Showing results by author "Fiona Buckley" in All Categories

February, 1586. When the queen’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, learns that Ursula is to visit her relatives in Devon, he asks her to find out what has happened to two of his local agents, who have been strangely silent recently. On arrival in the small Devon village of Zeal Aquatio, Ursula discovers that both spies in question have met with mysterious - and fatal - accidents. Or is there more to it than that? What did the two spies find out that got them killed?

February, 1571. Ursula is once more plunged into affairs of the state when she escorts her foster daughter Margaret to the Netherlands to meet her suitor. The queen’s spymaster, Sir William Cecil, learns that the wealthy Italian banker Roberto Ridolfi will be hosting their forthcoming wedding - a man who he fears may once again be plotting to put Mary Queen of Scots on the English throne.

As the thrilling adventures of Ursula Blanchard, secret agent for Queen Elizabeth I, continue, she finds herself in France, reunited with her husband, Matthew de la Roche, in a passionate but flawed relationship. But when Ursula learns that her daughter, Meg, has mysteriously disappeared, she immediately sets out on a frantic and dangerous search. The trail leads back to England, to Vetch Castle: a grim, haunted keep owned by the enigmatic Philip Mortimer.