This HaBO is from Kathryn, who wants to find this historical romance:
I’m looking for a romance I covertly traded with a friend on the school bus way back in high school, so around 1999-2003. It was a historical romance, set in medieval Scotland. It was a forced marriage/marriage of convenience between a Scottish laird and a possibly English lady. The one defining detail seared into my brain was that on their wedding night, she convinced him she wasn’t ready and he cut his thigh so the sheets would be stained with blood and everyone would think they had done the deed.
I want to say it was set on an island of Skye or Skye was in the title? And the cover might have had some red and the couple standing in front of a highly suggestive tower.
This sounds very familiar, particularly the cover description!
That description makes me think of Skye O’Malley by Bertrice Small.
It could also be one of Amanda Quick’s medieval romances? In her book Desire, the heroine dumps so much chicken blood on the bed (as proof) that the hero ends up slicing his arm to give people a reason why there was SO MUCH blood.
Julie Garwood? I feel like I’ve read this and for some reason think it was set in the 1400-1500s or something like that, pre-Regency era in England. Monica McCarty?
I don’t know what book this is—but it seems to me that the hero or heroine cutting themselves to bloody up the wedding-night bedsheets recurs throughout historical romance/historical fiction, going all the way back to a Jean Plaidy (iirc) book where the young Catherine of Aragon and consumptive Prince Arthur (Henry VIII’s older brother and Catherine’s first husband) use a paring knife to cut one of their heels and bloody up the sheets because poor Arthur was too ill to consummate the marriage and Catherine felt sorry for him (an act of kindness that has repercussions decades later when Henry wants to find an excuse to divorce Catherine). You’ll be pleased to know that the “bloody sheet” trope is still in full effect these days in Cora Reilly’s arranged-married mafia romances, where the morning-after family breakfast is almost always accompanied by display of the bloodied wedding-night sheets, even if someone has to cut themselves to make it happen!
Did he have to make it “look” like they had secks, too? I have an unsubmitted HABO where the hero cut the inside of his (hers? Think his.) thigh with a ring he had that doubled as a knife (?) to show bloodied linens to people who came in right after (or may have been in the room), I believe.
If it’s the same, I read the blurb via Kindle and don’t think it was a Garwood, because I’ve read all Garwood’s work and would have been able to remember past that point. Would have been within the last 5-10 years.
Sounds like Red Adam’s Lady by Grace Ingram. A memorable read.
This definitely happens in Devil of the Highlands by Lynsay Sands, and possibly some other Sands’ books, but in the book I am thinking of he slices his arm and rubs her thighs to fool everyone.
There is one I read that the groom is so drunk he passes out & the bride does this but it was too much blood so everyone thinks his is a brute…. sorry I don’t remember the name…
It’s not Red Adam’s Lady, the eponymous Adam is English & so is the setting.
I’ve been trying to find a very similar book I downloaded and deleted the preview for, though it is an eBook and would have been read about 5 years ago. Maybe a republication? Hopefully this jogs more details even if it isn’t the same book.
The details I am fairly firm on are:
-the lady is the established party, aka it’s her home, and the hero is the one who is moving in. May be some sort of “gifted lands” scenario?
-H wears a ring that doubles as a knife, and this is what he uses to cut the inside of his thigh during fake consummation to create the blood stain.
-The words “he rolled off” are stuck in my mind for when he leaves the situation.
-In either case I think he leaves the room, and she is confused about why he didn’t force the consummation.
This is where I may be mixing two novels, but one of these is the scene:
A) the consummation is to be watched by a group to be sure it happens but the H convinces them a bloody sheet would be enough so they stand outside the door, and he “flings open” the door to show them their proof,
b) the group is in the room, and he still fools them with the ring/cut thigh blood trick. (Leaning towards this one for some reason)
Jude Deveraux had a lot of historicals and time travel ones with Highlands locales and/or Scottish heroes/heroines. 80s-90s so maybe too early for this question? I’ve definitely read scenes with cutting themselves to mark the sheets, also, yuck.
Lots of jewel toned covers though. Reds, purples, fuchsias.
I second the thought that it’s one of Lynsay Sands’ Highland novels. I know I’ve re-read it recently but I am not sure which it is.
@Kay, I was going to say the same; Red Adam’s Lady was my first ever bona fide romance, given me by a college friend!
wait, Stephanie Burgis– Amanda Quick has medievals? I thought I’d read everything she wrote–tell me more!
Amy – try searching for ‘Amanda Quick historical’. There’s Arcane Society series which is more Victorian and, maybe, Vanza Society. Separately, there’s Dangerous, Scandal, Surrender, Scandal, Ravished…
Amanda Quick has two medievals Desire and Mystique. They are great fun and I thoroughly enjoyed them.
ah- I forgot I’d read Mystique, along with my dive into all of the 19th century books. I haven’t read Desire though, so yay!
Wild Hearts by Victoria Henley. It’s not the main characters, it’s a side plot between the “hero’s” sister and his friend. Because the sister is not a virgin. All of the main characters are named after cities. This is a very old skool historical.
