Author’s Note

Thank you for joining me for Lachlan and Christina’s story. Though fictional, the novel is threaded with history. Andrew de Moray was, indeed, one of the English captives for whom Robert the Bruce negotiated a prisoner exchange. Andrew was captured from his mother’s arms at the age of two and she was held prisoner by the English at Ormond Castle until King Robert’s Scottish army liberated the kingdom.

In truth, Andrew de Moray was probably exchanged along with a number of other prisoners. It is thought he might have been present in November, 1314 when Robert the Bruce negotiated the exchange for his wife, Elizabeth de Burgh. The queen was captured in 1306 at Kildrummy Castle by Edward I and was held as a political prisoner under abysmal conditions in several locations in England until her husband negotiated her release with Edward II.

The Battle of Bannockburn marked a turning point for Scotland when Robert the Bruce finally gained a firm foothold to his right to the crown and reestablished the Kingdom’s monarchy.