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This novelette originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, December 1985. The story is included in the collection Artificial Things (1986). A chapbook edition appeared in 1991.

A thrilling time-travel romance of Renaissance England.

Robyn Stafford, a young American executive, has flown from Hollywood to England to surprise her lover on his birthday, only to find that he's married and it's his wife who's giving the party. She takes a few days off to recover from her outrage and dismay, travelling and hiking near the Welsh border. There she encounters a handsome young man on horseback, wearing a sword, plate armor and a surcoat, who confidently identifies himself as Edward Plantagenet, Earl of March, and asks directions to a nearby abbey. He thinks the year is 1459 and is amazed by her detailed, printed map and working cell phone. She doesn't know what to think. But when three hostile knights and two dozen bowmen arrive, he sweeps her up in front of him and carries her off to safety, before turning back to valiantly fight off his enemies. Then, the immediate danger past, he returns and asks her to come and be his lady once he has beaten the king. After a parting kiss, he rides away, into the distant past, to the age of the War of the Roses.

Now Robyn Stafford must find a way to leave the world of today for the fifteenth century, where she fell in love with a young knight.

The author of two highly praised novels, The Spiral Dance and American Woman, R.. Garcia y Robertson returns with a charming time-travel romance sequence. In Knight Errant, Robyn Stafford, a young American woman hiking in England near the Welsh border, was swept back in time to the 1460s, the age of the War of the Roses. There she fell in love with a young knight, Edward, son of the Duke of York. Cast back in time by witchcraft, Robyn, a young executive from Hollywood, raised in Montana, has chosen to stay there out of love for Edward, who has promised to marry her.

Now in Lady Robyn, Robyn's fantasy of courtly romance comes up against the brute reality of medieval politics: the politics of murder, warfare, and betrayal. The War of the Roses is no longer a textbook subject, it's messing up her life, and so is the noble witch who, though he doesn't know it, is Edward's enemy. Edward's father Richard is making a bid for the throne, and if he wins it, Edward will be heir apparent. And if Robyn marries him, she will someday be queen and her children heirs to the throne as well. In the 1460s, that means living with the constant threat of death. The survival rate for heirs is not high. Will Robyn reject her love or risk the lives of her children to be?

This is an engrossing time-travel romance in the mold of Diana Gabaldon's bestselling timeslip tales.

R. Garcia y Robertson's delightful saga of time travel and romance, which began with Knight Errant and continued through Lady Robyn, grows even more irresistible as Robyn Stafford, a savvy Hollywood exec mystically transplanted to 15th century England, works overtime to secure happiness and true love amidst the fratricidal madness of the War of the Roses.

Once a thoroughly modern Californian (and former Miss Rodeo Montana), Robyn has come to savor her new life as Lady Robyn of Pontefract, betrothed to the dashing young Edward Plantagenet, Earl of March, Duke of York, and heir to the English throne. Temporarily stranded back in 21st century, she wastes no time getting back to 1461, albeit with a few unexpected bumps along the way.

But her troubles hardly end when she makes it back to Merrie Olde England and the arms of her beloved knight errant. War is in the air, with a rebellious Tudor army challenging Edward's forces at home, and a French invasion force gathering in the north, preparing to march on London. Having witnessed firsthand the deadly realities of medieval politics, Robyn is in no hurry to see Edward claim the throne, but, like it or not, he is the heir apparent, and Robyn must use all her wits to keep their love alive -- even if it means inventing tabloid journalism several centuries early!

Look out, London! Lady Robyn has returned, so the Middle Ages had best mind its manners.