The Valley Beyond: A Daughter's Bond

Lucia is an active child whose curiosity and behavior tend to get her into trouble. At the age of thirteen, she inherits the Condado of Segoia from the presumed death of her father, Don Fernando, who perished while on a crusade to the Holy Land. In addition, she inherits several titles and a vast amount of wealth from her mother, Lady Margaret, who dies while giving birth to Lucia. Her wealth is coveted by Don Raimundo Ortega Diaz, the Conde of Donato. He needs Lucia's wealth to raise an army to take the throne of Castile in order to plunder the vast riches that lie to the south in al-Andalus, the home of the Moors. He plots her demise to obtain her wealth. Set against the backdrop of the ongoing war against the Moors in late twelfth-century Spain, Lucia is challenged by her lack of maturity, assassination attempts, her love for her dearest friend Isabella, befriending a Moor, a love interest with a French knight, and the ongoing questions concerning her deceased mother. These questions lead her to Pomeroi, her duchy in France, only if she can survive her travels beyond the Pyrenees.