She was a Lady destined for an arranged marriage. He was a Squire sworn to defend a desperate cause. They loved each other over years of longing - in a world that kept them agonizingly apart.EVERARD OF GUILLOME - the young squire who rescues a beautiful girl from rape, only to ravish her himself. Though he thinks her merely a peasant, he finds himself falling hopelessly in love.LADY THAISA - of the streaming golden hair and pale creamy skin, whose sparkling eyes, blue as gentians, shine with a love to which she can never fully abandon herself. She is rushed into marriage with the old, violent - and madly jealous - Gilbert of Barbosa.HUGH OF JAFFA - Everard's master, a libertine who enjoys all kinds of women. But the only one he truly loves is his beautiful cousin...MELISANDE - a strong, ambitious beauty, determined to become Queen at any cost. Even a lovely marriage to a much older man...