We are excited to be the first stop on the excerpt tour for A Match For Marcus Cynster by Stephanie Laurens. Below you will find the first of 16 excerpts from the book. Make sure to check out the schedule below for links to the rest of the tour stops! Also make sure to check out the giveaway below!
Publisher: Mira
Date of publication: May 26, 2015
Restless and impatient, Marcus Cynster waits for Fate to
come calling. He knows his destiny lies in the lands surrounding his family
home, but what will his future be and with whom will he share it?
Of one fact he feels certain: his fated bride will not be
Niniver Carrick. His elusive neighbor attracts him mightily, yet he feels
compelled to protect her—even from himself. Fickle Fate, he’s sure, would never
be so kind as to decree that Niniver should be his. The best he can do for them
both is to avoid her.
Niniver has vowed to return her clan to prosperity. The
epitome of fragile femininity, her delicate and ethereal exterior cloaks a
stubborn will and an unflinching devotion to the people in her care. She
accepts that she cannot risk marrying and losing her grip on the clan’s reins
to an inevitably controlling husband. Unfortunately, many local men see her as
their opportunity.
Soon, she’s forced to seek help to get rid of her unwelcome
suitors. Powerful and dangerous, Marcus Cynster is perfect for the task.
Suppressing her wariness over tangling with a gentleman who so excites her
passions, she appeals to him for assistance with her peculiar problem.
Although at first he resists, Marcus discovers that,
contrary to his expectations, his fated role is to stand by Niniver’s side and,
ultimately, to claim her hand. Yet in order to convince her to be his bride,
they must plunge headlong into a journey full of challenges, unforeseen
dangers, passion, and yearning, until Niniver grasps the essential truth—that
she is indeed a match for Marcus Cynster.
Excerpt #1:
Prologue
April 1849
The Carrick Estate, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
“Miss Niniver? Are you there?”
Niniver Carrick looked up from
the silky head of the deerhound she was stroking. Recognizing the speaker’s
voice, she inwardly sighed.
Crouched in a pen halfway down
old Egan’s barn, she was hidden from Ferguson’s sight. For one fleeting
instant, she was tempted to stay where she was, safe in her refuge surrounded
by her hounds, but as ever, duty called. Called, hauled, and had her straightening,
brushing pieces of hay from her riding habit’s skirts. The pens’ walls had been
raised to keep the hounds contained; she lifted her head and peeked over toward
the front of the barn. “I’m here. What’s the matter?”
Ferguson, the butler at Carrick Manor,
saw her and strode deeper into the barn. A middle-aged man, upright and sober,
he was one of the clan elders. “It’s Mister Nolan.”
Although Niniver’s older brother
Nolan had succeeded to the title of Laird of Clan Carrick on the death of their
father, Manachan Carrick, some ten months before, clan members had yet to
change the way they referred to Nolan—a telling point, to Niniver’s mind.
Ferguson halted before the pen in
which she stood and fixed his gaze on her face. “Sean sent word that Mister
Nolan’s worse than ever. Ranting and raving like one possessed. Bradshaw,
Forrester, Phelps, and Canning are there, too. They all think you need to
come.”
Niniver stared at Ferguson while
she absorbed his words and what they really meant. Shortly after their father’s
death, Nolan had ridden up to a narrow ledge on the western side of the Coran
of Portmark, one of the minor peaks in the range to the west of the Carrick
lands. As that area was uninhabited, Sean, the head stableman, had followed at
a distance; he’d reported that Nolan had sat on the ledge and stared out. As
the ledge afforded a wide view over Loch Doon and the Rhinns of Kells, everyone
had assumed Nolan had gone there to relax and think.
Initially, Nolan’s visits to the
ledge had been infrequent, but when he’d started riding in that direction every
week, and then twice a week, Sean had followed him again. The side of the ridge
was ruffled with folds, making it easy to get close enough to watch Nolan
without being seen—and to hear what he said when his visits became a daily
occurrence and he’d started rambling aloud.
