Lisa J. Yarde

The Burning Candle: a Medieval Novel Lisa J. Yarde

Love is for women who have choices. She has none. 

In eleventh-century France on the eve of the First Crusade, Isabel de Vermandois becomes the wife of a man old enough to be her father. He is Robert de Beaumont, Comte de Meulan. A hero of the Norman victory at Hastings and loyal counselor to successive English kings, Robert is not all Isabel had expected. Cruel and kind by contrast, he draws her into the decadent court of King Henry I.

As Robert's secrets are unraveled, Isabel finds her heart divided. Her duties as a wife and mother compel her, but an undeniable attraction to the young William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, tempts her. In a kingdom where love holds no sway over marital relations, Isabel must choose where her loyalties and her heart lie.

Based on the life of a remarkable medieval woman forgotten by time, The Burning Candle is a story of duty and honor, love and betrayal.

Snippet:

Earl William rode the length of the column, giving orders to pick up the pace. The hounds followed the master, yipping and snapping whenever a horse strayed too close. The gentleness of the alaunt beside her gladdened Isabel's heart, as the last of the breed exited Vatteville.

At the sloped edge of the crescent-shaped bank, the earl waited for his servants with the pack animals and the last of his knights to clear the gatehouse. With the first rays of sunlight at his back, the mist created a golden halo around his head. Isabel stepped forward. Across the distance, his gaze lingered upon her. A smile smoothed his craggy visage. He raised a hand in farewell. She suppressed the eager urge to return the gesture and patted the whining hound instead.

The earl's smile never faded. As the rearguard joined him, he wheeled his horse forward and joined his men. He never looked back. Her eyes strained for the sight of him, until he became a faint dot on the landscape, suddenly vanishing into the haze.