{"product_id":"the-kings-mercy-isbn-9781601429964","title":"The King's Mercy","description":"\u003cb\u003eFor readers of Sara Donati and Diana Gabaldon, this epic historical romance tells of fateful love between an indentured Scotsman and a daughter of the 18th century colonial south.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen captured rebel Scotsman Alex MacKinnon is granted the king's mercy--exile to the Colony of North Carolina--he's indentured to Englishman Edmund Carey as a blacksmith. Against his will Alex is drawn into the struggles of Carey's slaves--and those of his stepdaughter, Joanna Carey. A mistress with a servant's heart, Joanna is expected to wed her father's overseer, Phineas Reeves, but finds herself drawn instead to the new blacksmith. As their unlikely relationship deepens, successive tragedies strike the Careys. When blame falls unfairly upon Alex he flees to the distant mountains where he encounters Reverend Pauling, itinerate preacher and friend of the Careys, now a prisoner of the Cherokees. Haunted by his abandoning of Joanna, Alex tries to settle into life with the Cherokees, until circumstances thwart yet another attempt to forge his freedom and he's faced with the choice that's long hounded him: continue down his rebellious path or embrace the faith of a man like Pauling, whose freedom in Christ no man can steal. But the price of such mercy is total surrender, and perhaps Alex's very life.“With heart-pounding realism, \u003ci\u003eThe King’s Mercy\u003c\/i\u003e draws readers into the web of plantation life, where the price of freedom is hammered out at the hero’s forge and in the lives of every compelling character that surrounds him. Lori Benton pens a remarkable story of mercy and grace, the chains that bind us, and the ultimate freedom to be found in Christ.”\u003cb\u003e—Laura Frantz, Christy Award–winning author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Lacemaker\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eThe King’s Mercy\u003c\/i\u003e is a compelling tale of the early frontier, where the wealthy flourish and the poor serve, but sometimes the lines between slavery and freedom are not what you think. Lori Benton is a master at weaving together a beautiful tapestry of cultures and traditions, and her characters will live on in my heart for years to come.”\u003cb\u003e—Karen Barnett, award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eWhere the Fire Falls\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Road to Paradise\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “In this beautifully written novel, Lori Benton sweeps readers back to North Carolina in the 1700s to a slave plantation that’s hosting a terrifying evil. Lori is an expert at capturing time and place, and her dual skills give us a powerful glimpse into the longings of both an indentured servant who craves his freedom and the much-loved daughter of his master. \u003ci\u003eThe King’s Mercy\u003c\/i\u003e is an intriguing, compelling story about God’s mercy and poignant redemption for those who choose to follow Him.”\u003cb\u003e—Melanie Dobson, award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eCatching the Wind\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eHidden Among the Stars\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Lori Benton is a master storyteller. She breathes life into her characters and historical settings, drawing you in so deep that when the phone rings, you find yourself saying, ‘What be that wee sound?’ Highly recommended!”\u003cb\u003e—Karen Ball, writer and editor\u003c\/b\u003eLORI BENTON was raised east of the Appalachian Mountains, surrounded by early American history going back three hundred years. Her novels transport readers to the eighteenth century, where she brings to life the Colonial and early Federal periods of American history. When she isn't writing, reading, or researching, Lori enjoys exploring and photographing the Oregon wilderness with her husband. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eBurning Sky\u003c\/i\u003e, recipient of three Christy Awards; \u003ci\u003eThe Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn\u003c\/i\u003e; Christy nominee \u003ci\u003eThe Wood's Edge\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eA Flight of Arrows\u003c\/i\u003e; and \u003ci\u003eMany Sparrows\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Exile\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSummer 1747 — Spring 1748\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eLet every man seek his own safety the best way he can.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—Prince Charles Edward Stuart to his defeated Jacobite army\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e1\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eJuly 1747\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eCape Fear River, Colony of North Carolina\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlex MacKinnon roused to the press of wood beneath his cheek and an ominous churning in his gut. He tried to rise, but his hands were bound behind him. Without their aid he made it to his knees and, as the world spun in a blur of sunlit green, lost the contents of his stomach into mud-black water rushing past below. A powerful grip dragged him back onto rough planks. He felt solidness behind his back—curving barrel staves, hotly fragrant in the sweltering heat.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Catch yo’ breath,” said a voice deep enough to have issued from a well’s nethermost reaches. “Don’t do no stupid.