In the Highlander’s Bed
In the Highlander’s Bed by Karen Hawkins is the last book of the Cameron Sisters Trilogy. This story is about the youngest sister, Constance. She is an independent sort of person, with definite ideas of the kind of life she would prefer to live, and though she is thwarted at every turn, she maintains her determination to live her life on her own terms. Sounds like the makings of a good read about people trying to find where they belong.
This was the better of the three, because I sympathized more with her character than I did with the elder sisters Miranda (The Price of Indiscretion), or Charlotte (In the Bed of a Duke).
Constance wants to escape the remote Scottish boarding school where her sisters dumped her to “prep” her for marriage. Her rough American ways have made her a pariah in genteel society. Go figure.
Constance couldn’t care less about making an advantageous marriage, can’t stand England or Scotland, and has concocted a plan to escape the school and head on a ship back to the frontier of the Ohio Valley, where she came from. Unfortunately, she is kidnapped instead by Gordon Lachlan, who wants to use her to trade for a politically important artifact: The Sword of the MacKenna, which is currently kept by the Duke of Colster (this happened in Book 2) his ex-clansman.
Eventually, the adventure of it all, or the adventure of Gordon, entices Constance to stay. She finds Gordon attractive. She finds him more attractive, the longer she spends in his company, the more of his character that is revealed to her with time. She switches speeds and goes from kidnapper to member of his Highland alliance force, rallying forth the “semper fi” attitude that had been lost, and transforms his ragtag group of clansmen into a unified would-be army. With her American freedom-fighter attitude and spirit, Constance wins the loyalty of the entire group.
Gordon Lachlan was a likable character when first encountered in book 2. He was educated in the law and only joined the cause against the Clearances when his father, the Magistrate, was murdered for speaking out against the practice. He is at first driven by revenge, the need to see the wrongs righted to his people, but also by the death of his father.
He is driven by this need until he kidnaps Constance. He expects her to be a submissive, pampered miss. But he finds instead a woman who can complete him and stand by his side in this time of turmoil. He resists her as long as he can, because he knows that eventually, he will have to choose to keep her, or to trade her for the legendary sword. He will either satisfy his own needs or the needs of the clan.
Maxwell does a great job of making her characters likable, and she had me rooting for Constance and Gordon from the beginning. There is a point, almost at the end, when it seems a little rushed, like the ends are just getting tied up a little too fast, and too easy, but for the most part, their story is well developed, and it’s the best one of the whole series.
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