This new novel in the âwonderfully absorbingâ (Library Journal) Secrets of the Tudor Court series, features a tailorâs daughter who suspects she is an illegitimate offspring of King Henry VIII.
Audrey Malte is illegitimate, though her beloved fatherâtailor to King Henry VIIIâprefers to call her âmerry-begot,â saying there was much joy in her making. Then Audrey visits the royal court with her father, and the whispers start about Audreyâs distinctive Tudor-red hair and the kindness that the king shows her. Did dashing Henry perhaps ask Malte to raise a royal love child? The kingâs favor, however, brings Audrey constraint as well as opportunity. Though she holds tender feelings for her handsome music tutor, John Harington, the king is pressuring her to marry into the family of treacherous, land-hungry Sir Richard Southwell. Audrey determines to learn the truth about her birth at last. The answer may give her the freedom to give her heart as she chooses . . . or it could ensnare her deeper in an enemyâs ruthless scheme.