Prologue

Marjory de Warenne sat in the front pew of magnificent Chester Cathedral watching her brother, Lynx de Warenne, marry the woman he loved more than life. Jane Leslie, the lovely, gentle, flame-haired daughter of the steward of Dumfries Castle, had been handfast to her brother for a year and a day from when he had garrisoned the Scottish castle in the name of King Edward Plantagenet.

Though Jane had given Lynx a son, his heart's greatest desire, she had agreed to marry him only after he had received a wound at the Battle of Irvine that had threatened to prove fatal.

Jory smiled tenderly, remembering how she had pledged her brother's marriage vows because he had been too weak and debilitated to even speak. Then Jane had worked her magic, lovingly nursing Lynx back to life. Now that he had regained his health and been restored to his full fighting strength, he was marrying Jane again here in England, so he could pledge his own undying vows to the woman he worshipped.

Sudden panic threatened to choke Jory. As she stared at the flames of the long, tapered candles ablaze on the altar, she became dizzy. They reminded her of other candles that had burned at another wedding years before.

How extraordinarily strange it seemed that her brother's fortunes had finally flourished with the culmination of those years, bringing him undreamed-of happiness and fulfillment, while her own life lay in heartbreaking, shattered shards!

None yet knew of the disastrous mess she had made of her life. Until now she had managed to hide behind a facade of serene confidence, her emotions buried deep within, safely concealed from the unforgiving light of day that would expose her to a brutal scandal of her own making.

Jory stared at the flames, mesmerized. She had no idea what she would do or where she would go. She was too emotionally distraught to even pray for the help she would need to survive. She swayed as her mind took wing, flying back over the years to the time of that other wedding and the fateful day that had changed her life so completely.

If only, somehow, I had done things differently…