Title: Keeper of My Dreams
Author: Susan Leigh Furlong
Genre: Historical Adventure Romance
Book Blurb:
Reid Haliburton, a skilled gunsmith, wants to control who uses his revolutionary handgun until a vicious pirate decides the gun will be his. The price of refusing is Reid’s life and those of his three young sons. Reid’s only chance to save his sons is to send them away and face the pirate’s wrath alone.
Leena Cullane Adair is stunned to find three lads hiding in her cart, and, although she only met their father a week ago, he holds her heart and her dreams, and she will do whatever it takes to keep him and his sons alive.
Excerpt:
Reid rescues an injured monk, Thaddeus, from a ledge on a cliff with the help of Leena’s brothers and his young sons.
Thaddeus moaned as Reid lifted him onto the blanket and wrapped it around him, leaving his arms free, the sticky blood on his robe now soaking into the blanket. “Can you put your arms around my neck and hold on?”
“My right arm is useless, but I’ll hold on to ye as tight as I do to the cross.”
Reid stood and shifted Thaddeus’s weight until the man balanced evenly across his chest and shoulder. He tied the rope around them both before he called out, “Ready?”
“Here we go!” shouted Taran. “Pull with all ye got! Hendrie, start the mule to moving. Dinna let the rope slide off his harness.”
Hendrie, sitting on the mule’s back, kicked his feet, and the mule started moving forward.
Bracing his feet against the rock, Reid held tight. The palms of his hands bled against the rubbing of the rope as he moved upward, but he never loosened his grip. Sweat broke out on his forehead from the effort as he was determined not to let his own injuries stop him.
“Dinna look down, Reid,” called Taran.
“I already have. How do ye think I got down here? Pull harder,…a’dhunine!” (ScotsGaelic for “man.” These two rivals use it as an insult.)
Gradually, Reid’s head appeared over the edge of the ridge, followed by his chest. Then Thaddeus and finally Reid’s feet were safe on top. Taran and Leena untied the monk from Reid and laid him gently on the ground. Once free of his burden, Reid pressed his hands under his arms and took in deep breaths as his body relaxed from the exertion.
Quickly, Taran and Leena unwrapped the blanket and examined the monk’s wounds. The bones in his shoulder had crumbled to broken pebbles, so she would have to immobilize it. He winced as Leena gently pressed her fingers along his chest.
“Broken ribs,” she said. “Get my saddle bag, Ramy. I’ll stitch this gash on his chest. Hendrie, bring the canteens so I can wash the wound first.”
As Leena went about her work, Taran said to Reid, “Help me check that Dillon’s broken leg is in the proper place. Leena did the best she could, but she’s ne’er done it afore. Then we can brace it with wood and wrap it. If we dinna, he’ll ne’er walk straight again.”
As the men came back toward Dillon’s carrying rig, Taran asked, “Are ye going to be all right?”
Reid nodded.
“Have ye ever set a leg afore?”
“Why do ye think me a fool all the time? I’ve done it on bigger men than yer brother. No wonder Leena says ye’re a mumblecrust.”
“She doesna say that,” protested Taran.
“She ought to.”
By the time Reid and Taran had finished setting Dillon’s leg, both Cullane brothers had gained a new found respect for the gunsmith, despite his having brought all this trouble to them.
After the men laid Thaddeus on the wheelrim cot with Dillon, Leena reached out for Reid’s hands. “Let me look at them.”
He held out two hands with dried blood covering the fingers and palms from gripping the rope.
“I can tend to those.”
“I’d appreciate it.”
With the gentleness of a great healer, Leena washed away the blood, applied salve, and wrapped both hands with strips of cloth torn from the checkered material she’d bought for the tablecloths for Marta, the cook. When she finished, he held up his red and white covered hands.
“I’m sorry you had to waste the cloth on me,” he said.
“Marta will understand. Do they pain ye much?”
“Nay,” he lied.
“Ye were verra brave when we lowered ye down the cliff.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Only a lunatic without his senses wouldna be afeared. If ye dinna think me afeared, ye must no’ think me much of a man. ’Twas a long way down.”
“Ye didna show it.”
“Fear is an odd thing. When the men were beating me in the shop, I wasna afeared. I kenned I could take it. I just hoped they didna kill me, but when my lads showed up, fear nearly swallowed me. And when I lay in bed until yer brother came, I was sick with fear that they hadna hidden in yer cart. Now that Hendrie and Ramy are safe with ye, I have fear in my soul for Willie.”
“ ’Tis because ye love them. Love and fear tangle up in each other.”
He looked away for a moment, and then turned back. He had to tell her what he felt. If he did, she might forgive him. “And I feared…I feared I ne’er see ye again.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
Universal Link: https://books2read.com/u/4Xroj7
Amazon CA: https://amzn.to/3WAtfv5
What’s your favorite way to combat stress?
Our house backs up to some woods. Relaxing on the deck, watching the birds fly above and the squirrels leaping from branch to branch, along with several deep breaths, send peace back into my soul.
Why is your featured book a stress busting read?
Family is always at the center of my stories. Leena and her brothers with Reid and his young sons go through some serious troubles, but they never lose the love that binds them. If you are looking for a story about strong bonds of family and love that perseveres through all odds, Keeper of My Dreams will be the one.
Giveaway –
One lucky reader will win a $75 Amazon US or Canada gift card
Open internationally. You must have a valid Amazon US or Amazon CA account to win.
Runs May 1 – 31, 2023.
Drawing will be held on June 1, 2023.
Author Biography:
Like most writers, Susan Leigh Furlong began her career early. She wrote, produced, and directed her first play when she was nine. It was a tragic love story set in Japan inspired by the gift of a kimono.
Her love for history fuels her resilience against the sneezes and coughs that old books give her as she delves into research for unique historical events to inspire her historical fiction romance novels She captures her readers’ imagination with a highly enthralling style, chronological events, and smoothly flowing narratives that keep one’s eyes glued on her novels from the first page to the last.
Her first three books published by The Wild Rose Press are about a family living in the Scottish Highlands in the sixteenth century. Her most recent novel takes place during the American Revolution, the same family but across the pond. She also has two non-fiction books filled with over 200 photographs and tales about her home town.
When she is not researching and creating her stories, she writes, directs, and performs with a music and drama group.
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