Metropolitan Library System

Forced into servitude, Wren is quietly miserable...until Jarl Knud arrives at her settlement, seeking an alliance through marriage. Despite their initial sizzling attraction, Wren despises everything the jarl represents--and he needs a high-status bride to save his people, not a servant like her. As Wren uncovers the man beneath the fierce Viking chief, she's tempted to claim one forbidden night of passion...but will it ever be enough?

"Success as a warrior is one of the few paths to advancement in early medieval Britain and Stefan, a young Saxon peasant, has fought his way up to the rank of captain, serving under an earl who in turn serves the king of Atheldom. Returning from a series of hard-won battles, he hopes for further promotion. Instead, his command is taken from him and given to a better-born rival, while he is sent off to serve as the sheriff of an impoverished shire...

In a gambit to become the power behind the Danish and English thrones, Askeladd has taken the prince, Canute, and plunged deep into a winter storm behind enemy lines. Canute's father, King Sweyn, gives him up for dead in his haste to suppress English resistance. But Askeladd's small band can't outrun the tenacious maniac Thorkell forever, and when the warriors finally clash, a storm of sweat and gore ensues that will turn a boy into a man and a hostage...