November 8th, 2024
Home | Log in!

Fresh Pick
LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER
LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER

New Books This Week

Reader Games

Video Book Club

Fresh Fiction Box


Best November Reads

Slideshow image


Since your web browser does not support JavaScript, here is a non-JavaScript version of the image slideshow:

slideshow image
A Sweet Diverse Reads Holiday Novella


slideshow image
Earth�s Door is a brilliant blend of fantasy and sci-fi with masterful world-building and rich character development that will leave readers tearing through the pages. Breakout author PJ Dudek has written a captivating story that fans of Stranger Things, Terry Brooks, James Islington, and Brandon Sanderson are sure to love!


slideshow image
A gripping time-travel tale set on a pirate ship in 1727 and in the gaslit streets of the Prohibition.


slideshow image
A demon seeks to destroy all. Can she stop him?


slideshow image
Two restless souls, one wild Christmas on the ranch�where sparks fly, and dreams ride free.


slideshow image
From jilted bride to fake-fianc�e: falling for the bad boy was not part of the plan!


Excerpt of The Return Of Black Douglas by Elaine Coffman

Purchase


Mackinnon-Douglas #2
Sourcebooks Casablanca
April 2011
On Sale: April 5, 2011
Featuring: Isobella Douglas; Sir James, the Black Douglas; Alysandir Mackinnon
419 pages
ISBN: 1402250746
EAN: 9781402250743
Kindle: B004MMEG52
Mass Market Paperback / e-Book
Add to Wish List

Romance Time Travel, Romance Historical

Also by Elaine Coffman:

Lord Of The Black Isle, June 2012
Paperback / e-Book
The Return Of Black Douglas, April 2011
Mass Market Paperback / e-Book
Alone in the Dark, October 2006
Paperback
By Fire and by Sword, April 2006
Paperback
The Highlander, January 2006
Paperback (reprint)
The Italian, January 2006
Paperback (reprint)
The Fifth Daughter, January 2006
Paperback (reprint)
The Bride of Black Douglas, January 2006
Paperback (reprint)
Let Me Be Your Hero, November 2004
Mass Market Paperback
Santa Baby, October 2002
Paperback
Fifth Daughter, November 2001
Mass Market Paperback
For All The Right Reasons, October 1998
Mass Market Paperback
Someone Like You, June 1998
Mass Market Paperback
'Tis The Season, November 1997
Paperback
Seeing Fireworks, July 1997
Paperback
If You Love Me, March 1997
Mass Market Paperback
Outlaw Brides, May 1996
Paperback
When Love Comes Along, November 1995
Paperback
Midsummer Night's Madness, July 1995
Paperback
A Time For Roses, December 1994
Mass Market Paperback
Heaven Knows, March 1994
Mass Market Paperback
So This Is Love, June 1993
Mass Market Paperback
Somewhere Along The Way, August 1992
Mass Market Paperback
Angel In Marble, February 1991
Mass Market Paperback
Escape Not My Love, February 1990
Mass Market Paperback
If My Love Could Hold You, April 1989
Mass Market Paperback
My Enemy, My Love, September 1988
Mass Market Paperback

Excerpt of The Return Of Black Douglas by Elaine Coffman

ISLE OF MULL, SCOTLAND, 1515

Isobella floated in a painless world, thinking she was dead and expecting her first peek of Heaven. Until she caught a glimpse of Elisabeth. Isobella frowned, feeling a bit fuzzyheaded and not certain about anything other than the fact that she did not appear to be dead. Well, that was something positive, at least. After enduring Elisabeth’s fierce glare for a few seconds, Isobella did manage a weak, "What?"

Elisabeth’s green eyes were full of fire. "What happened? I feel like I’ve been thrown out of a rocket traveling a million miles an hour." With a bewildered expression, she paused to look around. "

"Are we in hell?" Isobella asked.

"Try again," Elisabeth said.

Isobella looked around. "I’d say we’re in the middle of nowhere."

"Good guess, but we might get a better answer from that specter of malevolence hovering over there."

Isobella turned her head and saw a vaporous glowing light taking solid shape. She recognized him immediately. "Did you send us through a vacuum that sucked us up and dropped us here?" she asked angrily, though still a little awed that she was talking to the greatest warrior in Scottish history. Are we still in Scotland and if so, where?"

"Aye, ye are in Scotland, on the Isle of Mull."

"And you brought us here for a reason?"

"Aye," he said with a nod. "As bidden."

"But we didn’t." Bidden? A nice, Middle English word, she thought, but not often used in the present time. "Ah, you mean because I cried back at St. Bride’s when we visited your crypt?"

"Aye, yer tears reached out across the centuries to summon me. I might have been a mighty knight in the service of my king, but a woman’s tears were ere my undoing."

Isobella could well believe that, but she didn’t get to think upon it further, due to Elisabeth’s persistent rib jabbing, which she ignored. How could she explain this was truly the archaeological opportunity of a lifetime? Instead of digging through ruins for answers, she had her own personal history book in the flesh, so to speak. There he stood, a real, bona fide knight-errant, right out of Medieval Scotland’s romantic past, wearing the clothes of his knighthood; chausses and a mail tunic called a hauberk, and a light blue tunic, belted low about the hips. He was a handsome man, not overly tall by twenty-first century standards, but tall for the fourteenth century male, slender with well-developed muscles, dark blue eyes and hair of the blackest black. The legendary Black Douglas was a medieval heartbreaker if she ever saw one.

