Heart of Winter

Books

"It so happened that Oliver's father was a profligate, a playboy, and an exceptional warrior. He was also not at all married to Oliver's mother, a washerwoman, who died when Oliver was only six." Oliver Meacham, bastard nephew of the Duke of Drakewell, and a massive disappointment to his father, has just lost all his male relatives to the war with the invading Sels from the West. Without an heir, the duchy of Drakewell stands to fall into enemy hands, unless one of Oliver's cousins can marry a lord with an army strong enough to defend it - which is how he finds himself escorting his cousin Tessa to the Great Northern Wastes; to the kingdom of Aeretoll, with a hope that Tessa might wed the fearsome warrior king who rules there, Erik Frodeson, in order to protect her people. But the stern, forbidding Erik refuses to marry. He offers his nephew's hand to Tessa instead. And to Oliver he offers insult, challenge - and the sorts of loaded glances that leave Oliver as flustered as he is furious. Tessa doesn't ...