The background for The Laird’s Captive Wife is the Harrying of the North, one of the most infamous episodes of the Conqueror's reign. It took place in the winter of 1069-70 and was a brutal reprisal for the slaying of Robert de Comyn, the newly- appointed Earl of Northumbria. The appointment was politically sensitive, and De Comyn’s tactless handling of the situation led to a rising at Durham in which he and 700 of his men were killed. King William’s response was to send an army to bring the powerful kingdom to its knees. The move was highly successful. Contemporary chroniclers give various estimates for the number of the dead, some as high as 100,000. All agree that for years afterwards the land was littered with corpses because there were not enough people left alive to bury them. Twenty years later, Domesday Book describes much of Northumbria as ‘waste and desolation’. William, on his deathbed, may well have caught a whiff of sulphur, because he confessed that his treatment of Northumbria had been unjust and troubled his conscience greatly.
My heroine and her family are innocent victims of these events. When their manor at Heslingfield is destroyed by the king's mercenaries, Ashlynn is alone and penniless in a dangerous land. Her troubles are compounded when she falls into the hands of Black Iain, a notorious border warlord. Haunted by the past and driven by his thirst for revenge, Iain believes he has no time for the kind of encumbrance that Ashlynn represents. Commanded by his king, Malcolm III of Scotland, to take her to wife, Iain has no choice but to obey, and so brings his captive bride to her new home, the sombre fortress at Dark Mount. Here Ashlynn must make a new life for herself among strangers. Foremost of these is the dangerously charismatic man who is now her husband and who means to claim her for his own.
Read an extract:
When the words were all spoken and the ring on her finger he kissed her, a gentle kiss which burned nonetheless and set her pulse racing. Understated and subtle, it was underlain with a deeper promise, and the implication quickened every fibre of her being.
For an instant their eyes met, but as so often his face gave little away. Did he share the resentment she felt? Given the choice he would never have entered into this bargain. From the outset he had regarded her as an encumbrance. What possible argument could have persuaded him to agree to this?
They went out to the horses and Iain took leave of his king. He turned back to Ashlynn.
‘Come my wife.’
The use of that title sent another wave of heat the length of her body. Soon enough he would take her to his bed and make his possession complete…
Copyright © 2010 by Joanna Fulford
