The same rebellion that leaves Clarence of Summerbourne dead also leaves his castle and his daughter, Claire, forfeit to the king’s champion. Renald de Lisle arrives at the castle gates as a warrior, takes possession of Claire like a conqueror, and sets her heart racing as her lover. Amid moonlight and velvet, she becomes his bride; atop tangled bedclothes she discovers passion. But then she learns Renald’s terrible secret and vows revenge against this man she wed, this man she loved with all her heart.
Amazon.com Review
Jo Beverley explores a woman's limited choices in the medieval world with sensual authenticity in this companion book to her earlier medieval Dark Champion. When Claire Summerbourne's father is killed for supporting a traitorous rebellion, and his estate is awarded to king's champion Renald de Lisle, she powerfully resists the expected next step--that she marry de Lisle in order to provide her family with support and protection. Gradually she realizes that de Lisle isn't the wolfish brute she expects, that his touch can be tender and arousing as well as harsh. But before their union can be consummated, she learns that it was Renald who killed her father in legal combat.
He entered her life in the midnight darkness of a storm, and in the shadow of her gentle father's death. A rebellion had left Clarence of Summerbourne dead--his castle and his daughter, Claire, forfeit to the king's champion. Renald de Lisle arrived at the castle gates as a warrior, took possession of Claire like a conqueror, and set her heart racing as her lover. Amid moonlight and velvet, she became his bride; atop tangled bedclothes she discovered passion. Then she learned Renald's terrible secret and vowed revenge against this man she had wed, this man she loved with all her heart...
