I had thought i was being so cleaver but i see now that it may be a lost cause since so many of us are looking for lost, but not quite forgotten, books... mine is old, set medieval times, want to say Edward III - he of many bastard children of which the hero is one.
he's of course a knight with a bad rep 'Butcher of ???' something Welsh where he reportedly killed many. i don't remember character names, i never do. just a bit of the plot.
it opens with the hero and his buddy somewhere up north waiting for his heiress to arrive due to a deal he struck with her ?uncle, who is a priest, who thinks this is the best way to get her out of a bad situation. hero is looking fwd to marriage, sortof, and the comforts of taking it easy for a while. he and his buddy are waiting in the cold wet outside not entirely sure this isn't a trap of some kind. the girl arrives, on a horse/donkey, approaching slowly, and looks fat from far away. she meets the priest, they start talking in Gaelic maybe, oh yeah she might be Scottish.. honestly i don't remember. at any rate the guys reveal themselves. the priest is anxious cause he didn't really sell this 'let's get you married for your own good' to the heroine. the two of them lock eyes but the moment is gone. the girl starts talking, gesticulating to the priest not at all looking for marriage but maybe a convent, etc... dumps her cloak and wouldn't you know it, she is not fat at all but hiding all her possession in two sacs around her waist, and is of course, very beautiful which strikes the hero and his buddy speechless.
i'm not doing it justice, i remember the book as being funny as well as fun.
she has a touch of clairvoyance and sees the future which is first evident as soon as they make it home since she had been abused and battered and gets a fever. the buddy is illegitimate as well and hooks up with the hero's sister the sister hates her brother, the hero, because it common knowledge that he is the king's son but because her father was forced/induced to marry her mother before the hero's birth, he is the heir and not their younger brother.
turns out his marriage is linked to the hero's way of fixing his brother's future as well.
that's about it. i vaguely remember the cover which had the hero in some very black clothing/armour and that's about it.
