Troubled Queen

In 1528, Thomasin begins a new life as one of Catherine of Aragon’s attendants after her family’s association with the Boleyn circle ends in scandal. She is determined to forget Rafe Danvers and is drawn instead to Nico, one of a sophisticated group of Venetian visitors at court. Her attempt to rebuild her future is interrupted when the sweating sickness returns and the royal household scatters to escape infection.

Isolation briefly brings Henry VIII and Catherine closer, but Anne Boleyn refuses to surrender her place in the king’s affections. Rafe’s return forces Thomasin to confront the loyalties and feelings she has tried to suppress, while the epidemic makes every court calculation more urgent. Survival depends on judging which promises are genuine and which are merely another form of political manoeuvre.