Then he’d started ranting.
Eventually, he’d taken to raging
and raving.
The target of his fury was their
eldest brother, Nigel—he who had been convicted in absentia of poisoning their
father, and who was also suspected of killing two clan women. A hue and cry had
been raised, but Nigel had slipped away without trace; it was believed he’d
taken ship for the colonies and had escaped beyond reach.
“All right.” Niniver unlatched
the pen’s gate. Carefully keeping the questing hounds back, she slipped out,
then reset the latch.
She could guess why she’d been
summoned. Like the others named, she’d been up to the ledge before and had
heard the tone of Nolan’s ranting. He spoke to Nigel as if their brother was
there, and he clearly blamed Nigel for all the difficulties the clan currently
faced—the difficulties that, as laird, it was now Nolan’s responsibility to
deal with. To improve and rectify.
Nolan had accepted the mantle of
laird readily. If anything, Niniver would have said he’d been keen to show that
he was up to the task. But as the weeks and months had passed…If she had to
describe what she’d seen in Nolan, she would say he had crumbled under the
weight.
She and Norris, the youngest of
her three brothers, had never been that close to Nigel and Nolan, who were
older by more than five years. Yet over the last eight or so months, Nolan had
retreated even further from them, much like a crab backing deeper into its
shell. The gulf between her and Norris, and Nolan, was now a gaping chasm,
impossible to bridge. She’d given up trying.
Walking out of the barn, she
glanced at Ferguson. The heads of four clan families—Bradshaw, Forrester,
Phelps, and Canning—were already at the ledge. Ferguson was another clan elder.
Five votes on the clan council constituted a majority. Niniver had a strong
suspicion over why they wanted her there.
She pulled her riding gloves from
her pocket. “Are you returning to the manor, or will you come, too?”
“The others asked me to come,”
Ferguson said, “so I’ll ride along with you.”
And that, she thought, confirmed
it. Unsurprisingly, the clan had grown skeptical of Nolan’s ability to manage
and lead; they were preparing to confront him, possibly to take the lairdship
from him, and they wanted her—his sister, but also the next oldest member of
the main Carrick line—there as a witness. Pausing
to lift her face to the spring sun, she closed her eyes, breathed in, then out.
All she felt was a sense of inevitability, of being on a road from which there
was no turning aside. With an inward sigh, she opened her eyes. Setting her
lips, she strode for her big bay gelding, Oswald, waiting placidly by the
fence. “In that case, let’s go.”
New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens originally began writing as an escape from the dry world of professional science. Her hobby quickly became a career; she has been writing historical romance novels for more than 20 years. Currently living outside Melbourne, Australia with her husband and two cats, she spends most of her days writing new stories in her signature ‘Errol Flynn meets Jane Austen” style.
Connect with Stephanie
Stephanie Laurens’ TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:
Monday, May 11th: From the TBR Pile
Tuesday, May 12th: Reading Reality
Wednesday, May 13th: Mom in Love with Fiction
Thursday, May 14th: In the Hammock
Friday, May 15th: Broken
Teepee
Monday, May 18th: Let Them Read Books
Tuesday, May 19th: Bibliophilia, Please
Wednesday, May 20th: Bibliotica
Thursday, May 21st: Bell, Book & Candle
Friday, May 22nd: Urban
Girl Reader
Monday, May 25th: Book Reviews and More by Kathy
Tuesday, May 26th: Bewitched Bookworms
Wednesday, May 27th: The Romance Dish
Wednesday, May 27th: Read Love Blog
Thursday, May 28th: A Chick Who Reads
Friday, May 29th: Written Love Reviews
3 comments:
Can't wait to read this!
Thanks for featuring this book for the tour!
Loved this excerpt. The Cynster series is one of my favorites. Thank you for the post.Can't wait to read it.
Carol L
Lucky4750 (at) aol (dot) com
Post a Comment