The Wolf and the Unicorn — Julia Watson

GENTIAN

It was as though her association with men brought only death: first with Giraud de Veaux, then Peron I'Mazalan, both of them husbands, one of them a father. Then Robert di Grandi, hanged drawn and quartered; and finally Gobin, who died because the King blamed him for the Royal impotence.

But then Gobin's brother, Lenclos, comes into her life, just as she is about to despair of a change of fortune. At first, he can think only of revenge for his brother's death, but then the woman he once thought of as a witch becomes an object of his passion. But who was he? A goldsmith's son, an adventurer who lived by his voice and the lute. First he must prove to himself, and to Gentian, that he was worthy of her. Then there could be happiness and a life together...