num_pages: 0
description: This rich literary novel follows Elen who must live a precarious lie in order to survive among the medieval Welsh warband that killed her family.Wales 1109. Three years ago a warband raided Elens home. Her baby sister could not escape the flames. Her older sister fought back and almost killed the warbands leader Owain ap Cadwgan before being killed herself. Despite Elens own sexual assault at the hands of the raiders she saw a chance to live and took it. She healed Owains wound and spun a lie: Owain ap Cadwgan son of the king of Powys cannot be killed not by blade nor blow nor poison. Owain ap Cadwgan has the protection of Saint Elen as long as he keeps her namesake safe from harm and near him always. For three years Elen has had plenty of food clothes to wear and a bed to sleep in that she shares with the man who brought that warband to her door. Then Owain abducts Nest the wife of a Norman lord and her three children triggering full-out war. As war rages and her careful lies threaten to unravel Elen begins to look to Nest and see a different life  if she can decide once and for all where her loyalties lie. J. Anderson Coatss evocative prose immerses the reader in a dark but ultimately affirming tale of power and survival.
language: English
title: Spindle and Dagger
publisher: Candlewick