THE WHIRLPOOLS OF TIME by Anna Belfrage - Excerpt - "Exciting"
Enjoy a glimpse into Anna Belfrage's time-travel Scottish romance, The Whirlpools of Time.
The Whirlpools of Time
He hoped for a wife. He found a companion through time and beyond.
It is 1715 and for Duncan Melville something fundamental is missing from his life. Despite a flourishing legal practice and several close friends, he is lonely, even more so after the recent death of his father. He needs a wife—a companion through life, someone to hold and be held by. What he wasn’t expecting was to be torn away from everything he knew and find said woman in 2016…
Erin Barnes has a lot of stuff going on in her life. She doesn’t need the additional twist of a stranger in weird outdated clothes, but when he risks his life to save hers, she feels obligated to return the favour. Besides, whoever Duncan may be, she can’t exactly deny the immediate attraction.
The complications in Erin’s life explode. Events are set in motion and to Erin’s horror she and Duncan are thrown back to 1715. Not only does Erin have to cope with a different and intimidating world, soon enough she and Duncan are embroiled in a dangerous quest for Duncan’s uncle, a quest that may very well cost them their lives as they travel through a Scotland poised on the brink of rebellion.
Will they find Duncan’s uncle in time? And is the door to the future permanently closed, or will Erin find a way back?
Enjoy an Excerpt from
The Whirlpools of Time
He had thought he dreamt her, but when he woke she was still there, smiling at him. He managed to smile back, no matter that it hurt to do so. She fiddled with her hair, a mass of curls the colour of rich maple syrup. Lovely skin, he thought fuzzily, a shade or so lighter than her hair. And her eyes…Green, he decided, yes, a golden green. Lovely eyes. He licked his lips. Lovely eyes, lovely skin, lovely hair, lovely lady. Erin, he reminded himself, her name was Erin.
“Good morning,” she said.
“Miss Barnes.” He gave her a nod.
“Erin. Miss Barnes makes me sound like some old schoolteacher.” It made him smile: the notion of a female teacher was utterly ludicrous.
“And you are not a schoolteacher?” There was a small scar just to the left of her cupid’s bow and he wondered what had caused it.
“Me?” She laughed. “No way.” She leaned forward and her round bosoms brushed his arm. “The police want to talk to you.”
“Police?” he croaked, staring at how her pulse jumped in the hollow of her throat. What might that be?
“You need to make a statement.”
Statement? A strand of her hair tickled his skin and he suppressed the desire to wind it round his finger. This close, her hair was a mass of colours, from that deep syrupy colour to a golden honey.
“They want your version of events,” she continued, lowering her voice. She glanced towards the door and leaned that much closer. “Don’t mention the sword, okay? I think it might complicate things.”
He almost laughed. Best not complicate matters more than they already were.
“Why?”
“Why what?” Her breath caressed his cheek, and this up close he could see a smattering of dark freckles on her nose.
“Why do they need a…a…statement?” She smelled of something sweet, a discreet fragrance that had him thinking of warm evenings under blossoming apple trees.
“Because they can’t take my word for it.”
“No?” He struggled to sit. “Why not?”
She sighed. “They need someone else to corroborate what happened.”
“Ah.” He mulled this over, concluding that the police must be the equivalent of the constables in his time. “And—”
“Awake?” someone said. A large man entered the room. “What are you doing here?” he asked Erin.
“Visiting.” She stood.
“Don’t go!” Duncan tried to take her hand.
“Dylan here wants to talk to you alone.” Erin smiled at him. “I’ll be back as soon as he’s gone.”
Duncan followed her out of the room with his gaze before turning his attention to the man now seated beside him.
“I’m Dylan Clarkson.” He held up something. Duncan peered at the displayed document. A depiction of this Dylan, stating he was a Maryland Police Officer.
“Duncan,” Duncan said. “Duncan Melville.”
“And you’re from where?”
Duncan gave him a helpless look. “No notion. I cannot recall much more than my name and that terrible lightning storm.” He shivered.
