Mary Keirnan

Mary Keirnan is a scout in Alexi’s witch-hunting party. She has straight blond hair and brown eyes. Her hair comes to her shoulders when it’s down, but she usually has it pulled up into a knot to keep it out of her way. She’s twenty-four years old. She’s 5’ 4” tall and petite. Her facial features are lean and sharp. She’s attractive, but not a stunning beauty.

She wears leather armor that offers light, full body protection, but it doesn’t have any tassels or decorations to dangle and get caught as she stalks through the woods. Her armor also doesn’t accentuate her feminine form. In fact, it actually subdues her curves to the point where she can pass as a man if she has her hair up and her helmet on. She carries a long sword across her back, twin short swords on each hip, hung from cross-slung belts, and two daggers on the same belts that hold her short swords.

Mary is a woman caught in a man’s world. Lord Keirnan is the only commander who allows women to fight in his House forces, and when Mary is among those forces, she’s a valued and respected warrior. Unfortunately, she quickly finds herself alone in her world and society, and many times her life would be easier if she could swing her hips and flirt as skillfully as she swings a sword and bashes skulls, but she does the best she can.

Somewhere, under the armor and scars, a sensual woman exists behind the gruff soldier exterior she must always show the world. Sometimes her femininity is buried so far inside that she has trouble finding it. Most days Mary doesn’t even pause to consider or miss the life she might have led, had she picked up a butter churn or loom instead of a sword and crossbow, but sometimes, just sometimes, her skin longs to wear silk dresses instead of leather armor. Her hands wish to comb her hair instead of sharpening her sword. Unfortunately, her problem is not that she’s forgotten how to indulge her softer side; she never learned how.