It is the winter of 1046, and on the Marches between England and Wales there is an uneasy peace. Leofric is the young thane of Staneleigh, a holding close to the Welsh border. He is mourning a dead bride, but now finds himself falling for Regan, his childhood friend, who is herself in mourning, and intends to take the veil. The attraction is mutual. Dafydd, attached to her household, is a traveling bard, but unknown to Leofric and Regan, also an undercover agent for the Welsh extremists who raid across the border. Dafydd's loyalties become divided because of his growing love for Edwina, a girl in Leofric's household.
Add to that a spoonful of Welsh raids, a pinch of the political machinations of Godwin Earl of Wessex, and a heaped ladleful of Leofric's meddling household, stir well thirty times deosil and let the dust settle.
It is the winter of 1046, and on the Marches between England and Wales there is an uneasy peace. Leofric is the young thane of Staneleigh, a holding close to the Welsh border. He is mourning a dead bride, but now finds himself falling for Regan, his childhood friend, who is herself in mourning, and intends to take the veil. The attraction is mutual. Dafydd, attached to her household, is a traveling bard, but unknown to Leofric and Regan, also an undercover agent for the Welsh extremists who raid across the border. Dafydd's loyalties become divided because of his growing love for Edwina, a girl in Leofric's household.
Add to that a spoonful of Welsh raids, a pinch of the political machinations of Godwin Earl of Wessex, and a heaped ladleful of Leofric's meddling household, stir well thirty times deosil and let the dust settle.