Smitten with spring fever, Elizabeth Tudor escapes London for
fantastical Nonsuch Palace in the sweet Surrey countryside. There she
hopes to relax and pose for the official royal portrait for which she is
holding a competition. But one of her artists is burned to death, and
portraits of the queen are going up in flames.
When she hears that her rival, the dangerous Mary, Queen of Scots, has
been peering in mirrors and announcing, "I see the next queen of
England!" Elizabeth summons her Privy Plot Council. Has the arsonist
been sent by foreign foes or is it someone in her own court? Or is the
"running boy" apparition really a ghost out to avenge a terrible past
tragedy caused by the Tudors?
Time is running out, because the enemy who stalks the queen means to
destroy not only her portraits and artists, but her very life.