Same characters as Lady at Arms, plus
And this female lead has a different kind of strength.
In the first book, we followed siblings attacked by bandits on the way to a wedding, the woman barely escaping rape, the father dying, the brother badly wounded, and the adaptatiins and maladaptations the events caused in their lives.
This one focuses on the family responsible for most of the trouble. We discover that the father of the family had 2 kids...and that he set aside the one wife as unchaste so he could have another henliked better. This childd is a daughter, one bornnwith a birthmark, one her father - whonis evil personified - decides is responsible for any and all misfortunes (most of which he causes himself) When the girl's mother dies, she is only 7, and she is taken to a convent and they get her dowry. She has been abused physically by father, novice master at the convent, and older brother. When the dissolute son ends up dead because of his own treacehry, Papa is in a quandry.
No heir.
Only one child left.
And so moments before she is forced into vows, she is retrieved to marry a man her father's age to get an heir on her. It's not that she wants this - it's just that she wants to be a nun so much, much less. And her father makes her pray his dissolute son's soul into heaven (yeah, don't think that's gonna happen) as his putrid 2+ week 9ld corpse lies innstate in the chapel at the castle.
She is appalled at how the tenants and the lands have been abused, atarved, beaten, and how terrible is the way the castle itself has been let go. It's barely structurally sound. She makes sure the place is as clean, and in as good a repair, as she can pending the nuptials. Sje opens the castle storehouses, sees to the tending of the land and the planting of winter crops, and gains at least a measure of respect, if not some devotion, from the people.
Then Papa is called to account for his sins by the King. She doesn't want to be forced back to the convent - at least not to take vows as a nun - and this leads her to a difficult choice that causes even more issues. And her only friend is a seriously ugly dog that doesn't really bark but is named for the sound it makes.
Her misguided hope that she can at least help care for her father leads her to a few more bad decisions. It tales some serious issues being pointed out to her about her dysfunctional relationship with her family for her to see the light.
She may not be a swordsman, but she is a warrior in every other way that really counts. And their courtship os awkward, but the main characters manage to get through it.
The families fully mesh about 2/3 - 3/4 way through the book.
Anither gutsy heroine fromnthe author - and a wonderfully clean romance.