Dark Deceit

England, 1141

Returning from battle at Lincoln, Geoffrey de Mortagne, undersheriff of Gloucester and spy for the Empress Matilda, comes to the aid of a knight who had been ambushed, but he arrives too late. As he has given his word to the dying man to look after his only daughter, Alleyne, Geoffrey stays at her manor whilst he investigates the attack. To his dismay, there is more to it than a mere attack outlaw attack. Soon, Geoffrey is torn between the oath and his duty to the Empress.

Left to fend for herself following her father’s brutal murder, Alleyne de Bellac reluctantly accepts Geoffrey’s support. But she doesn’t trust the taciturn stranger who, she feels, keeps secrets from her, so she writes to Will d’Arques, an old friend of her father, for help. Yet with loyalties changing with the wind, she is no longer able to tell truth from lie.

With her life in danger and her inheritance at stake, which man can Alleyne trust?

Discover England and Normandy divided by the ‘Anarchy’ – a brutal civil war for the English crown between the Empress Matilda and King Stephen the Usurper – where vows are broken and allegiances are rescinded by the stroke of a sword!