It is 1568, three years since Ursula Blanchard exchanged her work as a spy in the service of her half sister, Queen Elizabeth, for the relative calm of married life. But when Elizabeth summons her, loyal Ursula senses there is more to her seemingly benign request than meets the eye. She is to pluck Penelope Mason, her inappropriately flirtatious protégé, from court and find the disgraced girl a husband, and she is also to deliver a secret warning to Elizabeth's arch rival, Mary, Queen of Scots. Gradually, Ursula comes to understand the true delicacy and danger of this mission. Exiled after the suspicious death of her husband, Mary is now a fugitive queen and a "guest" in northern England's daunting Bolton Castle. Ursula, with her blade-sharp acuity, can outsmart Mary's notorious charm and sidestep treasonous traps while extracting the truth. But can she protect those who look to her -- including young Penelope -- from a deadly game where, to those who hunger for power at...

This passionate West Country smuggling saga set in the early 19th-century is an intriguing departure for Tudor mystery writer Fiona Buckley.Exmoor, 1800. When farmer's daughter Peggy Shawe meets the charismatic Ralph Duggan, son of a so-called 'free trader', it's love at first sight. Determined to prevent the match, Peggy's widowed mother sends her daughter to live with the Duggans for six weeks, believing she will be put off marriage to Ralph when she discovers what life is like among a smuggling family.Matters take a dramatic turn however when Ralph's brother Philip is suspected of murder, and Ralph and Philip are despatched to distant relatives across the Atlantic. Heartbroken, Peggy vows to be reunited with her lover one day. But it will be several years before she and Ralph are destined to meet again – and in very different circumstances . . .

The ninth gripping murder mystery to feature Ursula Blanchard, special aide to Elizabeth I - November, 1569. Happily married to her third husband, Hugh Stannard, lady-in-waiting Ursula Blanchard is hoping to give up her undercover work for Queen Elizabeth l in order to enjoy domestic bliss. But when Hugh unwittingly endangers possession of his ancestral home, Ursula is forced to take on a seemingly hopeless – but handsomely paid – private assignment, which the Queen spots is the perfect cover for a covert investigation into a group of rebel barons plotting to put Mary, Queen of Scots on the English throne . . .From BooklistUrsula Blanchard, lady-in-waiting and spy extraordinaire, returns in a new Elizabethan mystery steeped in suspense and historical detail. In addition to her duties as a Lady of the Bedchamber to her half sister, Queen Elizabeth, she also undertakes certain delicate missions for the Crown. Despite her marriage to Hugh Stannard, there is no escaping into private life for Ursula. On assignment in the north to ferret out a group of rebel noblemen intent on rescuing and reinstating the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots, she is also privately commissioned by Mark Easton, Lord Sussex’s envoy, to solve a 20-year-old murder. As Ursula delves deep into the past to solve a tricky cold case, political passions in the present threaten to boil over. The worthy Ursula is an estimable heroine, and Buckley’s confident mastery of sixteenth-century British history lends an air of authenticity to her cleverly spun adventures. --Margaret Flanagan