The Knight She Tamed

She has kept a village alive for two winters. She is not going to be handed to a royal cousin like a trussed piglet. Isabeau of Fécamp is twenty, an herbalist's daughter, and the last living heir of a house that no longer exists. Gervais de Rouvray is forty-seven, a knight in the king's service, sent to the valley with orders to bring her to court — a piece in a game she never agreed to play. He expects a scared girl. He finds a woman with dirt under her nails and a village that will not let her go. She expects a king's errand boy. She finds a tired man who has buried a wife, a son, and a decade of his own choices. They spend a season on the road, arguing about whether she is a person or a piece. By the time they reach the court, they are both already in trouble — and neither of them is going to back down. Some oaths are made to kings. Some are made to keep.