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlex drew up his knees and dropped his head, then jerked as a lance of pain split his skull. Moving must be the \u003ci\u003estupid\u003c\/i\u003e the well-bottom voice warned against.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Still yo’self,” it cautioned now.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlex complied. The pain in his head receded to a pounding. Sweat stung what must be a gash at his temple. Dried blood stiffened his face. Arms, legs, torso all ached with the bruises left by blows. He’d been attacked.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Ah, Demas,” said another voice. “He’s awake? Excellent. I was about to be concerned.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe speaker hadn’t sounded concerned. He’d sounded downright blithe. And \u003ci\u003eEnglish\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe surface beneath Alex dipped. Nausea surged with the motion. This time he forced it back, eyes shut against the sun-glare.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“And here at last we’ve the tide to speed us along,” the English voice added.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe scrape of wood on wood. Water splashing. Feet thumping boards. Men’s voices rising and relaxing as at the end of prolonged exertion. All familiar. All wrong.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlex opened his eyes. Though not yet high in the sky, the Carolina sun burned fierce. Bearing its assault, he took in what he made for the aft deck of a flatboat. Within his view a man, shirtless back a glistening blue-black, had hauled in a dripping pole and was stowing it along the deck rail, over which Alex had been sick. The vessel surged, picking up speed though none poled it now that he could see.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlarmed, he looked out over silty water, expecting to see the merchant ship, \u003ci\u003eCharlotte-Ann\u003c\/i\u003e, riding at anchor beyond the smaller craft lining Wilmington’s quay. He didn’t see the quay. A tree-lined bank slid past, edged inmudflats dotted with quarreling seabirds.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThey were on the river.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA throat’s clearing curtailed his observations. Squinting, Alex made out the Englishman seated on a crate shaded by a cabin in the craft’s center. He wore no coat or hat, but his breeches and waistcoat were cut of good cloth and fit his trim person well. With dark hair smoothly tailed, he bore no trace of sweat on his brow, as if the neckcloth knotted below his chin didn’t smother him. He looked not yet thirty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe man bared good teeth in a smile, an expression that took his unremarkable features—longish nose, thin lips, hazel eyes overshadowed by strong brows—and rearranged them into a mask of disarming appeal.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe’d seen the man before. Alex closed his eyes, searching his memory for that face, and found it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis eyes flew open. “Ye’ve made a mistake! I’d an agreement with the ship’s master. Captain Bingham will tell ye…” But Bingham wouldn’t. The \u003ci\u003eCharlotte-Ann\u003c\/i\u003e’s captain was complicit in this. Minding that now, too, Alex strained against his bindings. Could he pitch himself overboard, hope to reach the bank?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I wouldn’t try it,” the Englishman advised. “Alligators infest these waters. You missed the last sighting. Quite the sizeable specimen.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlligators. Alex had yet to see one of the fearsome beasts since they’d begun their piloted journey into Wilmington’s sandbar-riddled harbor, but the \u003ci\u003eCharlotte-Ann\u003c\/i\u003e’s crew had encountered them on voyages past. His sweating scalp crawled at the thought of jagged teeth closing over him, powerful jaws dragging him under the river’s dark surface. Still, he’d rather face that battle than what awaited him at this riverine journey’s end.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe made it halfway to his feet before the massive hand that had steadied him before clutched his neck from behind. Alex bucked and thrashed, in the process glimpsing the African who had hold of him. He sucked in air, or tried to. Thick fingers squeezed. Just as he felt himself sliding into darkness, the grip on his neck eased.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Englishman in the shade had watched, unperturbed. “Demas once snapped a man’s neck one-handed—so I’ve heard. Promise to cease thrashing about and I’ll bid him release you. Then we’ll discuss your situation like civilized men.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGlaring, Alex jerked his chin against the gripping fingers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt a glance from the Englishman his throat was released. The African hunkered within arm’s reach, powerful hands loose between thighs like tree trunks.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlex concentrated on breathing, forcing swallows past what felt like rocks lodged in his throat.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Englishman raised a brow. “Are you a civilized man? I know you for a Jacobite, one of those Stuart rebels King George defeated… When was it? A year since?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlex might have told him to the day.