Anne Stuart, Hidden Honors

Hidden Honors

Anne Stuart

Mira, Aug 2004, $6.50, 384 pp.

ISBN: 0778320650

Baron Osbret thinks women are useless especially his only daughter Elizabeth, who avoids beatings by hiding her intelligence and spirit from her sire and her chip off the old block brothers. Since his too tall daughter has failed to marry, Osbret sends her to the Shrine of St. Anne to become a nun. Elizabeth travels with Prince William, illegitimate son of King John, who is going to the shrine as a penitence for killing a noble lady during a sexual encounter. In fact William is disguised as a monk to keep him safe while Brother Peter pretends to be William.

On the journey, "William", known for his cruelty, is kind to Elizabeth. However, before she can understand why he is being nice, "outlaws" attack their party killing many monks. Peter and Elizabeth escape the massacre. As they elude the real William's men who attacked the travelers, they fall in love, but Peter has made a vow due to an atrocity he participated in during the Crusades that make any relationship between him and his beloved impossible. The real William knows Peter will select saving his soul over a female.

HIDDEN HONOR is a fabulous medieval romance that showcases the plight of women as not even secondary citizens in a male dominated realm. The fast-paced story line focuses on two romances with Peter and Elizabeth serving as the prime while another survivor and a kept older woman also fall in love. The depraved William is an odious villain who arranged the massacre of pious monks just so he would not be inconvenienced as he traveled to his royally ordered penitence. The deep cast makes this a fine historical romance.

Harriet Klausner