The Falcon's Prey / Reflections Publishing Inc. (ePub)

SYNOPSIS

Set in France against the epic drama of the Battle of Agincourt, The Falcon's Prey tells a tale of AMÉLIE des Étoiles, who turns sixteen the year England's King Henry V invades France and she is betrothed.

Fearful and impulsive as a child, Amélie dreads marriage to the aging Sieur RENAUD des Faucons. Marriage will be my prison, she thinks, touching the gold-cross necklace she wears that was her mother's. Still, she determines to do her duty.

Meanwhile, Amélie's father and uncles wait for a call to arms from King Charles VI of France. HUE de Sagesse, her cousin, dreams of honor and glory in battle, but Agincourt makes him wretch. Worse, his sense of honor is betrayed when he sees Sieur Renaud direct his war horse to trample his own escuier to death during battle.

When Amélie's grandfather and uncles learn that her father is held prisoner in England, they ride to Paris to arrange his ransom. There, Hue reveals to Amélie Sieur Renaud's act of murder. Stunned, Amélie pleads with an aunt to release her from her betrothal, begs another aunt to let her enter a convent, implores an uncle to hide her in Paris. When all fail her, Amélie slips into despair.

Heralds cry a tournament Amélie reluctantly attends. In the opening parade, Amélie encounters a fair-haired chevalier with whom she shares a moment. Later, an unnamed chevalier Amélie believes to be the fair-haired chevalier rides unannounced to the joust. Amélie impulsively gives him her mother's necklace as a token. Sieur Renaud defeats the unnamed chevalier, who rides off with Amélie's mother's necklace.

A few weeks later, Amélie joins Sieur Renaud for an afternoon of falconry. Hue lies in wait for Sieur Renaud in a hidden woods. As the men fight up and down a narrow path, Sieur Renaud tears Hue's jacket with the point of his sword and sees Amélie's mother's necklace under the jacket. Before Hue pushes him over a cliff to die in a nest of bees, Sieur Renaud knows Hue is the unnamed chevalier.

Amélie learns that Sieur Renaud's death prevented her from being turned out to beg in the streets and retreats to a convent to ponder the pattern of her life. There, her mother's gold-cross necklace is returned to her with a note she believes is from the fair-haired chevalier: "Pray for me."