This one was hard to rate. I loved it right up until the end. Great story, good writing from Small, as always. Nice little twist to have Robena show up at the end. I hated the ending though. Not cool at all. This is not really a HEA, and I hated the end. ( )

I have another 1 of these in this series.... But i really dont want to read it...... ( )

Alix Givet is the daughter of Queen Margaret's physician and as they are fleeing the Yorkists, the band of refugees seek shelter with Sir Udolf Watteson. Her father, ill, can go no farther, so a bargain is made where Alix will marry his son Hayle and the two will remain. However, Hayle doesn't want a bride, he only wants his mistress, so he mistreats Alix for the entre time that they are wed. He father agonizes over her situation but dies before she is freed when Hayle's mistress dies and he kills himself, Alix is forced to flee when her fatherl-in-law decides that he will marry her because he now needs an heir.
Setting off on foot by herself, Alix crosses the border to Scotland where she is found near head and taken to the keep of a brooding border lord. The Love story that follows twists and turns to an unusual ending.
This was not one of Bertrice Small's better books. I saw a re-write of Skye O'Malley at the beginning and some of her other themes in the middle. The writing was a bit staid in this one, and the characters were not as well defined as normal. Normally, Small gets 4 stars from me, but this one is only a 3. ( )