Blackthorn Winter — Carol Townend

The second book in an involving and heart-rending series about a family feud in twelfth century Brittany.

Arlette de Roncier, the young and innocent daughter of Count François de Roncier, one of the most ruthless nobles in Brittany, agrees to an arranged marriage in faraway Aquitaine. She has no idea that her father's greed for a few acres of family land has led him to murder his own flesh and blood. Arlette is sent to meet her betrothed, unaware that one of the men in her entourage, Gwionn Leclerc, is in truth her distant cousin, Raymond Herevi.

Raymond has seen his family destroyed by Count François and is out for revenge. In Arlette he thinks he has found the perfect scapegoat...

This story is not a traditional romance, but a richly detailed evocation of living and loving in the middle ages. First published by Headline in 1993, it has been revised and given a less ambiguous ending.