But trouble precedes the party to St. David's. On Whitesands Beach outside the cathedral city, a young man is beaten and left for dead, but is rescued and hidden away by the poet Dafydd ap Gwilym. Then, at the gateway to the city, a body is found stabbed to death, his shoes filled with white sand. The mystery thickens as the dead man is revealed to be Owen and Chaucer's contact - and, in an alarming twist, the son of the very steward they are investigating.
Wykeham has good reason to worry. The family of a local knight blames him for the nobleman’s death in a French dungeon despite their offers of ransom. Trying to make amends, Wykeham brings the heat of “the cross-legged knight” home for burial. But the family is not appeased, and the pompous churchman is not in York a fortnight before fire engulfs his town house.
The bishop survives unharmed, but a servant is badly burned and a mysterious woman lies murdered among the ruins. Now caring for the wounded man in their own home, Lucie battles her inner demons while Owen fears a web of intrigue is entangling them all in the schemes of knights, bishops, even kings. His only hope is to set a trap so cunning that the killer – no matter how important a personage – cannot escape.
© St.. Martin's Press 2003