Secrets to Seducing a Scot

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The cover of this book may have my name on it, but that’s only because there isn’t space to credit all the people who helped in its creation.

I’d like to thank my editor, Rose Hilliard. It was her suggestion that I consider writing a Scottish historical, and that idea opened up a whole new genre (and a new set of heroes) to my imagination. Her insight, guidance, and creativity have helped make this book so special. Rose, you are a treasure!

I’d also like to thank the team at St. Martin’s Press for their collaboration in putting this book together. You are amazing.

I have to thank my parents, Lino and Juana Marcos, for their example of love. Fifty-eight years of marriage and they’re still together.

Finally, thanks to Jesus Christ, for loving me.




GOD, GIVE US MEN!

GOD, give us men! A time like this demands

Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;



Men whom the lust of office does not kill;

Men whom the spoils of office can not buy;

Men who possess opinions and a will;

Men who have honor; men who will not lie;



Men who can stand before a demagogue

And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!

Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog

In public duty, and in private thinking;



For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,

Their large professions and their little deeds,

Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,

Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.


—JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND (1819–1881)