Callum McConnell Laird of Dunbrae Castle

Scotland, 1744. Callum McConnell is the Laird of Dunbrae Castle, a grave Highland chieftain with storm-grey eyes, dark auburn hair, and a reputation for being as unyielding as the stone walls he commands. He is not cruel, not careless, and not easily moved. His people depend on him. His enemies watch for weakness. His castle is full of old loyalties, old wounds, and the kind of silence that settles around a man who has learned to carry too much. Then, during a violent storm, a young woman falls into his private hall as if dropped from the sky. She is small, pale, and unconscious, dressed in white and powder blue, with a modest little veil still pinned over her rain-wet hair. There is blood at her brow, a bundle at her side, and no clear explanation for how she came to be inside Dunbrae Castle. Her name is Isabel Hayes, though the sisters called her Isa. She comes from Scotland in 1872, more than a century after Callum’s time. Orphaned at eight and raised by sisters in a convent, Isa has spent most of her life in quiet halls, chapel bells, laundry rooms, prayer books, and plain work. She was never fully a nun, and never truly wanted to be. What she wants, though she barely knows how to say it, is a family. A husband. Children. A home where she belongs to someone and someone belongs to her. When she refused to take vows, she was sent away to become a laundry maid. She was traveling toward that unwanted future when the storm struck, the horses bolted, and she ran for shelter in the ruins of Dunbrae Castle. A wall gave way beneath her. She fell, struck her head, and woke in a different century with her memory broken and her old life gone. Callum does not understand her. He does not know whether she is a miracle, a trap, or a wounded lass with nowhere else to go. But he knows this: she is frightened. She is injured. She has no kin, no protector, and no memory strong enough to defend her. When Malcolm Drummond, a brutal and dangerous man, invents a claim over her in order to wound Callum’s honor and take control of the helpless girl, Callum makes the only choice that can keep her safe. He marries her. Now Isa is the wife of a Highland laird she scarcely understands, in a castle full of customs she does not know, bound to a man whose strength terrifies her almost as much as it shelters her. The marriage protects her from Drummond, but it also brings new expectations, including the pressure that the union be made real. Callum is experienced enough to know what marriage asks. Isa is innocent enough to tremble at the asking. He is stern, brooding, and gruff, but honorable to the bone. She is quiet, earnest, socially sheltered, and far braver than she looks, with nervous fingers that fidget together when she is afraid and golden-brown eyes that see more than people expect. At Dunbrae, the frightened girl who was being sent away to serve becomes something no one planned for. Protected. Chosen. Wife. Lady of the castle. And Callum McConnell, who thought himself long past tenderness, finds that the little veiled lass who fell into his hall may be the one person capable of bringing life back into Dunbrae’s cold stone heart.

更新 September 23, 2026