A Rescue for a Queen
-
- £2.99
Publisher Description
The eleventh enthralling adventure to feature Ursula Blanchard, reluctant spy in the service of Queen Elizabeth I
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. But Ursula is also about to come face-to-face with her greatest enemy – and the exiled Countess of Northumberland is not the only figure from Ursula’s past to put in a surprising appearance.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An appealing heroine makes up for some choppy pacing in Buckley's well-constructed 11th Tudor mystery (after 2012's Queen's Bounty). In 1571, Ursula Blanchard, half-sister to the queen, is planning a quiet country life after the death of her devoted husband of six years, Hugh Stannard. But Sir William Cecil, England's secretary of state, wants her to undertake a dangerous mission on Elizabeth's behalf. Ursula is to escort Margaret Emory, who of late has been a surrogate daughter to Ursula (whose grown daughter has left home), to the Netherlands to marry a well-to-do cattle farmer, Antonio van Weede, who's half Italian and half Flemish. Antonio's Catholicism recommends him highly to Margaret's Catholic parents. Cecil wants Ursula to learn whatever she can about conspiracies against Elizabeth during her extended stay in the Low Countries. Ursula, a reluctant servant of the Crown, soon finds herself immersed in political intrigue. Buckley (the pen name of Valerie Anand) once again delivers a tale sure to please fans of Elizabethan historicals.
