Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 14

The Scottish Borders, 17th century. A land of moors and hidden meeting houses, where families gathered in secret to worship as their consciences dictated, and where King Charles's soldiers hunted men who dared to reject bishops. This volume collects tales from the Covenanting years, that tumultuous era when Scotland rose against religious tyranny and paid for its defiance in blood. Here are the stories of ordinary people drawn into extraordinary times: Simon Cockburn, the parish teacher who will not abandon his faith; his wife Alice, who urges her sons toward a cause she knows may claim them; farmers who shelter hunted preachers, Covenanters who face execution rather than deny what they believe. These are not tales of crowns and courts. They are about a father's hand on his son's shoulder, a mother's voice cracked with pride and fear, the terrible mathematics of loyalty when it collides with duty. For readers drawn to Scottish history, folk narrative, or stories of quiet courage in times of persecution, these Border tales offer something increasingly rare: fiction that remembers what people once believed worth dying for - and what they hoped to leave behind.