The Castle of Otranto By Horace Walpole

The story starts on a prince's wedding day, but the prince is killed by a helmet falling from a statute? The king only has the one heir and decides he will divorce the queen and marry his son's betrothed to insure the kingdom will remain in his family (assuming he will have sons with the new wife). The princess runs off and seeks help from a peasant and a friar, who hide her until her family comes back to bring her home. The princesse's father falls in love with the king's daughter and the kings decide to marry one another's daughters. In the meantime King A thinks his son's betrothed, now his betrothed is meeting the peasant who was attempting to hide her (wow, this is getting confusing) and ends up stabbing her killing his own daughter who had fallen in love with the peasant. So neither of the princesses want to marry old kings is what I am starting to get out of this story! In the end Rescuer A the peasant marries princess B who was first betrothed to the Prince, then to the Prince's father. King B goes home unwed, but with a new son-in-law. If you like puzzles, you'll like this book. If princess A was wearing a red dress and princess B was bethothed to the king who did not own the black horse, who wore fairy slippers?