Lord of Midnight (Topaz Historical Romance)

Jo Beverley explores a woman's limited choices in the medieval world with sensual authenticity in this companion book to her earlier medieval Dark Champion. When Claire Summerbourne's father is killed for supporting a traitorous rebellion, and his estate is awarded to king's champion Renald de Lisle, she powerfully resists the expected next step--that she marry de Lisle in order to provide her family with support and protection. Gradually she realizes that de Lisle isn't the wolfish brute she expects, that his touch can be tender and arousing as well as harsh. But before their union can be consummated, she learns that it was Renald who killed her father in legal combat.