The Heart Of The Rose — Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Bronwyn is a kind and resourceful healer, ahead of her time, who cares for her aging father and two young sisters until her father is murdered by the king's men and makes all three orphans. She can entrance a man with her singing voice and the kindness in her pretty face, but she's an impoverished peasant who lives in the dark, suspicious times of fifteenth-century England where such a healing woman is feared. Witches are believed to be everywhere, waiting to ensnare a powerful man...like Edward the Fourth of England, who comes across her one day singing in a tavern and makes her his reluctant mistress. But Edward's powerful adversary, The Earl of Warwick, seeks to take over the throne of England and Bronwyn is caught between the two; one she loves, the other she loathes. One cherishes her, the other wants to possess and control her. As political battle lines form, and the country is torn apart by civil upheaval and bloody carnage, the two sides wrestle for the crown. Who will win that war and who will she end up with? When she's condemned to burn as a witch, which man will save her and which will let her die? (Originally a Leisure mass market paperback.)