Jill Barnett - A Stockingful of Joy

v1.0

December 7, 2006

A gentle woman shows a rugged man the meaning of love in Jill Barnett's Victorian New York of gaslit streets and snowy sleigh rides. An unexpected legacy sweeps a governess to a grand estatewhere an impoverished nobleman discovers a woman to be treasured in Mary Jo Putney's poignant romance. Justine Dare brings us the heartwarming tale of a man who seeks shelter on an isolated Wyoming homestead and discovers an orphan and a beautiful woman who need a miracle as badly as he needs forgiveness and love. In Susan King's touching story, a silver brooch seals a pact between a Highland lass and a Scottish laird as they find that the best gift to give is one's heart.

JILL BARNETT is a New York Times bestselling author praised for her "absolutely wonderful and totally endearing" novels (Romantic Times). A fast-rising star of historical romance known for her warmth and humor, she is the recipient of many awards and a starred review in Publishers Weekly for Dreaming. She lives with her daughter near San Francisco.

MARY JO PUTNEY is "one of today's great romance authors" (Romantic Times). She is a writer of superb Regency romances as well as critically acclaimed historicals. Her most recent Topaz titles include River of Fire and Shattered Rainbows. She lives in Baltimore.

JUSTINE DARE, who also writes as Justine Davis, has been a police officer for over twenty years. Possessed of "a wonderful gift for igniting an explosive passion and melting our hearts" (Romantic Times), she received a spectacular five-star review for her Topaz novel The Skypirate. Her current romances include the trilogy Heart of the Hawk, Wild Hawk, and Fire Hawk. She lives in San Clemente, California.

SUSAN KING has been hailed as one of the best writers of Scottish historicals in the genre and is frequently compared to Julie Garwood. Virginia Henley calls Susan King's talent "a gift from the gods." The author of five novels including Lady Miracle and The Angel Knight, she lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

by SUSAN KING

Christmas Day, 1573 The Highlands

"I am Catriona MacDonald of Kilernan, and I need your help." Her soft Gaelic echoed in the silence. Catriona held her breath, and waited for a response from several men gathered near the hearth in the great hall at Glenran Castle. She lifted her chin slightly, determined to show no fear, though these were Frasers, and enemies of her clan.

No one spoke. Although she stood in the center of a hall filled with men, women, and children, amid the Yuletide scents of pine and juniper, of spices and cakes and roasted meats, she felt utterly alone in that instant. Still, she could not blame the Frasers for staring at her so warily. She had broken the peace of their Christmas by coming to their castle.

As the silence continued, Catriona lifted trembling fingers to the red plaid she wore draped over her frayed green gown, and unfastened the silver brooch that she had owned since infancy. She held it out toward Callum Fraser, the laird of Glenran.

"This brooch marks an honorable pledge, made on Christmas Eve twenty years past, by your father," she said. "I have treasured the snow rose all my life."

"Snow rose?" Callum asked as he accepted the brooch.

She nodded. "I called it that when I was a child, because of the silver setting, and the rose quartz stone."

He examined the piece thoughtfully. "I remember seeing it when I was a child."

"Lachlann Fraser gave it to me on Christmas Eve, when I was but a few days old. He pinned it to my swaddling and told my mother that it marked his pledge of protection for me. He said that if I ever was in need, my mother or I should come to him."

"And you are in need now?" Callum asked.

"I am," she said quietly. "Though I am a MacDonald, and you are Frasers, and our clans have feuded for generations, I must call upon this pledge. I know that Lachlann of Glenran died several years ago, but I hope that his son will honor his promise, in the spirit of the Yuletide season."

Callum watched her somberly, then leaned over to murmur to the man seated beside him; that man had dark hair and brilliantly blue eyes, and seemed older than the others. Callum listened to him carefully.

The other Frasers murmured among themselves, most of them standing with their backs to the yellow light that spilled from the stone fireplace. While Catriona could not see their faces clearly, she saw that they were tall and well made, blond, dark, and redheaded, wearing plaids of deep green and midnight blue, colors favored by the Glenran Frasers.

Another dark-haired man watched her intently from where he stood in a shadowed corner near the hearth. He leaned against the wall and folded his arms over his wrapped plaid, crossing his long, muscular legs, cased in deer-skin boots. His gaze never wavered from her face.

Although her heart thumped, Catriona looked at him boldly. He inclined his head in acknowledgment; Catriona soon lowered her eyes, her cheeks heated.

She waited, ignoring the sting of her chilled fingers and toes as they warmed after hours of riding in the cold. She ignored, too, the rumbling of her empty stomach, roused by the scents of the Frasers' Christmas feast. She stood straight and held her head high, feeling the weight of her black hair as it spilled down her back, and curling her toes inside her worn leather boots. Her knees shook, her heart pounded, but on the outside, she remained quiet and still.

Finally the laird leaned forward, his strong, handsome face lined with a frown. "My father told us the story of a Christmas Eve when the widow of Iain MacDonald of Kilernan saved his life."

Catriona nodded. "My mother took Lachlann Fraser in during a blizzard. He had been hunting and stopped at Kilernan, unable to make it back to Glenran because of the storm. My mother was still in childbed, and could have directed her men not to admit him," she continued. "He was a Fraser, and she had been recently widowed by the hand of a Fraser. But she honored the custom of Highland hospitality, which is offered to any visitor, friend or foe. Lachlann gave me the brooch and the pledge in return."