Whenever I open a book by Ms. di Pastena I'm confident that the time period is well researched and the romance will be clean and sweet.
This is the perfect short holiday story as you only need an hour or two to read it.
We spend one important night with the characters as they overcome their barriers and agree to marry. Sounds impossible, not so.
This is easy to make time for in the rush of the season.
When Burthred comes courting on Christmas Eve, Meg rejects his advances. She has her heart set on becoming a nun and insists that he call her Christina, the spiritual name she has chosen for herself. She tries to make him swear on her box of holy relics that he will not pursue her, but he carefully words his oath to allow him to stay in her candlelit chamber and try to change her mind.
What Meg does not confess is that her reliquary box holds a secret.
Burthred needs a wife, and no one will satisfy him except Meg. He swore on his father’s deathbed that he would marry her. But Burthred has a secret, too. When they come together before the Yule fire, their shared revelations will either join their hearts together or tear them apart.