Not the answer, obvs, but this reminds me of the plot point in Sarah MacLean’s NO GOOD DUKE GOES UNPUNISHED, where Mara(h, who is betrothed to H’s father, for the love of snakes) dumps so much blood they think the hero has murdered her (which, alas, I find completely hysterical because I am a fiend).
I agree with others that this got used quite often in historicals.
But I really jumped in to share in the love for Red Adam’s Lady. My original paperback was getting quite tattered and replacement copies were very pricey until the Kindle version was finally released.
This reminded me of Here be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman. Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, marries the much younger illegitimate daughter of King John in an arranged marriage to help cement ties between England and Wales (spoiler: it doesn’t work). There is a scene on the morning after the wedding night where he cuts himself to bloody the sheets as proof of a consumption that didn’t happen.
This is either really common or I have DEFINITELY read this in a Jude Deveraux or Julie Garwood book. I will cogitate on this to try to come up with the actual book title.
Oh! Red Adam’s Lady was available at my library. So Yeah! I must now read this because of all the comments. If you need to replace a “hard copy” I just saw it on Alibris books for $5 in good condition as well. Now if only I could find a replacement copy of Dawn Lindsey’s “Daughter of Fortune”
I remember a novel like that where some much blood is smeared on the sheets the heroine’s mother looks reproachfully at her son in law. I can’t remember the title.
Maybe one of Elizabeth Chadwick’s books.
Her stuff is good on period details though so maybe not.
I read some Scottish romances by Julie Garwood back in the day.
I can’t always tell from the descriptions, but at least some are medieval:
Ransom
The Bride
The Wedding
The Secret
Just dropping in to add Roberta Gellis to the author list. I think it was in ‘Joanna’ that they did consummate the marriage, but there was no blood, so he nicks himself in the upper thigh to supply the ‘proof’. The Rosalynde Series books are fantastic medievals, set in England during the reigns of Richard and King John.
It’s Roselynde by Roberta Gellis. There is some doubt – not from the hero – in Joanna as to her virginity and he comes prepared in order to protect her reputation, but it turns out not to be necessary.
Desire is on that list of problematic faves for me by Amanda Quick (see also the Orientalism in Scandal), because the hero sort of presumes the heroine was raped and is just like, I don’t care about that but also don’t go slutting around on me (?). But if you kind of hand wave that bit, it’s a lot of fun, and one of the sex scenes is so distinctive that when she recycled it 15 years later, I was like, can you plagiarize from yourself?
(Love you, Jayne! Amanda Quick was the first recommendation I ever got when I admitted I liked romance novels.)
I was thinking Born in Sin by Kinley MacGregor but I believe he did so because she fell asleep during the wedding night from too much drinking, not because she was not ready.
ARGH! I totally remember this scene (or I’ve read a bunch like it in my years of reading historicals). I want to say this is a Gellis. I’m pretty sure this happens in a Gellis.
It’s me, the requester! I had no idea this trope was so common. I’ve got my work cut out (pun intended) looking into each and every rec here!
I’m going to add my vote for Roberta Gellis’s books. A very vivid scene for a 14yr old me :O
@C I believe it was because the marriage was so quick that he agreed to wait for a later date/when she was ready and cut himself to pretend they had done the deed. I’ve also read most of the Garwood Scottish historical and I’m pretty sure it’s not any of them. There may have been a scene where she has to bathe her new husband and runs out of the room when she encounters his engorged self?
I have a memory of this being in a Stephanie Laurens book. The hero and heroine are journeying north to Scotland, they get busy en route, but when they arrive they have to deal with his monster of a mother (or stepmother), so they fake/role play a rape scene that she can listen to, and he cuts his leg for “proof”.
I remember this, but I can’t think of the title. If it’s the same one, they’re forced to marry, and they go straight from the altar family chapel to the bedroom, then he cuts his thigh because she’s not ready. He smears the sheet and hands it to her father who’s waiting for proof.
Further to my earlier comment, I think this type of scene is in The Wild hunt by Elizabeth Chadwick.
Great book.
She is very young when they marry hence the thigh cutting followed by lots of pining and sexual tension once she is older and they still haven’t done the deed.
The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae by Stephanie Laurens. Scottish Laird, English Lady. He “kidnaps” her to save his Clan from his stepmother’s machinations. Along the journey from London to Scotland they fall for eachother and get busy. They have to fake a rape scene (part of psycho momster’s demands), and he cuts his leg for “proof”. The book is part of Laurens’ Cynster Series.
I have nothing useful to add to the quest, but I do love it when a particular scenario is so popular an HaBO becomes an impromptu Rec League.
@omphale re: JAK/Amanda Quick’s Desire:
What’s the later book? Desire was published in 1993 and I had stopped reading JAK by 1999, but tracing the way she recycles her own themes and scenes is kind of a hobby of mine.
Stephanie, what Stephanie Laurens book are you thinking about? I’m trying to figure out which book that scene/scenario you mentioned played a part.
From what I remember, the Stephanie Lauren’s book is not medieval.