"Robb deftly interweaves a complex story of love, passion and murder
into the troubled and tangled fabric of Welsh history, fashioning a rich
and satisfying novel." --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Under the pretense of escorting his father-in-law and the archbishop's
secretary on a pilgrimage to the sacred city of St. David's in Wales,
Owen Archer and Geoffrey Chaucer, in truth, are carrying out a mission
for the Duke of Lancaster. England and France are at war, and the
southern coast of Wales is vulnerable to invasion--Owen and Geoffrey are
to recruit archers for the duke's army and inspect his Welsh
fortifications on the coast, while quietly investigating whether the
duke's steward at Cydweli Castle is involved in a French plot to incite
rebellion in Wales.
But trouble precedes them in the cathedral city of St. David's. On
Whitesands Beach beyond the city a young man is beaten and left for
dead, then spirited away by a Welsh bard. Shortly afterward a corpse
clothed in the livery of the Duke of Lancaster is left at the city gate,
his shoes filled with white sand. Meanwhile, at Cydweli Castle, a chain
of events begun by the theft of money from the castle's exchequer ends
in a violent death and the disappearance of the steward's beautiful
young wife. Owen and Geoffrey begin to see connections linking the
troubles in city and castle, and learn they must unravel the complex
story of betrayed love and political ambition to prevent more deaths.
But in the course of his investigations in the land of his birth, Owen
is haunted by doubts about his own loyalties...
