The Loveless Marriage

After centuries of violence between the feuding McBrara and MacSteel clans in the Scottish Highlands, a fragile peace is about to break into a new war when the one of the MacSteels’ shepherds is murdered by the McBraras.
In a desperate attempt to avoid further bloodshed before the imminent visit of the English King George, the Laird of the MacSteels proposes that they unite the clans with a marriage — and the Earl of Braradale agrees.
And so the Laird’s daughter, the elfin young beauty Fyna, is obliged to marry a man she has never met — the Earl of Braradale himself.
For his part, the Earl is dreading the marriage, imagining that she will be “pious and heavily built”, while for her part Fyna too dreads a loveless union with a man she doesn’t love and who will look down her as his inferior.
As the two clans celebrate their wedding the reluctant bride and groom begin to become acquainted and from the start, both are pleasantly surprised to find that they have much in common — but it is only when the life of her new husband is imperilled by her murderous cousin Hamish that Fyna realises that she has fallen in love.