Thistle and Roses Collection: A Bundle of Scottish, Irish and English Historical Romance Read online

  Thistle and Roses Collection

  Eliza Knight

  Contents

  About the Collection

  More Books by Eliza Knight

  Promise of a Knight

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  Eternally Bound

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Breath from the Sea

  Dear Reader

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Excerpt from The Highlander’s Gift

  About the Author

  Copyright 2019 © Eliza Knight

  THISTLES AND ROSES COLLECTION © 2019 Eliza Knight. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part or the whole of this book may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted or utilized (other than for reading by the intended reader) in ANY form (now known or hereafter invented) without prior written permission by the author. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal, and punishable by law.

  THISTLES AND ROSES COLLECTION is a work of fiction. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional and or are used fictitiously and solely the product of the author’s imagination. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, places, businesses, events or locales is purely coincidental.

  Bundle includes: Promise of a Knight, Eternally Bound, Breath from the Sea

  Cover Design by Kim Killion @ The Killion Group, Inc.

  Published by:

  About the Collection

  From USA Today bestselling author of historical romance, Eliza Knight, comes an exciting new collection of tales that crosses the borders of Scotland, Ireland and England. Welcome to the world of the Thistles and Roses, where romance, passion, adventure, danger and royal courts class with the wilds of the sea, the mountains of the Highlands, and the gently rolling moors of the Emerald Isle…

  This limited time only collection contains:

  Promise of a Knight: Scottish Court, 1503. English knight, Sir Alaric de Garde, has been charged with escorting Princess Margaret Tudor from England to the Scottish court where she will marry King James IV of Scotland. The newfound peace between the countries feels foreign, but he is bound by duty to honor the treaty, and his king's wishes. Once on Scottish soil, his attention is caught by a fiery lady--one who intrigues him with her witty banter, her passionate eyes, and admirable resolve. But she is Scottish, born to be his natural enemy. As much as he tries to walk away from her, he finds himself drawn to her beacon of light.

  Scottish lady, Alexandra Maxwell, has been sent to the royal court under the guise of serving the new queen. Her parents are against the new treaty bringing peace between Scotland and England, and want her to commit treason, acts which Alex adamantly opposes. But how can she naysay her mother and father? They will toss her into a convent if she refuses, and yet if she's caught certain death awaits her at the end of a hangman's noose. To make matters worse, she seems to be falling for the English knight who has completely captivated her attention, whose kisses are a sweet escape from the torment in her mind. To fall for the enemy would most assuredly mean a fall from grace.

  If Alaric were to find out why Alex was really at court, he'd not only turn against her, but he'd see her tossed into the dungeon himself.

  Can a relationship between English and Scottish go beyond that of battle? Can they trust one another? Love one another? Solve centuries worth of warring? Is it worth the risk?

  Eternally Bound: London, Spring, 1601. Lady Maxwell is about to be thrust upon many eager suitors at Queen Elizabeth's court, but there is only one man who holds her interest--the very same thief she tries desperately to ignore. Lord Sebastien de Rayne intends to reposess his family's ancient relics--the Theodosia sword and matching ring--stolen by Baron Dalston, even if it means seducing the lord's only daughter, "Max," into marriage. Will the power of the relics bind them together, or are they doomed to a life of misery? Or maybe, they might just fall in love...

  Breath from the Sea: An infamous pirate... A revered Captain... A dangerous heist... A sizzling proposition... Tudor England, 1601 -- Meet Lady Antónia Burke, Captain of the pirate ship, Lady Hook and her nemesis (who also just happens to make her heart skip a beat!) Lord Titus Graves, Captain in Her Royal Majesty’s Navy. In her quest for the Lucius ring, Antónia, presents Titus with a proposition he simply cannot refuse...

  More Books by Eliza Knight

  The Sutherland Legacy

  The Highlander’s Gift

  The Highlander’s Quest

  The Highlander’s Stolen Bride

  The Highlander’s Hellion

  The Highlander’s Secret Vow — Spring 2019

  Pirates of Britannia: Devils of the Deep

  Savage of the Sea

  The Sea Devil

  A Pirate’s Bounty

  The Stolen Bride Series

  The Highlander’s Temptation

  The Highlander’s Reward

  The Highlander’s Conquest

  The Highlander’s Lady

  The Highlander’s Warrior Bride

  The Highlander’s Triumph

  The Highlander’s Sin

  Wild Highland Mistletoe (a Stolen Bride winter novella)

  The Highlander’s Charm (a Stolen Bride novella)

  A Kilted Christmas Wish – a contemporary Holiday spin-off

  The Conquered Bride Series

  Conquered by the Highlander

  Seduced by the Laird

  Taken by the Highlander (a Conquered bride novella)

