New Releases by Barbara Willard

Young Simon, recently and tragically orphaned, becomes a scribe in the following of the exiled Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. The uncertainty of the tumultuous years leading to the infamous cathedral slaying is heightened by Simon''s separation from his twin Edmund, who is in the service of King Henry II. With an expert pen Barbara Willard deftly recounts events leading to the bishop''s martyrdom in 1170.

The year is A.D. 781. King Charles of the Franks is crossing the Alps with his family and court on a journey to meet with Pope Hadrian. One frosty night he speaks to his young son Carl: When we come to Rome you will know that I am naming you my heir. One day you will rule over all my lands. . . . But the King already had an heir, Pepin the Hunchback, mockingly called Gobbo. Was he to be dispossessed? Yet Carl sees that Charlemagne is determined to do what he feels is best to serve God and Europe.

SUMMARY: Moll Swayne is a magical creature to her children, the Queen of the Pharisees, who danced in the fairy ring. The family lead a gypsy like existence in the forest until Sim is accussed of vagrancy. It is young Will who feels the force of the change that befalls the Queen of the Pharisees' children.

Orphaned in 1557 by the plague and disowned by her "brother's" widow who claims she is not true kin to the family, fifteen-year-old Lilias begins a life-long attempt to identify her true parentage.