Book description
'I don't like to trust another man's calculations but if my reading
of the stars is correct, His Majesty has only a short time to live.
And he will die through violence'
1642: Laurence Beaumont has just returned to England after six long
years in the European Wars. Fleeing home to escape the
responsibilities of his noble birthright, he served as both mercenary
and spy, and ended up a cardsharp in a Dutch brothel. The atrocities
he witnessed abroad have utterly destroyed his faith in any cause, and
shattered his self-respect.
As the clashes between King Charles I and his mutinous Parliament
escalate towards full civil war, Beaumont is sucked back into violence
and intrigue when he discovers coded letters outlining a plot to
assassinate the king. Hounded by the conspirators and pressed into
service by the Secretary of
State's ruthless spymaster, Beaumont finds himself threatened on all
sides, in peril of his life if he makes a single slip. The ravishing
Isabella Savage, a practised seductress, offers to help him, but he
must beware of her charms.
And all the while, Beaumont is haunted by a strange prophecy, and
the memory of a love betrayed...
VC Letemendia was born and raised in Oxford and lives in Toronto.
After completing a doctorate in Political Theory and lecturing for some
years, she chose to pursue a career as a writer and editor. Since
childhood she has been fascinated by the English Civil War. This novel,
ten years in the making, is her first.
