Summary: England, 1364. Married off at age twelve to an elderly farmer, Eleanor quickly realizes it won't matter what she says or does, God is not on her side - or any poor woman's for that matter. But then again, Eleanor was born under the joint signs of Venus and Mars, making her both a lover and a fighter. Aided by a head for business - and a surprisingly kind husband - Eleanor manages to turn her first marriage into success. She rises through society from a cast-off farm girl to a woman of fortune who becomes a trusted friend of the social-climbing poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Through subsequent marriages - some happy, some not - several pilgrimages, many lovers, murder, mayhem, and many turns of fortune's wheel, Eleanor pursues the one thing that all women want: control of their own lives.--Adapted from back cover