“The sound of horses’ hooves and clashing swords could be heard all around her as Matty raced across the boggy landscape. Her heart was pounding as she glanced feverishly from face to face trying to find…the man. She was unsure of his appearance, but she knew she would recognize him when they made eye contact. She was also uncertain of their connection, but she instinctively knew that would be clarified when they met. Amidst the hordes of armor-clad soldiers, she fought to maintain her wits. The wind was driving her, and she understood that her destiny was at stake. How could anyone be recognizable, covered with so much armor? Matty climbed breathlessly up a great mound, toward a high and lengthy stone wall, feeling a strange pull, as if she had been here before.
“Matilda of Argyll is a bold and dramatic adventure, ripped from the pages of history, seen through the eyes and told from the heart of those who lived through this epic period. Historian Sarah Chloe Burns reaches back in time to recap the blending of French and English royalty following William the Conqueror’s victory at the Battle of Hastings (1036 A.D.). Chapter one begins with a conversation which might have occurred between his granddaughter Matilda and her husband—Geoffrey Plantagenet—in Angers, France (1136 A.D.). The true story of this historic Matilda sets the backdrop for a dramatic tale which could have connected her bloodline to the future, fictional Matilda of Argyll.
As Matilda Campbell’s story begins in1638, this high-spirited and intelligent nineteen-year-old Scot is unwilling to accept society’s rules and barriers regarding gender and class. Her penchant for independent thinking will take her far—eventually across the ocean to Jamestown, Virginia—but at what cost? There, she will witness race and class distinction of a manner she could never have imagined.
Stretching from London City, England to the Scottish Highlands; from Mali, Africa to the West Indies, the story lines of Scottish, English and African peoples of many classes will intersect in an intensely dramatic fashion. What makes Matilda a truly entertaining and enlightening experience is the manner in which Burns weaves the pages of recorded history, and the footsteps of those who made that history, with her colorful fictional characters.
Sarah Chloe Burns is a historian who teaches at College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita, California, as well as National University. Her first book, Daughters of Juno, Chronicle I, was published in March of 2004 by Pentland Press, North Carolina. She has contributed chapters to two books in the Wake Up Live The Life You Love Series: On An Enlightened Path and With Gratitude. She is currently occupied with creating another historic fiction.