Book Title: The Whirlpools of Time
Author: Anna Belfrage
Publication Date: 11th June 2021
Publisher: Timelight Press
Page Length: 388 Pages
Genre: Time travel romance, Scottish Historical Romance
The Whirlpools of Time
By Anna Belfrage
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 She doesn’t need the additional twist of a stranger in weird outdated clothes, but when he risks his life to save hers, she feels obligated to return the favour.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?
Trigger Warnings: Sexual Content. Violence.
***
Whirlpool: In which Duncan ends up holding magic in his hands
Her fear was contagious. Erin might scoff and tell him she had things handled, but over the coming days he’d catch her glancing out the window every other minute and the way she hugged herself when he said something about that accursed Steve Wilkes had him wishing he’d run him through with his sword the first time he’d met the unsavoury character.
She refused to talk about it, insisting they were safe here, in her home because they’d never be able to sneak up on them.
“They do not need to sneak,” he’d said. “It is not exactly an impenetrable fortress this, is it?”
Which is when she’d proudly shown him something she called the panic room. Aye, this cramped dark space did have him breaking out in something akin to panic, even more so when she explained it was sufficiently stocked with water and foodstuffs to last a couple of days.
“In the dark?” He detested dark and cramped places.
“Not entirely,” she said, “but yeah, it won’t exactly be brightly lit.”
Not much of a comfort, but he nodded all the same while thinking he would rather die out in the sunlight than end up buried alive in here.
“There’s a secure phone line,” she told him. “If we’re in here, I can call the cops.”
That made him feel much better. But still, hours in a space which had room for a narrow pallet bed and not much else was something best avoided. There was a small box tucked into a corner. “What’s that?”
“That’s where I keep the locket.” She slid him a look. “I prefer to keep it in here, in that metal box.”
“To keep it safe,” he assumed.
“Yeah. And because…”
“Because what?”
“It weirds me out.” She laughed shakily. “Silly, right? Emily always said it was the power contained within that I reacted to, but that is just stupid.”
“Can I see it?” he asked, while concluding that weirding someone out was to make them singularly uneasy.
Reluctantly, she nodded. “Be my guest. I’ll just stay here, okay?”
With Erin hovering at the door, he lifted the lid an inch before slamming it back down. “It hums!”
“I know.”
Intrigued, Duncan opened the box. Inside, was a round, wooden container of sorts, badly charred but sufficiently undamaged to reveal the remains of exquisite woodworking, a pattern of leaves encircling what looked like a huge thistle. Whoever had made this little box had been a true artist, he thought, lifting it up carefully. A soft, soothing humming filled the room, caressed his ears. Like a lullaby, he thought, a comforting sound that had him recalling nights as a small child, with Simon reading to him by the light of a flickering candle.
Inside the box was a golden object, resting on plush, red velvet. The size of an egg, it was a beautiful piece of work, the detailed engravings studded with little rubies and diamonds. Even in the weak light, the stones glittered and twinkled, and the humming urged him to pick it up, hold it. When he did, the humming increased in strength, a hypnotic request that he open it, open it and look deep within.
He fumbled with the clasp.
“Duncan, no!” Erin said, but it was too late, the locket lay open in his hand, and the interior was as beautiful as the exterior—except that now he was looking at a beautifully executed piece of art, a whirlwind of blues and green and right in its midst a beckoning point of white. The humming became a roaring command. “Look,” it said, “look deep and fall!” His heart cramped. No, no, no, his brain wailed, and he gritted his teeth with the effort of attempting to close his eyes and break the connection with the magical swirls that seemed to grow out of the locket to dance around him in thin bands of green and blue.
“Duncan!” Erin shrieked, and next he knew she’d knocked the locket out of his hand, sending it spinning to rest in a corner.
He collapsed, breathing heavily. His pulse thundered through his head, and he was covered in a sheen of cold sweat. He’d recognised those swirls of colour and the fear they’d induced, knew exactly when he’d seen them last.
“Duncan?” She sounded on the verge of tears. “You okay?”
“Yes,” he croaked.
“You began to blur around the edges,” she said with a groan. “What is that thing?” She was in his arms, pressing her face to his shirt. “Maybe I should just give it to that cow Josephine and watch her go all invisible.”
“That is a powerful object,” he managed to say. “And in the hands of a ruthless person likely quite dangerous.” He licked his lips. A portal, of sorts, he thought. Someone had captured the terrifying funnel he’d fallen through in enamelled paint. Bile filled his mouth. To fall again…The fear, the pain, the unbearable noise and at the end of it all to land in a new unfamiliar place. “Dearest Lord, keep me safe,” he prayed in an undertone, before gently disengaging himself from Erin. “I need to get out of here.”
From the corner came a faint humming. He hurried them both out of the room and Erin slammed the door shut before sliding the wall panel that hid it back into place.
Available on #KindleUnlimited.
Had Anna 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.
Anna has also published The Wanderer, a fast-paced contemporary romantic suspense trilogy with paranormal and time-slip ingredients. Her September 2020 release, His Castilian Hawk, has her returning to medieval times. Set against the complications of Edward I’s invasion of Wales, His Castilian Hawk is a story of loyalty, integrity—and love. Her most recent release, The Whirlpools of Time, is a time travel romance set against the backdrop of brewing rebellion in the Scottish highlands.
All of Anna’s books have been awarded the IndieBRAG Medallion, she has several Historical Novel Society Editor’s Choices, and one of her books won the HNS Indie Award in 2015. She is also the proud recipient of various Reader’s Favorite medals as well as having won various Gold, Silver and Bronze Coffee Pot Book Club awards.
Find out more about Anna, her books and her eclectic historical blog on her website, www.annabelfrage.com
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Thank you so much for hosting today's tour stop. We really appreciate it.
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