A Blast to the Past
A Blast to the Past by Virginia Farmer is a time travel romance set in the time of William Wallace...Scotland 1301.
Brian Skelley is a US Navy explosives technician who is working in Scotland as part of an exchange programme. He is nearing the end of his stay in Scotland and is looking forward to returning to the US and a promotion.
However fate has other plans when an unusual bomb found on a training exercise sends him catapulting into the past.
Waking in the castle of Caira Mackenzie, Brian does not know where he is and does not believe that he is in the early 14th century even though that is what everyone he asks tells him. But before long he cannot deny that he has travelled into the past and to the dangerous era where William Wallace is alive and well and the Scots are at the mercy of the English.
Malcolm and Callum do not know who the man they have found, unconscious and dressed in strange clothes is. But they do know that he needs help and as such they take him home with them to Castle Kilbeinn and Caira Mackenzie.
Caira is a woman who lives in fear of the English discovering her secret. For she is the Laird of the clan. A young widow who has recently lost her father she is determined that the English will not force her to wed one of their lords. So with the help of her loyal clan she keeps up the pretence that her father still lives but is conveniently unavailable whenever visitors call.
Caira knows that her position is precarious. Her father had signed a neutrality agreement with the English but she does not know if they will honour it. More and more they are pushing the boundaries of the agreement and all the fighters of the clan have long since left to fight for Scotland with other clans. All that remains are the old men (like Malcolm and Callum) and the young boys.
Malcolm and Callum are equally aware that the clan is in a dangerous position. They also believe that Caira takes too much upon herself and that the best thing she can do is take a husband. And what better choice but the mysterious Skelley who they are convinced is a fighter with William Wallace, despite his constantly denying the fact.
Brian soon finds that he is trapped in the past and believes that the only thing that can send him back in time is another bomb blast. But how to get the same effect in 1301...he will have to make the black powder explosive himself.
But the longer he stays in the past trying to find a way to duplicate the powder that will send him home again the more he comes to realise that the clan is in danger and there may be another use for his powder. But he is torn as to how much, if anything, he should tell the clan about the explosive powder, it has not been invented yet and he does not know if he should alter history by giving the secret of the explosives to the people of Scotland and risk altering the course of history entirely.
The other dilemma he is soon facing is whether he even wants to return to the future. He finds himself more and more at home in the past and more and more attracted to the strong-willed and caring Caira Mackenzie.
A delightful tale of a man trapped in the past and a woman whose life is built on a deception and just what can happen when two matchmaking old men put their heads together and decide that the two of them would be perfect together.
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Also by Virginia Farmer: Sixpence Bride and Spenceworth Bride.
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