Rose Red Bride By Claire Delacroix

Following up "The Beauty Bride," this second title in Delacroix's trilogy about the three sisters of Alexander, Laird of Kinfairlie in medieval Scotland, finds Alexander arranging the abduction of stubborn Vivienne to guarantee a marriage for her. Original Table Of Contents: Read an Excerpt The Rose Red Bride By Claire Delacroix Warner Books Copyright © 2005 Claire Delacroix, Inc. All right reserved. ISBN: 0-446-61442-4 Chapter One Kinfairlie, on the east coast of Scotland August 1421 ALEXANDER CONGRATULATED HIMSELF upon a matter well concluded. Although the marriage of his eldest sister Madeline had not begun auspiciously, his solution had ultimately proven to be a good one. Just as he had predicted, Madeline was wedded and happily so, all the more content for the babe already rounding her belly. Though Alexander had not located Rhys FitzHenry by any conventional means of matchmaking, the man who had bought Madeline's hand at auction had proven to be an excellent spouse. All had ended well, and Alexander was inclined to grant himself credit for that happy fact. A man had to find encouragement where he could. There was little else that stood to Alexander's credit at Kinfairlie and he often felt overwhelmed by the burden of his hereditary holding. Alexander stared out the window at Kinfairlie's fields, frowning that they were not more lushly green. The crop was slightly better than his castellan had predicted, but not sufficiently abundant. Though his sister Madeline was wedded, his brother Malcolm was training at Ravensmuir, and his other brother Ross was training at Inverfyre, there remained four unwed sisters for whom Alexander was responsible. The castellan had been firm in his counsel that there must be fewer mouths at the board for the winter. The fields offered a telling reminder. Alexander would still have to see his sister Vivienne, the next eldest after Madeline, married before the snow flew. Sadly, Vivienne was not proving to be any e