The Lady of the Rivers

Jacquetta is the daughter of the Count of Luxembourg and a kinswoman to much of Europe's royalty. She is married young to John, Duke of Bedford, a great English nobleman and the uncle of Henry VI. At nineteen she is a widow.

What she does next is a real gamble. She marries a gentleman of her own household for love, a choice that risks her standing. She then builds a place for herself in English court life as a close friend of Queen Margaret of Anjou and a supporter of the House of Lancaster.

Her loyalties are tested when her daughter, Elizabeth Woodville, falls in love and marries Edward IV, the rival king. The mother who has staked her life on one royal house now has a daughter on the throne of the other.

This is historical fiction built around a woman whose story has been overlooked, even among the many significant women of her era. Jacquetta carries family ties to Melusina and to the founder of the house of Luxembourg, and a reputation for making magic. The book gives her a haunting, dramatic presence at the centre of a court divided between two kings.