Border Bride

A luscious but dim-witted Highlands lassie and her irritatingly officious ``border lord'' squabble their way to true love in this trying romance set in 1580s Scotland. Sir Adam Douglas misunderstands the innocent flirtation of Mary Kate MacPherson and climbs through her bedroom window for a late-night visit. Just as he realizes he's mixed his signals, she wallops him on the head with a five-foot pole. His response is to ask Mary Kate's father for her hand; her father agrees, and Mary Kate gets her orders to marry. But then, orders pass for normal conversation here: when Mary Kate argues with Adam, he rides off andpk abandons her to walk five miles to her father's house; when she arrives, exhausted and filthy, her father ``burst into laughter. . . . Douglas, too, was grinning.'' The reader is dragged through more such unpleasant scenes as Mary Kate repeatedly challenges Adam, is bested and humiliated, and invariably succumbs to his point of view. Insubstantial historical intrigue (surrounding the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots) adds no excitement. Scott is the author of Lady Brittany's Choice. (Nov.)