A Cruel Courtship [signed] [first edition]

It is Scotland, 1297. In the weeks leading up to the Battle of Stirling Bridge, Margaret Kerr takes up residence in Stirling town. She has come to discover why the informer who has been providing Wallace and Murray with details of the English plans has become unreliable. Although fearful that she may have inherited her mother's visionary gift and curse, and estranged from her husband, Roger, she is as determined as ever to play her part in saving Scotland from the hammer of Edward Longshanks - King of England and would-be King of the Scots. She has accepted the undertaking at the request of James Comyn, kinsman of the deposed Scottish king, John Balliol. It is an important and difficult mission, for who holds Stirling Castle holds Scotland, and with fresh English recruits marching forth, a battle for the castle is imminent. But Margaret's loyalty to the cause is severely tested when Roger is killed. Now her spying role is doubly dangerous...