It was obviously meant as the ultimate form of degradation, the stripping away of any standing in the kingship sweepstakes. Over the previous several decades there had been so many claimants to the Scottish throne, with varied and unquantifiable bits of chits that this and that faction put into the balance to decide who should be given the crown. Thus, for J...
"How many men did you say?" "More than twenty-thousand, the Bruce told us. Edward himself at the lead. They crossed into Scotland two weeks ago. They are camped not more than five miles from the ford now." "And how many Scots?" James Young asked. He could not settle down. He was pacing about the tent of his liege lord, John Douglas, at the Scot's encampmen...
"They are still going to be there in the morning, Willy. Come back to the bed." "Do you think that Roxburgh can be saved if I just walk out there and surrender to them?" the young William Howard mused. It was the year 1314 in the northeast of Scotland, and Robert the Bruce had been king of Scots for eight years. He had been using that time to cajole or bur...
Robert the Bruce's forces came upon the castle at Ayr so quietly and unexpectedly that Sir Thomas Howard was caught completely off guard. The Scottish warrior was known to be roaming the east coast of Scotland in the late summer of 1297, looking for targets of opportunity to reduce the English strongholds in Scotland and to enhance his reputation as a leader...
[This is a completed, seven chapter, novella that will post by early November, 2019.] Thomas Howard, master of Castle Ayr, was having difficulty focusing his attention on his unusual—and very, very secret—guest at banquet, Robert deBruce. Sir Thomas's "problem" was the charms of the troubadour, Geoffrey, who deBruce had brought with him from Ireland. Geoffr...
Nearly every college fraternity house on the North American continent has one. At some it's a cook or a cleaner or a coed at the college—or a townie slut from across the tracks. In some it's the cougar mother of a frat brother whose family lives in town and who only was rushed by the fraternity because his mother was half-decent looking and put out like a ra...
I felt more than a little pissed off at this Scottish guy. Who the hell did he think he was? I asked my friend and he said that he wouldn't be here long; they were just waiting for a good excuse to get rid of him as everyone was tired of his attitude. However he was a great brawler, good looking and charming in a rogue's way, so it seemed to be buying him ti...
(also known as horny_dad or lexxjld on some sites) Dave hitched his rather small towel more tightly round his waist and made his way carefully across the large steamy room. The floor was slippery, and his bare feet on the wet concrete gave him little grip. He had found breathing in the hot damp atmosphere quite difficult at first, but after resting for a wh...
Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens on a Friday in August. It is the hugely popular Edinburgh International Festival and the alternative Fringe Festival where the city tries to accommodate vast numbers of tourists for a month-long festival of music, drama and art. It was a sunny day, something quite rare in Scotland and I was sitting on a park bench, close...
Raindrops were beginning to splatter against the windshield and distant thunder promised more bombast as I reached a Y in the road I hadn't expected and was forced, in view of the lights bearing down on me from a vehicle somewhere in back and near to me, to make a decision. "Take the high road" wafted through my brain. I had no idea why I had remembered that...