The Morning Gift

This story is a work of historical fiction based on real people and events. It describes a troubled royal marriage during the course of one year in AD 675. Mercia and Northumbria have long been at war. There is an unexpected romance. King Aethelred of Mercia and Osryth of Northumbria decide to marry. Aethelred gives Osryth a wedding gift of valuable treasure gleaned from the battlefields of the past. She decides in secret to take the treasure along with the remains of her long-dead uncle to a shrine in Bardney in Lincolnshire. Osryth faces many challenges and setbacks on her long journeys to places such as Whitby, Lincoln and later York. The loss of the gold, silver and jewels causes a rift in her marriage. The mystery looks unlikely to be solved. Will the treasure ever be found and will the couple ever be reconciled?