  Claimed by the Warrior

  Stolen by the Laird

  Protected by the Laird (a Conquered bride novella)

  Guarded by the Warrior

  The MacDougall Legacy Series

  Laird of Shadows

  Laird of Twilight

  Laird of Darkness

  The Thistles and Roses Series

  Promise of a Knight

  Eternally Bound

  Breath from the Sea

  The Highland Bound Series (Erotic time-travel)

  Behind the Plaid

  Bared to the Laird

  Dark Side of the Laird

  Highlander’s Touch

  Highlander Undone

  Highlander Unraveled

  Wicked Women

  Her Desperate Gamble

  Seducing the Sheriff

  Kiss Me, Cowboy

  Under the name E. Knight

  Tales From the Tudor Court

  My Lady Viper

  Prisoner of the Queen

  Single Title Historical Fiction

  A Day of Fire: a novel of Pompeii

  A Year of Ravens: a novel of Boudica’s Rebellion

  Ribbons of Scarlet: a novel of the French Revolution — Releasing October 1, 2019

  Promise of a Knight

  by

  Eliza
Knight

  Chapter One

  Caerlaverock Castle

  Near the Scottish Border

  Early July, 1503

  “The queen will soon arrive in Scotland, daughter, and ye’ve been asked to join her court as a maid of honor.”

  Alexandra Maxwell, tenth and youngest child of Lord and Lady Maxwell jerked her head up from the table where she’d been sitting, and not eating, the better part of the morning as her family broke their fast. Her father stared at her with his graying hair and thick, bushy brows. Deep wrinkles grooved his cheeks and forehead. The man was positively ancient. Beside him, her mother was also showing her age, though she’d taken the fashion of wearing a wig to hide how much her dark hair grayed. Thick powder covered her face, but not enough to hide her wrinkles either.

  Alex dropped her spoon. “Me?” A maid of honor? Impossible.

  Alex looked to two of her older sisters who stared at her with mixtures of relief, horror and jealousy. Miniatures of their mother. Mary and Agnes were married off already, living with their husbands, but Isobel and Katherine, they could easily have gone in her place.

  “Aye,” Lord Maxwell, her father, said, both of his fists planted on the table as though he prepared for a battle.

  Well, she supposed most of their conversations these days were battles.

  “Why?” Questioning their father’s edicts was against the rules, but how could she not? He was obviously mistaken.

  Lord Maxwell blew out a breath that reached so far down the table, the candle flames flickered the length of it. “For the verra same reason ye were punished the other day.”

  Lord help her… Alex was punished all the time. At just shy of her twentieth birthday, she’d grown quite bored with the day-to-day, humdrum life that went on in the castle, and well, there was really nothing interesting to do unless it was frowned upon… She loved to sneak into her sisters rooms and switch out their face creams for cooking oils, or to tease her brothers who still lived at home into thinking their father had given a direct order for all the mattresses from every chamber to be brought to the courtyard for airing—in the rain or snow (she would have thought they’d not fall for that one so often). Most of all, she liked to escape that harridan of a maid they had following her around so she could eavesdrop on more fun goings-on. Perhaps her antics were a bit childish, but what else could she do? Embroidery and reading only went so far. She longed for adventure. And daydreaming… As she was doing just that moment.

  “Eavesdropping, Alex,” her mother chimed, jerking her back to the present.

  Nay, nay, nay! Listening in on her parents or her siblings was one thing but the king? The queen?

  “Ye want me to… spy?” She shook her head. Nay, this couldn’t be happening. This was why she’d been chosen. Going to the Scottish court to serve the new bride of James IV, an English princess at that, was a grave punishment. No wonder they’d not given the job to one of her sisters. Alex gripped the edge of the table. “Father, please, dinna make me.”

  Her father made hand motions at her mother, as if begging her to “deal” with their wayward child.

  Beside her, Isobel pinched her while Katherine made a face. “Ye’re not fit to marry, Alex, not until ye’ve had a bit of refinement. Think on it that way.”

  “She’ll likely be imprisoned for lack of refinement,” Katherine snipped.

  Alex glowered at her older sisters. “More likely that I’ll be imprisoned for treason!”

  Father slammed his hand on the table. “Ye’ll not be imprisoned, for ye’ll do yer best to keep our family’s name with honor attached to it. Dinna shame us.”

  Alex pushed away from the table. “But ye’re to make me a traitor! Ye’ve shamed me already!”

