PREORDER - To Tame a Highland Laird: Keeper of Secrets IV

*Note: This is a PREORDER - Release date is 30 April 2027.

When you purchase this product from Elina's store, you will receive a confirmation email from Payhip and BookFunnel. On the release date, a book link and ePub file will be sent to your email address. You can then download the ebook direct to your reading device.

Click here to preorder from retailers.

Heather Boyd has always been invisible. She has no talent for sewing, no patience for suitors, and a head full of granary counts, old texts and battle strategy. Then she translates a set of runes nobody has read in over a hundred years, discovers an ancient relic and uncovers a deadly secret.

Suddenly there is a price on her head and she is certainly not invisible anymore.

But she never asked to be sent to the MacDonalds for safekeeping, and she certainly never asked for their overbearing laird to shadow her every waking step like an oversized brute.

Laird Ruadh MacDonald has led men into battle, held a keep against siege, and buried enemies who deserved worse. His word is law and very few dare to defy him. What he has never done is spend six months babysitting a woman who questions every order he gives.

It is unheard of. It is intolerable.

It is also unbearable especially when she turns out to be right.

Can a bookish lass with a blade, and the most infuriating laird in the Highlands, break a hundred-year-old curse before it breaks them?

TROPES: Enemies to Lovers, Forced Proximity, Grumpy Alpha Laird, Ancient mystery, Romantic Suspense, Scottish Medieval Highland Romance.

Mature Content. NO cheating. NO cliffhangers. HEA.

Excerpt ©2026 Elina Emerald

Heather Boyd could not believe her rotten luck. Hanging upside down on the back of a stranger's horse, she cursed the day she was ever born a Boyd. After six months of having to live in another's Keep and be bossed about by an overbearing brute of a MacDonald laird, she'd finally been allowed to return home. Feeling freedom for the first time in months she'd snuck out of Boyd Keep meeting with old friends from the village, only to get bloody kidnapped along the way! Could the gods not cut her a break?

The blood rushing to her head made thinking difficult, but not impossible. Her captors, three rough men, had been careless enough to bind her hands in front rather than behind her back. A mistake Ruadh would never have made. The thought of the MacDonald laird brought both irritation and an odd sense of longing. For all his bullheadedness, the man was not foolish.

"She's awake again," grunted her captor. "Give her another tap if ye must."

"Touch me again and you'll lose those fingers," Heather spat, twisting her body to try and see their faces.

The men laughed, a sound that sent cold trickles of fear down her spine despite her bravado.

"Spirited, this one," said another voice, deeper and more commanding. "I can see why Ruadh MacDonald wants her back."

Heather went still. "What has Ruadh to do with this?"

The leader laughed again. "Everything, lass. Why else would we capture a Boyd? Your brother hasn't two coins to rub together after the poor harvest. But the MacDonald, now there's a laird with gold to spare."

Heather's mind whirled. These men thought Ruadh would pay for her return? The very idea was absurd. They'd done nothing but clash from sunrise to sunset during her entire stay. Ruadh MacDonald had been relieved to be rid of her. She’d even overheard him refer to her as a hoyden and woman he would never marry. The blatant rejection had stung at the time, but on reflection she could not blame him. She was extremely unruly and Ruadh preferred weak-willed, submissive women. The complete opposite.

"You're fools if you think the MacDonald laird will pay a single coin for me," she said.

"We'll see about that," the leader replied. "Word has it he's halfway to mad with worry already. Our man at Boyd Keep says he's gathering his warriors."

Heather frowned in confusion. There was a spy at Boyd Keep? And Ruadh was coming for her? The thought brought both comfort and annoyance. Even now, he was trying to control her fate. Annoying man!

She flexed her wrists subtly, testing the ropes. Then she smiled to herself. The monk who had trained her in secret had taught her more than just combat. Brother Aidan had spent countless hours showing her how to escape bindings, insisting that a warrior's mind was as important as their strength.

These ropes would give way eventually. And when they did, her captors would learn that capturing her had been their gravest mistake.

*****

Ruadh rode at the head of thirty of his best warriors, his jaw set in grim determination. The trail was clear enough. Five riders heading northeast toward the wild country that gave way to dense forest. Territory where clan boundaries blurred and mercenaries found refuge.

"They're moving slowly," Gunnar observed, pointing to the tracks.

"Perhaps they want us to follow," Ruadh replied grimly. "Could be a trap."

As they crested a hill, Ruadh raised his hand for the party to stop. In the valley below, a thin column of smoke rose from what appeared to be a small camp. Too obvious, too careless for experienced outlaws.

"They're waiting for us," he muttered.

"What's the plan, chief?" Gunnar asked.

Ruadh studied the terrain, mind racing through possibilities. If these men wanted ransom, they needed Heather alive. That gave him leverage. But if they were using her as bait for a larger ambush...

"We split," he decided. "Ten men with me approach directly. The rest circle wide with you, Gunnar, and come up from behind. If there are more men waiting, you'll find them."

As the warriors separated, Ruadh felt an unfamiliar tightness in his chest. In countless battles, he'd never felt this burning need to succeed that went beyond duty or honor.

The realization hit him then. Somehow, without his noticing, the infuriating Boyd woman had become important to him. More than important.

"Hold on, lass," he whispered to the wind. "I'm coming."

*****