Highland Master (Murray #19) by Hannah Howell
Lady Triona McKee had a surprise visit from one of her distant cousin, Lady Arianna McFingal and six of her burly and big companions. Apparently her cousin was upset with her husband Brian and decided to “do some thinking” here at Banuilt where Triona is Laird upon the death of Triona’s husband, Boyd. One of the companions was Sir Brett Murray, who wants to make sure that they were not jeopardizing Arianna’s safety here when things are not like it seems. Triona admits relief of having such strong men at Banuilt and had to tell them all what had been happening here since the fever took so many people away.
One of the problems is called Sir John Grant, of their allied clan who seems to be responsible for the majority of the mishap that happens to Banuilt for the last two years, along with his obsession of wanting to marry Triona to take it under his command. The men interest in helping Triona brought Brett and her closer together and was a surprised to Brett since he was plagued by his past guilt. Triona’s marriage to Boyd did not inspire her in love or the attraction between men and women so she too did not expect things happening but she was surprised nonetheless.
The arrival of men seems to push Grant beyond just careless pursue of Triona to determining to make Banuilt his. But Triona and Brett and the others are having progress with their research and they were shocked to find that the garrison that were supposed to go to France, end up being imprisoned by Grant and this led the clans’ liege lord to declared Grant’s protection taken off of him. It seems that a mad man was unleashed as he takes things into his own hand and kidnapped Triona’s daughter Ella as a bargaining tool in this fight. And Brett and Triona will stop at nothing to finally bring justice to Grant. But the questions remain; will Brett stay after all the fighting is done?