Beatrix of Clare

Sir Aymer de Lacy returns to England after years abroad, only to find himself ambushed in Windsor Forest by outlaws who leave him bound and bleeding in the dark. When a mysterious noblewoman rides through the trees, her blade drawn, Aymer's fate shifts in an instant. She is Beatrix de Beaumont, the Countess of Clare, and she cuts his bonds with a precision that hints at a life far from the drawing rooms of the court. As she tends to his wound in the moonlight, the air between them crackles with something neither can name: a dangerous attraction that defies every rule of their stations. What begins as a rescue becomes a reckoning. Aymer must navigate the treacherous waters of the English court, where honor is currency and love is political leverage. Beatrix holds power he cannot easily claim, and the secrets of her past may prove more perilous than any bandit's blade. This is medieval England where chivalry is both armor and chains, and where two people must decide if the heart's desire is worth the cost of everything they've sworn to protect.