The Champion — Elizabeth Chadwick

In the spring of 1193, Monday de Cerizay is smitten with young Alexander de Montroi -- the new hero among the jousting knights of Normandy -- until she finds herself another of his passionate conquests. Pregnant, confused and betrayed, determined to make a life beyond the tawdry squalor of the tourney circuits, she becomes mistress to John, Count of Mortain, heir to the Coeur de Lion's vast Angevin empire, but discovers that having so powerful a lover carries a heavy price. Alexander, devastated and destitute, must rebuild his career from nothing.

When Alexander and Monday meet once more, it is as strangers. From the mud-soaked fields of France to the refinery of the royal court, they rediscover their love for each other amid the wrath of a King, the bitter ambitions of Monday's vengeful grandfather, and the fury of an old foe from Alexander's jousting days ...