The Needle of Avocation (Cuthbert's People, #3)

In a society held together by blood, oaths, and personal fealty, marriage is anything but a romantic affair. Hilda is the second sister, the plain one, the overlooked, the put upon. Her mother, Edith, has tricked the local ealdorman into betrothing his only son and heir to Hilda, a role that should have fallen to her enchanting older sister Elswyth, who was kidnapped by vikingar three years earlier.

On the way to her wedding, Hilda meets a heartbroken king, his petulant child bride, an abbes...