Washoe County Library System

January, 1576. Widow Ursula Blanchard is in no position to refuse when Sir Francis Walsingham decides she must wed Count Gilbert Renard in order to build a strategic alliance with the French. Soon after the count arrives at her country home to pay court, one of Ursula's household staff is found dead. An accident - or something more sinister?

"By the Queen's command, she carried a letter that could alter the course of history -- or eclipse her own future.... Eager for a respite from her role as handmaiden to Queen Elizabeth I, Ursula Blanchard agrees to travel to France to help her first husband's father bring his young ward home to England. But duty soon calls. Fearing that the pro-Catholic forces threatening to tear France asunder will spread to Protestant England, the Queen instructs...

When her young son is kidnapped, Ursula Blanchard, Queen Elizabeth I's half-sister, must take on a dangerous mission and commit high treason in order to rescue him.

"March, 1588. With England in a state of high alert as King Philip of Spain amasses a vast fleet of warships ready to invade, Queen Elizabeth and her advisors seek a possible alliance with the Duke of Parma, Governor of the Netherlands. But their plans suffer a major setback when one of their most reliable spies is found murdered in the Hertfordshire countryside, shot dead by a crossbow bolt as he was transporting secret correspondence between the...