Lady Alys Wolverton is on her way to her parents when she is intercepted by Sir Nicholas Merios. Nicholas has grave news for Alys and is assigned to protect her, as the ward of the king. Alys has other ideas though and even though Nicholas has been truthful Alys often doesn't listen. It is not that Alys is obstinate, she just needs to find out for herself. With the war taking the King she has always known, she is not sure who to trust and does not ally herself as trusting the new King.

When the King gives Alys in marriage to Nicholas, Alys doesn't know what to think. She is not expecting a marriage filled with love only duty. Nicholas though proves Alys wrong and when he is called to serve, Alys has to choose whether to respect her husbands wishes or defy them.

There is a lot of history in this story. Alys I thought was at first sassy and a perfect counterpart to Nicholas but as the story progresses her strong will gets a bit tiring. Overall good story filled with a wonderful visual of what life was like during that time, but it fell short a bit on chemistry where Alys was concerned.