Palace intrigue, defiant heroism, and a long-awaited love fulfilled
from New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory in her
Fairmile series.
It is 1685 and England is on the brink of a renewed civil war. King
Charles II has died without an heir and his brother James is to take the
throne. But the people are bitterly divided, and many do not welcome the
new king or his young queen. Ned Ferryman cannot persuade his sister,
Alinor, that he is right to return from America with his Pokanoket
servant, Rowan, to join the rebel army. Instead, Alinor and her daughter
Alys, have been coaxed by the manipulative Livia to save the queen from
the coming siege. The rewards are life-changing: the family could return
to their beloved Tidelands, and Alinor could rule where she was once
lower than a servant.
Alinor's son is determined to stay clear of the war, but, in order to
keep his own secrets in the past, Livia traps him in a plan to create an
imposter Prince of Wales--a surrogate baby to the queen.
From the last battle in the desolate Somerset Levels to the hidden caves
on the slave island of Barbados, this third volume of an epic story
follows a family from one end of the empire to another, to find a new
dawn in a world which is opening up before them with greater rewards and
dangers than ever before.
