Eager for a respite from her role as handmaiden to Queen Elizabeth I, Ursula Blanchard agrees to travel to France to help her former father-in-law bring his young ward home to England, in this third court mystery starring the sleuth and spy—but duty again calls. Fearing that the pro-Catholic forces threatening to tear France apart will spread to England, the Queen instructs Ursula to deliver a secret letter personally to Catherine de Medici, offering to mediate the crisis. Not only will the perilous journey separate Ursula from her young daughter, it will bring her closer to a man she can neither trust nor forget, her estranged second husband Matthew de la Roche, avowed Catholic and enemy of Elizabeth.
"Fantastic historical fiction filled with royal intrigue.... Buckley makes the Elizabethan era fun."—Midwest Book Review