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Alastair Seamus MacKinnon by name, according to your papers,” the Englishman went on. “Well, MacKinnon, I’m Phineas Reeves, and this craft we occupy belongs to Severn, the plantation for which we’re bound. The journey will take the day long. Perhaps into the night. Time enough for us to become acquainted.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“It wasna meant to be me,” Alex ground out. “Take me back.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“To Wilmington? We’re miles upriver, moving with the tide. Even were we not, Captain Bingham has no further claim on you. You’re indentured to a new master.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe gut-churn threatened. “D’ye not mean yourself? \u003ci\u003eYe’re\u003c\/i\u003e the owner of the \u003ci\u003eCharlotte-Ann\u003c\/i\u003e.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Me? I’m but his overseer. A hired man, as is Captain Bingham. As for the prisoners brought over from London—including yourself—it was from their number the \u003ci\u003eCharlotte-Ann\u003c\/i\u003e’s owner was to have first pick. Surely Bingham informed you of the arrangement.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“He gave me to think otherwise.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“That would explain the difficulty we had in extricating you.” Something akin to contrition crossed Phineas Reeves’s face. “I was sent downriver to meet the \u003ci\u003eCharlotte-Ann\u003c\/i\u003e and bring back a likely man for Severn. You seemed exceedingly so to me, and Captain Bingham was agreeable to the choice. He’d sold the rest of his indentures before we started upriver, and I must return with someone. You can appreciate my position.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe shock of it was stunning. Reeves’s voice cut through it like the jabs of a blade.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I regret the headache you must be enduring. I’m afraid Demas doesn’t know his strength.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRecalling the careful clenching of that massive hand at his throat, Alex took leave to disagree.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“This should help.” Reeves held out a canteen. Too thirsty to refuse, Alex took it and drank while the man nattered on. “It occurs to me I haven’t named your master. Edmund Philip Carey, Captain of His Majesty’s Royal Navy, retired. His last command was the frigate \u003ci\u003eSevern\u003c\/i\u003e, for which his plantation is named.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCeasing to listen, Alex looked round him again with aching eyes. The men piloting the barge were a motley lot: black, white, somewhere between, one possibly a red Indian. He knew little of the natives of this \u003ci\u003eNew World\u003c\/i\u003e. Purportedly fierce, warlike, prone to taking a man’s scalp off his head—if his fellow seamen were to be credited. Reckoning himself safe enough from scalping at present, he cast a bleary gaze across the wide river at the shoreline passing in a green tangle, raised the canteen to his lips, and drained it as dry as his plummeting hope.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhy had he trusted Bingham—an Englishman—after everything?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“…and that’s where I first met Captain Carey. I was a cabin boy aboard the \u003ci\u003eSevern\u003c\/i\u003e…in another lifetime.” Reeves, still chattering away, smiled again as Alex flicked him a glance. “Doubtless you’re wondering what Captain Carey means to do with \u003ci\u003eyou \u003c\/i\u003efor the next seven years.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe hadn’t entertained the faintest curiosity. Until now.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Plantations on the river tend toward the sprawling, thousands of acres, and so require to be self-supporting. Severn has its coopers, millers, carpenters. It \u003ci\u003ehad \u003c\/i\u003ea blacksmith, until six months ago when an unfortunate accident rendered the fellow unfit for the work. That’s where you come into it, MacKinnon. You’re to be trained in the smith’s art. I chose you for your size. You’re the first man I’ve seen who comes close to matching Demas’s physique. Perhaps with another stone or two of meat on those long bones, you shall.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReeves grinned as though he’d delivered the best possible news.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSeven years. His strength spent at an Englishman’s pleasure, without even the freedom of the sea. Demas seemed to sense the impulse to escape that again swept through him. The African tensed, but when Alex made no move he settled again, hands loosening from the fists he’d made of them. Fists like hammers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat was meant to be his lot. Hammers and fire and glowing iron. Seven years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn his side again with the sun beating down like a forge’s fire, grief and rage flowed over him. He was well and truly a prisoner in that godforsaken place, though why should that surprise? God had forsaken him months ago on a moor near Inverness.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WaterBrook","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304906707173,"sku":"NP9781601429964","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781601429964.jpg?v=1767740063","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-kings-mercy-isbn-9781601429964","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}