A Garden of Briars — Elisabeth McNeill

In the time of the Crusades, land meant power, heirs ensured survival... and the wrong word could hill as easily as a sword....

Beautiful, flaxen-haired Scholastique is heir to the vast landholdings of her dying father, a man so desperate to live he will consort with the dark power of the occult. She dreams of one man--Peter Astrolabe--who is on a burning quest to avenge his own father's fate. But pawned off in marriage to the brutal Wolf of Beaune, Scholastique knows this beast waits only for the moment she is vulnerable enough for him to seize her lands--and take her life.

Scholastique and Peter pledge their love during the long march to the Holy Land, but when they are separated and back in France, enemies force Scholastique into desperate battle. Accused of murder, she has only one hope: Peter, who must fight to the death in trial by combat for her life ... her heart ... and her destiny.