The Skull and the Lute

A shipwright. A baron's daughter. A forbidden love they can't deny.

When a beautiful runaway wearing a memento mori rosary stumbles into Daniel’s shipbuilding workshop and hears him singing, her improvised verse and quick wit awaken a passion he thought long-dead. After years of living in disguise as a commoner, he intends to use her to enact his revenge against his uncle, Raymond de Broase, Earl of Hawkhurst, who murdered his father and usurped his birthright. But their flirtatious game sparks a flame that neither can control.

Carenza, the runaway daughter of the Baron of Winchelsea, never wanted romance, but she always loved the language of love. A skilled poet and aspiring nun, she chafes at her parents’ demands that she marry. When she tries to flee from betrothal to Raymond de Broase, she meets a shipwright with a talent for verse who piques her curiosity. Though he is far below her station, she can’t deny the new and unexpected feelings he inspires.

When she learns his true identity, it seems their love was meant to be—but Raymond will stop at nothing to end the threat they represent to the legitimacy of his rule.