  Her mother hissed, also slamming her hand on the table. “Sit down, Alexandra. There’ll be no such talk of traitors and treason in this house. We are most loyal to our king and his new bride. And ye will do as ye are bid. We will not tolerate yer insolence on the matter.”

  Alex slowly sank to her seat, her body trembling with hurt and anger. Gazing on her cold breakfast, she said, “Aye, Mother. What would ye have me do?”

  Lady Maxwell pinned her with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes, but it was her father who answered.

  “Ye are to simply listen. With our lands bordering the English and plenty of the damned Sassenachs crossing our lands and pillaging our villages, we have a right to know if the queen is making the king more inclined to favor the English. Lord knows our country has had a time of it because of those bastards.” Her father glanced to each of his children, and Alex suddenly felt left out of this plot they’d concocted. She was to be their scapegoat.

  “So listen well and report anything ye might hear,” Mother said.

  Alex pressed her lips together and nodded. She’d not argue with them anymore, but she wasn’t certain she’d agree either. Nodding was different than outright declaring, wasn’t it?

  “And there is one more thing,” her mother piped up. “Princess Margaret Tudor was given a gift at the proxy ceremony by the Earl of Bothwell who stood in for King James. A necklace of emeralds and amethysts. Colors that signify our great heaths in spring. I want ye to take it.”

  “Mother!” Alex exclaimed. She glanced around the table to see what her siblings thought of such talk, but each of them had found a sudden interest in their porridge that they’d not had before. She’d find no ally among them.

  Eavesdropping was one thing. Thievery something entirely different.

  “Dinna argue with me, lass. That necklace was given to my mother by my father and I want it back.”

  Alex’s face flamed red as it always did when her mother brought up her parentage. Aye, Lady Maxwell’s uncle had been a king of Scotland, but her father had not been married to her mother. She was his mistress and the gift of that necklace had been returned to the crown in payment for the charter of legitimization for Lady Maxwell and her siblings.

  Mother’s eyes narrowed to slits. The woman looked ready to breathe fire, the slayer of any dragon who dared defy her. “Say, aye, else we see ye sent to the lowliest of convents this country can provide.”

  Beneath the table, Alex clutched so hard to her chair she was sure to leave dents in the wood. At least at the lowly convent, they’d not make a traitor and thief out of her. But there would be no adventure either. At least away from this castle—for the first time—she’d have a chance at something other than this dreary life. A chance at happiness before she was married off to some rat-faced, saggy-shinned sot four times her age.

  Alex met her mother’s gaze, leaving her expression blank. “Aye, mother.”

  “Ye will listen. Ye will take the necklace,” her father reiterated.

  “Aye, father.”

  And she’d be forever named a traitor—unless she defied them.

  Northern England

  Late July, 1503

  Sir Alaric de Garde sat his horse watching as the royal wagons were reloaded and liveried footman in green and white ran hither and yon like chickens with their bloody heads cut off. Fully suited in his armor, he barely noticed the rivulets of sweat that slid over his large, muscled frame. What he did gain irritation from was that he was dressed for war, a war he was not going to see. Nay, not with the Treaty of Perpetual Peace being signed between the blasted Scots and his King, Henry VII.

  Aye, his ancestors were of Scottish blood, but they were tamed, for they’d blended with his mighty English de Garde line. Aye, he was biased, that was for certain. But he’d been to war aplenty with the Scots and had reason enough for his prejudice.

  Alaric almost cringed at the thought of his pretty, young princess melding her royal blood with that of a Scot. A child who could potentially one day inherit the throne of England. Or someone in his line.

  King Henry sat with a mostly permanent smile on his face despite the recent death of his son, his wife and his unborn child. His Majesty was ecstatic with the treaty and the marriage of his daug
hter—though apparently not as trusting as he’d like to seem, for he would not attend his own daughter’s marriage. He would leave her at the border and to the mercy of those who escorted her and accepted her—Alaric being one of the former.

  To think that for the entirety of Alaric’s four and thirty years, and through the long line of de Garde’s before him, they’d been invading that savage country. That was no more. His eldest brother, Crispin, at Faodail Tower just over the border of Scotland wouldn’t know what to do with himself.

  Bah! Rubbish!

  Alaric nodded as a flounce of ladies passed him, tittering in their finery as they followed Princess Margaret Tudor—soon to be Queen Consort of Scotland—to her gilded livery.

  A treaty such as the one signed between England and Scotland could not last. Not with their countries having been at war for hundreds of years. And especially not with the petty arguments regarding Henry VII’s daughter’s dowry and the Scottish king’s plan for stipends for her English ladies. In fact, rumor was that there would be several Scottish ladies waiting for Queen Margaret in Edinburgh in order to cut back on the number of English present.