my thanks to all who read and critiqued my work in various drafts from the eighth grade onward: ladonna lindgren, laura creasy, tammy monfette, ellyn bache, hope johnson, audrey forrester, amy pierce, philip drew, kat vernon, alice osborn, alisa roost, s. j. stratford, and beth seltzer. special thanks must be given to my fabulous agent, margaret o‘connor, who believed in this book from the first time she laid eyes on it. i thank my brilliant editor, claire zion, who took an early draft into her experienced hands and, with the clarity of her vision, helped me to discover the novel as it was meant to be written. i would like to thank all the wonderful people at new american library, especially jhanteigh kupihea for her insight during the revision process, michele alpern for the excellent copyediting, the publicist kaitlyn kennedy for spreading the word, and maureen o’boyle and her team for the amazing cover art. i thank all who believed in me from the day i first picked up my pen: karen english, carl english, barry english, vena miller, susan randall, marianne nubel, chris nubel, ellen seltz, susan hurst alford, jenny morris, nicole garrett, janie lam, and my internet consultant, andrew seltz. and i thank eleanor of aquitaine and alais of france. though it has been my honor to convey one possibility of who these women were, i have no doubt fallen short. alais and eleanor live on when we remember them, no matter how imperfectly.