It was all so terribly romantic, at least to Isobella, and she thought it divine good fortune that she was here. For a moment, her mind wandered off to think about what her contemporaries would give for an opportunity like this. Her sister, on the other hand, could not be charmed if Jude Law and Orlando Bloom were standing in front of them, with Patrick Dempsey and Johnny Depp as backup.

Elisabeth suddenly found her voice. "Are you really Black Douglas? No, never mind. Don’t answer that. It isn’t possible, she said, her tone one of pure disbelief. "You cannot be a ghost because ghosts don’t exist." She put her hand to her forehead and looked around, as if searching for help. "I don’t believe this is happening. It’s impossible. When people die, they stay dead."

"And yet I am here. Do ye have a better explanation?"

"All right, if you are a ghost, then undo this mischief. Take us back to our car."

Isobella took a deep breath and glanced tentatively around the narrow glen. It was a level stretch of ground, rising to a slope at one end, rocky and choked with boulders, dropping away to a ravine or gorge, or whatever they called it in these parts, for she could see the dark brown ridge of a mountain rising some distance beyond it. The rest of the glen was lined with a thin stand of larch trees and a thick tangle of briars that gradually thinned behind them to reveal an open moor. "Thank you for this little excursion to Mull, but we really need to go now. We must find a town to rent another car. We are flying home in a few days and have many places to see, but Mull isn’t one of them."

"We have no cars, buses or airplanes."

Slack-jawed, the twins stared at each other, then at him. Elisabeth threw up her arms in exasperation. "So, send us to Beloyn so we can get our car."

"I canna do that today," Douglas said.

"You mean we have to wait until tomorrow?" Isobella asked.

Douglas shrugged. "’Twill be no different tomorrow."

"Then when can we go back?" Elisabeth asked.

"Who knows? Mayhap never. Mayhap when the spirit moves me."

"What kind of answer is that?"

"Never mind that," Elisabeth said turning back to Black Douglas. "I did not ask to come here. Why did you bring me? Isobella put her hand on your effigy, not I! You had no right to drag me along."

‘Tis no fault of mine that ye managed to stick like a leech to yer sister, and now ye are here."

"Stick like a . . . listen, you vacuous vapor, I had nothing to do with this. I only came on this trip to keep her company. It seems to me you are the one at fault here. So, tell us how we get out of here."

He looked around. "Weel, you could go that way," he said pointing to his right. "Or you might try that way," he said, pointing to his left. "Or mayhap ye should go both ways," he said, crossing his arm over his chest and pointing in both directions.

Elisabeth threw up her hands. "I would like a straight answer for a change. One that makes sense."

"Let’s back up for a minute," Isobella said. "Where can we rent a car, or catch a bus?"

"Ye willna find those things here," he said.

"Why not?" Isobella asked.

His expression was rather mischievous. Isobella thought, finally they were getting somewhere. Then he said, "Ye are in sixteenth century Scotland, and we havena cars or buses."

Isobella gasped. "You mean the sixteenth century? The Early Renaissance period? Oh, Lord! What are we going to do?" She turned to Elisabeth. "Do you realize what this means? We have traveled back six hundred years to the beginning of the Renaissance."

"All I am thinking right now is how much I would love to punch you, flat out."

Isobella ignored her and turned back to Douglas. "Is Henry VIII King of England?"

"Aye."

"I knew it! Isobella, fairly jumping around, was thrilled and dumbfounded at the same time. One rational thought managed to slip through and she smiled. "I guess that’s one way to get rid of Jackson. He hasn’t even been born yet."

Elisabeth was not looking very happy and obviously didn’t give a flip whether Jackson had been born or not. "You’re jesting, right? This really isn’t the sixteenth century, is it?"

"Aye, ‘tis the year 1515."

"Who is the king of Scotland?" Elisabeth asked, her brows knit with serious intensity. Isobella gave her an astonished look. Elisabeth wouldn’t know the correct answer if it was written down on a piece of paper and given to her. Isobella had to think hard for a moment before deciding that was when King James V, was just a babe.

"‘Tis the infant King James," he replied.

"Why did you bring us to Mull?" Isobella asked.

"Ye are here because ye asked to be."

Isobella shook her head. "I never asked to come here. Why would you say that?"

She saw a spark of amusement in the blue depth of his eyes. "Ye will understand when the time is ripe."

They were interrupted by the animated sounds of rolling chaos that suddenly filled the air around them. They listened to the clamor of clanging swords and shouts of warring men. "I think we better stop talking and start praying," Isobella said, looking over Elisabeth’s shoulder to stare at the warring knights.

"I hope they are friends of yours," Elisabeth said, turning toward Black Douglas, "Could they be English?"

"English!" Isobella almost spat the words out. "You can’t leave us to the mercy of those English bastards!"

A smile curved across the fine mouth of Black Douglas. "That’s a lass!"

"We need more than compliments," Isobella said. "This isn’t looking so good for any of us. Well, not you perhaps, since they can’t run you through, but it‘s something we need to worry about."

Elisabeth agreed. "You’re already dead. They can’t hurt you. But, our predicament is a bit different. Are you going to take us back or just hand us over to the enemy?"

They had only a brief glimpse of his broad smile before his image began to lighten and grow dim, before it faded completely away.

Excerpt from The Return Of Black Douglas by Elaine Coffman
All rights reserved by publisher and author

© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net  all rights reserved Privacy Policy