Their love is forbidden. Tangled layers of politics and greed keep them apart. Men of fortune, of title, men of the cloth conspire to deny their true love, to snuff the valiant flame. And they are close to succeeding.

For Charlotte, the year 1356 is not about the Black Death's ravages, the dawn of the Hundred Year War with the English or the Catholic Church's increasing power and reach. It is not about the vast Bourbon-Condé empire to which she is heiress nor the great upheavals or small miracles occurring throughout her native France.

These troubled times are about one man—Gautier, a noble's bastard, a crusader haunted by horrors of the Holy Land and a passionate enforcer of the Church's will. As desperately hard as he tries, Gautier cannot deny his feelings for Charlotte nor can he ignore the sacred task he imposed on himself and the privations that come with his choice. He must fulfill his mission. Even if it means betraying his own heart.

Their love is forbidden. Succumbing to temptation would assure them a place in hell. But living apart would be a much crueler fate indeed.

Reader Advisory: This story is set in an earlier and more violent period of the Church's history. No insult or offense to the Catholic Church is intended.