francis ii, 1559-1560

"Welcome to Renaissance France, a place of poison and plots, of beauties and beasts, of mice and . . . queens? Mary is the queen of Scotland and the jewel of the French court. Except when she's a mouse. Yes, reader, Mary is a shapeshifter in a kingdom where Verities rule. It's a secret that could cost her a head--or a tail. Luckily, Mary has a confidant in her betrothed, Francis. But things at the gilded court take a treacherous turn after the king meets a suspicious end. Thrust onto the throne, Mary and Francis face a viper's nest of conspiracies, traps, and treason. And if Mary's secret is revealed, heads are bound to roll"--Provided by publisher.

"Welcome to Renaissance France, a place of poison and plots, of beauties and beasts, of mice and . . . queens? Mary is the queen of Scotland and the jewel of the French court. Except when she's a mouse. Yes, reader, Mary is a shapeshifter in a kingdom where Verities rule. It's a secret that could cost her a head--or a tail. Luckily, Mary has a confidant in her betrothed, Francis. But things at the gilded court take a treacherous turn after the king meets a suspicious end. Thrust onto the throne, Mary and Francis face a viper's nest of conspiracies, traps, and treason. And if Mary's secret is revealed, heads are bound to roll"--Provided by publisher.

With the rampant slaughter of Huguenots at its peak and her beloved Marquis Fabien away on a privateering voyage, Rachelle Dusbane-Macquinet, a couturiere from one of France's foremost silk making families, welcomes the summons to return to Catherine de Medici's court and the opportunity to spy on the evil queen.

Rachelle Dusbane-Macquinet accompanies her grandmother, a famous couturiere, to Paris to create a silk trousseau for the Royal Princess Marguerite Valois, and becomes caught up in the intrigue at the Court, risking her life to warn the handsome Marquis Fabien de Vendome of a wicked plot against his family concocted by the regent, Catherine de Medici.

A fictionalized account of the life of Catherine de Medici, wife to King Henry II and mother-in-law to Mary, Queen of Scots, that examines the darker aspects of Catherine's life, including her desperate acts to win her husband's love and bear his children.