Love's Scarlet Banner — Fiona Harrowe

DANGEROUS IMPERSONATION

“Do not speak, they had cautioned, as they took me from the bath and perfumed me. Not a word, they said, pulling the long over-gown of scarlet past my shoulders. Be silent, they warned, setting the seed pearl crown upon my head. The sweet essence, the rich velvet gown, the filmy veil, the man -- they were the stuff of dreams. Why then was I so afraid?”

Her name was Alice, and she was very young and quite lovely. But she was only a serf. Which was why they took such trouble to disguise her when they thrust her into Lord Simon's bed…

A barren wife, a ruthless mother, an innocent girl, and a plot to ensure an heir for Tribourne, one of 14th-century England's great noble households, become the stormy center of this rich and robust novel.