Frances Gorges Trilogy

In the acclaimed historian's debut novel, a lady-in-waiting in the court of King James is caught up in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. England, 1603. Nursing Queen Elizabeth through her last days, court healer Frances Gorges dreams of her parents' country estate, where she first learned to use the medicinal secrets of flowers and herbs. Frances is happy to stay at home when King James of Scotland succeeds to the throne of England. His court may be shockingly decadent, but his intolerant Puritanism sees witchcraft in many of the old customs-punishable by death. When her ambitious uncle sends Frances back to the royal palace as a nanny to the princess, she is a ready target for the twisted scheming of the Privy Seal, Lord Cecil. As a dark campaign to destroy both King and Parliament gains momentum, Frances is surrounded by danger. She finding happiness only with the King's precocious daughter, and with Tom Wintour, the one courtier she feels she can trust. But even he has secrets to hide...

The acclaimed author of The King's Witch continues her epic trilogy of Jacobean England as conspiracy haunts the court of King James. In the court of King James, lady-in-waiting Frances Gorges was suspected of witchcraft for her healing skills. But when her lover was executed for his role in the Gunpowder Plot, she fled for her life and that of her unborn child. Now Frances is compelled to return to the dissolute and dangerous court to marry Sir Thomas Tyringham, King James's master of hounds, who has agreed to assume paternity of her son. Meanwhile, whispers of a conspiracy continue to echo through the royal palace. Against this perilous backdrop, Frances reunites with her former mistress, the Princess Elizabeth, as well as other less friendly members of the court: Prince Henry, the unscrupulous heir to the crown; Lord Cecil, eager to persecute Frances as a witch; and King James himself, ever more paranoid and cruel towards alleged traitors. But she also discovers a surprising new ally: Sir Walter Raleigh, himself a prisoner in the Tower of London. As he makes his intentions known, Frances again finds herself caught in a web of secrets, promises, and plots.