One of Faulkner's comic masterpieces, The Reivers is a picaresque that tells of three unlikely car thieves from rural Mississippi. Eleven-year-old Lucius Priest is persuaded by Boon Hogganbeck, one of his family's retainers, to steal his grandfather's car and make a trip to Memphis. The Priests' black coachman, Ned McCaslin, stows away, and the three of them are off on a heroic odyssey, for which they are all ill-equipped, that ends at Miss Reba's bordello in Memphis. From there a series of wild misadventures ensues--involving horse smuggling, trainmen, sheriffs' deputies, and jail.

Analise Howard is powerless against the political tide along England's Scottish border. As a pawn for peace, she is married off to Ronan Armstrong, the Scottish leader of a fierce band of border reivers-men. Though treachery, not love, brought them together, Analise cannot deny her growing desire.

Faulkner's final novel, The Reivers, has been gently dismissed by scholars and critics as no more than its subtitle claims, A Reminiscence. Although the new millennium has seen a new appreciation for Faulkner's later novels, The Reivers is still perceived as a slightly fictionalized comic memoir romanticizing the early life of the author in the pre-civil rights American South. This volume takes this dismissal of The Reivers to task for failing to appreciate its employment of the Apuleian narrative of life-altering metamorphosis to offer, as his literary farewell, hope for humanity's self-redemption. Vernon L. Provencal studies the reception of The Golden Ass in The Reivers as comic novels of moral katabasis (wilful descent into the lawless underworld) and providential anabasis (societal and spiritual redemption). As the independent basis of the reception study, The Reivers receives its first ever detailed reading, while The Golden Ass is read anew from the teleological perspective offered by the (undervalued) prophecy that in the end the comic hero would become the book itself.

Ten years ago, Bess Mowatt promised to guard her newborn cousin from his father, Aleck Maxwell. Called the Reiver Wolf, Maxwell is the scourge of the Scottish marches, and no fit guardian for a child. But when the keep where Bess and the boy live suddenly comes under Maxwell's protection, she has nowhere to hide. Aleck doesn't quite believe the tale he was told, that his son died at birth. His head tells him one thing, and his heart another. While protecting the keep from marauders, he makes a connection with Bess's young charge. But Bess stands in the way, a woman who is also a warrior, a protector who needs his protection. Can he persuade this fiery woman to accept his help? Will a lie told long ago stand in the way of their love?

This short story (8,500 words or 25-30 pages, depending on your ereader) was originally published in the Mammoth Book of Scottish Romance. Excerpts from The Lesson Plan and Hot Under the Collar, also by Jackie Barbosa, are included at the end. Note: It is the author's intention to offer this book for free. If it is not currently free on Amazon, you can download a copy in mobi (Kindle) format at no charge from Smashwords or All Romance eBooks. COVER COPY Duncan Maxwell, laird of Lochmorton Castle, gets the shock of his life when he discovers the reiver captured in a raid on his lands is not a boy, but a young woman. Although she flatly refuses to tell him her name or how she came to be riding with a raiding party, Duncan cannot countenance imprisoning a woman in his dungeon but neither can he release her without compensation. Unable to ransom her back to her family, he treats her as an honored—though exceptionally well-supervised—guest. He takes to calling her Reva and determines to seduce the truth of her identity from her. There’s just one problem—the reiver may steal his heart before he can reveal her secrets.