the small chest that he held in his hands.
The c
aptain shook his head furiously and waved him away, obviously not wanting to do it. She moved closer to eavesdrop on their conversation. She’d been trying to get aboard the ship all day, knowing it was going to Scotland. And if she didn’t get out of England and back to her clan in the Highlands soon, she was going to be caught and sentenced to death.
She’d come to England for vengeance on the Englishman who had killed her husband, and she’d succeeded. She’d made sure to discard of the rest of the poison she’d put in his wine so they couldn’t trace the murder to her. And she would have mad
e it away without being spotted if she hadn’t stopped to pilfer a few objects along the way. It was a habit of hers she never could break. She was addicted to taking what she wanted, especially the finer things in life held by nobles who didn’t deserve them anyway.
She needed to get home to her clan now. She could not die before sh
e returned with her newfound treasures. But she had no coin to buy passage on the ship, and had no horse to ride to the Highlands herself, as it had been stolen by ruffians while she was securing her way into Worcester Castle.
She’d stowed away, hidden on the back of a merchant’s cart
just to get to the docks of Blackpool, but now she needed to get aboard the ship. She knew this was her only way home. She moved closer, pretending to be looking into the travel bag on her shoulder, but really listening to the conversation of the two men.
“I
’ll not be cursed by taking that bloody thing aboard my ship,” spat the captain. “Now leave at once, and do not ask me again.”
“But I’m willing to pay you well,” said the guard.
“I have a rare, gold guinea as well as several shillings in my pouch.” He took the coin pouch from his waist and held it up, jingling it to prove it was true. “It’s all yours if you just do as I ask.”
The captain almost seemed to consider it for a moment, the
n just shook his head and started away, approaching the ship and instructing the dockman to remove the boarding plank and shove off to sea.
Fenella heard t
he king’s men searching for her. The man she killed had been a baron, and with her rotten luck, the king had approached for a visit just as she was leaving. They called out to the villagers asking if they’d seen her. She knew it was now or never. If she didn’t get aboard the ship, she may as well kiss her life goodbye.
“
I’ll
take it,” she told the guard, holding out her hands anxiously.
“Who are you?” the guard grumbled, trying to get a good look at her under her cloak. She’d made sure to secure it around her tightly in order to hide her tartan. She’d also been doing her best to try to sound like an Englishwoman instead of a Scot.
“I’m . . . ” she looked up to the ship, seeing the dockman preparing to take the plank away. “I’m the healer, and I need to get aboard the ship afore it leaves.”
“They don’t seem to be waiting for you,” said the guard, looking at her suspiciously, then back toward the ship.
“They don’t realize I left the ship. To get this . . . my healing herbs,” she told him, pointing to the travel bag slung over her shoulder. She hoped to hell he didn’t ask to see what was in it, or she’d have some fast explaining to do.
“Well,” he said in thought, stroking his chin. “I suppose so. But don’t mention it to the captain, as I don’t think he will like the idea.”
“Give it to me quickly,” she said, hearing the king’s men asking questions from behind her. She reached out and grabbed the chest with the curved, carved lid. It was heavier than she’d expected.
“Now be sure to dump it into the sea,” he told her in a low voice. “But wait until the ship is at least half way to Scotland.”
“Of course,” she said, having no time to even look inside the box. She held out one hand, and he looked at her curiously. “The money,” she spat. “Give me the money, and be quick about it.”
“But you are only a healer,” he protested.
“I’m someone who will be doing your dirty work, now hand it over if you want the job done.”
“I’ll give you a shilling,” he said, preparing to reach into the pouch.
“I’ll take what you offered the captain. All the coins in the pouch. Nothing less.”
“I can’t do that.” He made a face and shook
his head.
“You can if you want this deed done bad
ly enough. Now are you going to give me the pouch or am I going to give this box back to you? And I urge you to decide quickly, as the ship is about to leave.”
“All right,” he said. “Just take it, and rid me of that damned
, cursed box already.”
He’d
no more than reached out the money pouch to her when she’d snatched it from his hand and headed away. “God’s toes, dinna give a lassie so much trouble e’er again,” she said under her breath, hurrying from his side. She opened the travel bag and put the chest inside to hide it from the captain’s eyes.
She glanced once over her shoulder at the king’s men, who were now stopping the guard
she’d just left, and questioning him. She could only hope the task he’d paid her to do was more deceitful than her own. If so, he wouldn’t turn her in.
“Wa
it!” she cried out, as the dockman started to pull away the boarding plank. “I need to get aboard the ship.”
“Sorry,” he sai
d, with a shake of his head. “’Tis too late.”
She didn’t see the captain, nor his crew i
n sight, and she knew that dockmen could usually be tempted by money.
“I can pay,” she said, shaking the pouch of coins at her side.
“Go away, wench,” he growled. “The halfpenny you plan on giving me isn’t goin’ ta get you aboard this ship.”
She
noticed the king’s men coming her way. She wasn’t sure if the guard said anything, but either way, it would be mere moments before they discovered her.
“You are running
from them, aren’t ya?” The dockman obviously noticed her glancing in their direction. “You are the girl that they’re looking for.”
“I don’t know what ye mean, laddie.”
“Laddie?” The man reached out and pulled her hood from her head, exposing her shoulders as well. His eyes fastened to her purple and green tartan thrown over one shoulder.
“You’re
a bloody Scot,” he said. “There’s no way you’re getting on this ship ta escape back to yer kind.” He raised his hand as if to motion to the king’s men, but she gripped his wrist tightly to keep him still.
“There’s several shillin’
s in it for ye if ye help me,” she said in a low voice.
The dockman blew air from his mouth and shook his head
, chuckling. “I saw you take the chest from the guard and put it in your bag after the captain refused to have it on board. And I also heard how much is in the pouch. So don’t think a couple of bobs is goin’ ta win me over.”
“All right. I’ll give ye the
gold guinea instead.”
“I want all of it,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.
She clenched her jaw, not wanting to give up any of the coins, but she knew she was going to have to agree or she would never make it home alive. “Fine. The entire pouch o’ coins if ye promise to stay quiet aboot everythin’. They’re all yers if ye just get me on that damned ship and promise te keep me secret.” With her identity now revealed, she no longer tried to sound like an Englishwoman.