Description

Epiphany, 1193: The road out of Winchester was hidden by snow, and Justin de Quincy was making slow progress when he heard the first faint shout. It came again, louder and clearer, a cry for help. Spurring his stallion, de Quincy raced toward the source. But he was already too late. As the two assailants fled, de Quincy cradled the dying man, trying to make out his whispered words, “They did not get it,” he rasped. “Promise me. You must deliver this letter to her. To the queen.”

Eleanor of Aquitaine sits upon England’s throne. At seventy, she has outlived the husband who once imprisoned her. But has she also outlived her much-loved eldest son, Richard Lionheart, England’s king–missing these past two months? Only Eleanor’s fierce will can keep her youngest son, John, from seizing the crown. Only a letter, spattered with the blood of a dying man murdered on the Winchester road, can tell her if Richard still lives.