“Hmm,” Clarkson said, scribbling something in his notebook. No quill, Duncan noted, instead an implement that looked like a pencil of sorts. “And this so-called attack? Do you remember anything of that?”
“I do.” Duncan straightened up, ignoring the twinge in his ribs. “Nothing so-called about it. Out of nowhere, three men appeared and attempted to abduct a young woman.”
“The young woman being Erin Barnes?”
“Aye.” She didn’t look like a Barnes. She looked like someone who should have a far more exotic name, something like Figueroa or Hernandez. He’d seen women as beautiful as her before, usually on one or other of the plantations belonging to the Jones family. Women of mixed heritage, their mother slaves, their fathers their masters or the white overseers and he knew for a fact that many of those women ended up in brothels, their beauty fading as the years and an endless line of eager men took their toll.
“Known her long?” the officer asked.
“Who?”
“Erin.”
“No. As I recall, she was helping me regain my feet at that crossroads when those rogues showed up.”
“Rogues?” The officer snickered. “So, what happened?”
It did not take long. Duncan described what had happened, omitting any mention of his sword, was somewhat taken aback when the officer scowled at him and told him to stop playing Superman. “Next time you see three men attacking a woman call 911.”
“Eh?”
“You shouldn’t interfere. Could get you killed.”
“If I hadn’t interfered, Miss Barnes—Erin—might not have been here.”
“Hmm.” Clarkson his lip. “Can you identify these men?”
“I can.” Duncan sank back against the pillows.
“Here.” Something landed in Duncan’s lap. Some sort of large book, bound in stiff covers. He opened it and almost threw it to the floor. What sort of magic was this? Page after page of grim human faces stared up at him, remarkably lifelike. He’d never seen likenesses such as these before, amazed at the detail, the colours.
“What, you’ve never seen photos before?” Clarkson asked, studying him intently.
“Of course I have,” Duncan lied, making an effort to stop staring at the glossy likenesses. “But I have never seen such a collection of unsavoury characters.”
“Yeah, because where you come from you’re all good law-abiding citizens, right?” Clarkson sneered.
“I don’t remember where I come from,” Duncan snapped, congratulating himself on not having walked into that trap. He turned the pages, transfixed by all these faces. A nasty lot, truth be told. Unsmiling faces, men whose features spoke of a capacity for violence. He turned one more page and there was one of the men.
“This one,” he said. “He was there.” He found the other two a couple of pages further in. The constable—no, police officer—sighed, wrote some more and reclaimed the large book.
“Thanks, you really made my day,” he muttered as he made for the door.
End of Excerpt.
Excerpt Copyright (c) Anna Belfrage. Shared with permission.
The Author
Had Anna Belfrage been allowed to choose, she’d have become a time-traveller. As this was impossible, she became a financial professional with two absorbing interests: history and writing. Anna has authored the acclaimed time travelling series The Graham Saga, set in 17th century Scotland and Maryland, as well as the equally acclaimed medieval series The King’s Greatest Enemy which is set in 14th century England.
More recently, Anna has published The Wanderer, a fast-paced contemporary romantic suspense trilogy with paranormal and time-slip ingredients. While she loved stepping out of her comfort zone (and will likely do so again ) she is delighted to be back in medieval times in her September 2020 release, His Castilian Hawk. Set against the complications of Edward I’s invasion of Wales, His Castilian Hawk is a story of loyalty, integrity—and love.
Find out more about Anna on her website or on her Amazon page. You can also follow her on Facebook or Twitter.
Genre: Historical Romance/Scottish/Time Travel
Series: The Locket, Book One
Release: June 11, 2021
Publisher: Timelight Press
Type: Novel
Content Rating: 5 Hearts/R
Tour Giveaway
Enter to win a copy of The Whirlpools of Time by Anna Belfrage! Two copies are up for grabs!
The giveaway is open internationally and ends on September 29, 2021. You must be 18 or older to enter. Void where prohibited by law. This giveaway is sponsored by the author and hosted by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours.
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