Hannah Howell, My Lady Captor

My Lady Captor

Hannah Howell

Zebra, May 5 2009, $6.99

ISBN: 0821774301

In 1388, while the border war between England and Scotland is nasty, Lady Sorcha Hay learns her brother has been captured by English soldiers demanding a ransom. She and her clan cannot afford the price so Sorcha decides to emulate her sibling's capture by taking a soldier from the battlefield and hold him for ransom so that she can then remit the ransom for her brother.

To his chagrin wounded warrior, Ruari Kerr has never been more humiliated in his life; he has been abducted from the battlefield by a beautiful woman who explains she holds him for ransom. He is furious with himself more than with her because he finds he wants her in his bed. Meanwhile Sorcha is attracted to her prisoner and encouraged by a ghost to take Ruari to her bed. The matchmaking ghost also prevents Ruari from escaping. As his people ransom him, they fall in love, but he feels strongly she betrayed their love. Besides, his pride remains battered by a woman besting him. He tries to kidnap Sorcha, but between her ghost and her clan he fails even as the treacherous Simon Treacher manipulates both of them and their respective allies for his gain.

Writeen as Anna Jennet in the mid 1990s, MY LADY CAPTOR is an entertaining fourteenth century border war romance. The lead couple is a delightful pairing as a desperate Sorcha humiliates macho warrior Ruari as he cannot accept a beautiful woman defeated him even if he was wounded when she caught him. Worse in his mind is while her prisoner he wanted her and liberated still does. Ruari learns the hard way (no pun intended) "Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall" (King James Bible). Readers will appreciate this amusing well written tale of medieval love.

Harriet Klausner