New York Times bestselling author Jane Feather conspires with history to tell this dazzling story about two very real, very wily queens - and one impassioned young woman whose life they change forever.

At Queen Elizabeth's palace, intrigue abounds. And when a naive girl with a gift for keen observation enters the court, she can hardly imagine the role she will play in bringing England - indeed, the whole of Europe - to the brink of war. Nor can she foresee her own journey to the brink of ecstasy and beyond...

When she becomes a junior lady of Queen Elizabeth's bedchamber, Rosamund is instructed by her cousin, the brilliant and devious secretary of state Sir Francis Walsingham, to record everything she observes. Her promised reward: a chance at a good marriage. And then Rosamund meets Will Creighton - a persuasive courtier, poet, and would-be playwright who is the embodiment of an unsuitable match.

The unsanctioned relationship draws the wrath of Elizabeth, and Rosamund is sent in disgrace to a remote castle that holds Elizabeth's cousin Mary Stuart, the imprisoned Queen of Scots. Here, Walsingham expects Rosamund to uncover proof of a plot against Elizabeth. But surely, nothing good can come of putting an artless girl in such close proximity to so many seductive players and deceptive games. Unless, of course, Rosamund can discover an affinity for passion and intrigue herself...

For more of Jane Feather's signature romance check out the Blackwater Brides Trilogy - where three dashing brothers embark on a most im-proper quest - or follow the adventures to three intrepid young ladies as they become embroiled in the political intrigue of Regency-era London and fall irreversibly in love in the Cavendish Square Trilogy.