cover image Night Cats

Night Cats

Katherine Deauxville, Anthony Taber. Congdon & Weed, $4.99 (64pp) ISBN 978-0-312-92571-0

This solid historical romance transcends its basic formula with a convincing setting integral to the tale and believable characters. A decade after the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror gives his knight Fulk de Jobourg ownership of Castle Morlaix in Wales and orders him to marry its heiress, Lady Alwyn Lesneven. Fulk arrives to find his intended ``trussed like a Martinmas pig''--the only way Fulk's followers can get the refractory young woman to the altar. ``Rotten luck,'' thinks Fulk, who dutifully marries her and then heads off to hunt Welsh rebels. Left to cope with the sickness and famine dogging the region's inhabitants, Alwyn makes her share of mistakes, dispensing justice that is more tender-hearted than shrewd and undercutting Fulk's efforts to evade the Earl of Chester's demands for loyalty (and money). Fulk has his own shortcomings, accusing Alwyn of treachery where--sometimes--there is only innocent error. But gradually, grudgingly, they come to recognize each other's value and forge a union greater than its parts. Under the name Maggie Davis, Deauxville is the author of Satin Doll. (Sept.)