The lioness & her knight / Gerald Morris.

Abstract
As soon as Luneta heard her father come in the side door from the fields, she
hurried to the upstairs sitting room. She had discovered just recently that if
she closed her eyes and listened very intently at the chimney in this room,
she could hear everything that was said in her mother"s parlor, which was
directly below. Today not having gone well, she suspected that her mother
would have some things to say.
Sure enough, seconds after directing her ears toward the fireplace, Luneta
heard her mother say sharply, "It"s going to be either her or me, Gary. I don"t
know if I can take it any longer. You"re going to come back some evening
and find yourself childless."
"Wait a moment," Luneta"s father drawled in his calm voice. "I"m sensing
something. An aura of some sort. I see . . . I see . . . wait, it"s coming . . .
you and Luneta have been having a row."
"Shut up, Gary," Luneta"s mother replied, but her voice was less strident.
Luneta grinned to herself. It was hard for anyone, even her mother, to
maintain a snit in the face of her father"s unruffled good humor. "Your
daughter is willful, stubborn, disrespectful of her elders, and rebellious."
"Very disturbing," Luneta"s father replied placidly. "I can"t imagine where
children pick these things up."
"Gary," Luneta"s mother said in a silken voice, "if you"re implying something
about your beloved wife--"
"Oh, no, not that one. I was thinking of you."
There was a brief pause. Then Luneta"s mother sighed loudly and said, "You
are very annoying and not at all funny, but thank you anyway. I"m over the
worst of it now. But I still don"t know what I"m going to do with her. I know
that I never spoke to my mother as she speaks to me."
"My dear Lynet, the cases are hardly the same. Luneta"s sixteen years old.
Your mother died when you were tiny and never had the pleasure of
encountering you at that age."
"Perhaps, but I wouldn"t have--"
"Less of it, my love! Remember that I met you when you were exactly
Luneta"s age, and I remember nothing demure about you. As I recall, you
took my sword away from me and stole my supper."
"It was burned anyway, and at least I never called you names. Gary, what
does porcella mean?"
There was a slight pause. Luneta hunched her shoulders slightly, waiting for
her father"s response. "Did Luneta call you porcella?"

Headstrong sixteen-year-old Lady Luneta and her distant cousin, Sir Ywain, travel to Camelot and beyond finding more adventure than they hoped for until, with the help of a fool, Luneta discovers what she really wants from life.