Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 92771 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92771 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Shade is a dedicated healer focused solely on gaining as much knowledge as possible to help those suffering and in need. Living in the heart of the woods, people come from all around to seek her help. Consumed with her work, she has had no time to find a husband and at twenty and six years most believe she is past her prime. She tells herself to pay no heed to gossiping tongues but when she is alone at night she wonders if solitude will continue to be her only companion.
Quint arrives at her cottage one day with a wound that needs her skills. It is obvious that he is a seasoned warrior, various healed scars on his body attesting to it. His injury requires him to remain at her cottage for at least a few days and she finds she quite enjoys having him there. It does not take long for her to find what she never thought she would or for Quint to rediscover what he lost… love.
But Quint is harboring a secret, one that could possibly destroy the happiness both have finally found. When Shade receives a desperate message from her best friend at Clan MacLeish for help, she has no choice but to go. Quint refuses to let her make the journey alone and unprotected, and he refuses to lose her. So, they wed.
Surprise and shock fill Shade’s wedding day when she discovers Quint’s true identity. He is the ruthless warrior known as The Monk and he is on a mission of revenge. He will not rest until he slaughters everyone responsible, whoever they may be.
What Quint does not know is that Shade is one of those people.
Will revenge or love triumph in this battle?
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
CHAPTER 1
Shade approached the slight rise wishing she had taken a different path home, but with the gray skies promising rain, she wanted to get home as quickly as possible. And this was the fastest way. It wasn’t that she feared taking this path. It was that it broke her heart every time she came this way and was reminded of the tragedy.
A slow gait would not help. It was better to hasten her pace and be done with it. Walk right past it, but as usual she couldn’t. As soon as the abbey came into view, she knew she could not avoid it, go past it as if it didn’t exist, or ignore the memories that rushed at her.
It was a small abbey and it had been shuttered for several years until about two years ago, when eight monks arrived and took residence. They had kept their distance from her, claiming she was no healer and suggesting she was possibly a witch because her healing skills came from the old ways of the Highlands. But one monk thought differently, Brother Emmett. He had come to her cottage and requested her help in identifying Highland plants and learning their properties. She was surprised and a bit skeptical, but she obliged him. Over time, they became friends and would meet in the woods, where she would teach him about the plants.
Shade stopped in front of the abbey, something she would not have considered doing if the monks were there. But no monks were in residence and the abbey was once again shuttered. The area folk wondered if any monks would ever occupy the abbey again after the tragedy that took place there. A tragedy that began with the arrival of a new monk.
Brother Emmett had confided in her about the man, not truly a monk, but more a man in need of help. She recalled him telling her that he was a troubled soul with much anger raging in him. He had been a fierce warrior whose wife had been murdered by renegades while he was away, called to battle. He hunted the men down and made them pay for what they had done to her. Unfortunately, his revenge brought him no peace and he joined the monks hoping to find it.
Regrettably, he only found more rage.
Shade walked over to the spot that marked the graves with wood crosses, eight in all.
It was said that one day the warrior monk returned from hunting to find every one of the monks slaughtered. However, most believe that the warrior monk suffered a fit of rage and killed every one of them. He buried the monks along with the help of some of the farmers in the area, never speaking a word as he did. He left after that with some saying he swore revenge against those who took the monks’ lives. While others said the fierce warrior in him emerged and his thirst for blood was too great to ignore and he returned to his old life. Whatever had happened, he now killed for coins, and you better have plenty of them if you wanted to hire The Monk.
Shade believed the tale had grown from its first telling and that the truth lay somewhere within it. Either way, she missed her friend Brother Emmett. He was a kind soul, and he honestly believed that there was a goodness to the man now known as The Monk. She liked to believe he was right.
Shade continued walking, recalling with fondness the times she had spent with Brother Emmett. He had been a man of at least thirty-odd years, shorter than her by a head and with one shoulder lower than the other due to an accident when he was young. He had told her that was why he was so interested in healing. He hoped to discover ways to heal such injuries and save others from endless suffering.
She had suggested that a broken bone that wasn’t set correctly was probably the reason for his shoulder not allowing the bone to heal properly, causing the droop to his shoulder. Brother Emmett was curious about her suggestion, and they often discussed broken bones and how they should be tended to. She missed her conversations with him and the times they spent together had provided something she lacked in her life, a bond of friendship. Her heart had ached when she heard of his death. He would have made an excellent healer, and she continued to miss him as she missed her best friend, Ula.
They had been friends since they were young. Ula had met and fallen in love with a fine man from Clan MacLeish and wed him. While she was happy for her friend, her heart had ached the day she had left to go begin her married life with her husband Caleb at Clan MacLeish. It was a full day’s ride there, which meant they would see little of each other. Though Shade had given her word that she would be there for Ula when she delivered her first bairn. That had been at least six moon cycles ago and she had yet to hear from her. And with tongues wagging about an imminent battle between Clan MacLeish and Clan Glencairn, she was worried about her friend.