The Lady of Mercia's Daughter — M.J. Porter

Betrayal is a family affair.12th June 918. Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians and daughter of Alfred the Great, is dead. Aelfwynn, the niece of Edward, King of Wessex, has been bequeathed her mother's power and status by the men of the Mercian Witan but knows she is vulnerable to the North of her kingdom, exposed still to the retreating world of the Viking raiders from her mother's generation. With her Mercian allies: her cousin Athelstan, Ealdorman Aethelfrith and his sons, Archbishop Plegmund and her band of trusted female warriors, she must act decisively to subvert the threat from the Viking Rognavaldr, grandson of the infamous Viking, Ivarr of Dublin, as he turns his gaze toward the desolate lands of Northern England, with the jewel of York, seemingly his intended prize. Inexplicably she is also exposed to the South, where her Cousin and Uncle eyes her position covetously, their ambitions clear to see. This is the unknown story of Aelfwynn, the daughter of the Lady of the Mercians and the startling events of late 918 when family loyalty and betrayal marched hand in hand across lands only recently reclaimed by the Mercians. When kingdoms could be won or lost through treachery and fidelity and when there was little love, and even less honesty, and the words of a sword were wont to be heard far more loudly than those of a king or churchman, noble lady's daughter or Viking rogue.