In part three of her "All the King's Men" series, Margaret Mallory reveals the on-again, off-again romance between Sir James Rayburn and Lady Linnet. Jamie, a brave knight who once offered marriage to Linnet in their younger days before she coldly rejected him, vowed never to fall under her spell again. Yet when he sees her five years after their initial affair, he experiences those familiar feelings of love and lust.

Likewise, Linnet still holds fond memories of Jamie as a young man, but has put her love life on hold until she can settle an old score with garment merchants who cheated her grandfather and ruined his business. This long-standing grudge and secret mission to expose the guilty parties have consumed Linnet nearly to the point of madness. How else can we explain her dangerous exploration into a witches' coven in pursuit of her vengeance and her shabby treatment of Jamie, who once again opens his heart to her? Linnet’s foolish actions may seem like madness to readers, or perhaps merely an annoyance that she’s yet another historical romance character who repeatedly sabotages her chances for health and happiness through her own stubbornness.

Although the witches, magic potions, and devil-worshipping subplots have some basis in reality (a historical note says that Eleanor Cobham [a minor character in the story] was convicted of using sorcery and witchcraft), these disturbing scenes don’t mesh with the rest of the romance novel. Even repeated foreshadowing that warns readers about the eventual arrival of these horrific scenes doesn’t seem like sufficient preparation.

In addition, Margaret Mallory links characters from the previous novels in this series (Knight of Desire  and Knight of Pleasure, also reviewed on Myshelf.com), which complicates the plot with more people, places, and subplots than can adequately be absorbed by most readers. For me, these two earlier novels were more enjoyable than Mallory’s latest attempt. Between the main romance, a tangential romance, political intrigue, witchcraft, the garment merchant mystery, and extraneous details relating to Jamie’s heritage and Linnet’s family, the story can seem ungainly at times. I would have preferred to read more about the passion of one knight and the lady he loves.