Gregory, Philippa

In 1453, seventeen-year-old Luca Vero, accused of heresy and expelled from his monastery, is recruited to help investigate evil across Europe but frees his first subject, Isolde, from captivity in a nunnery, and together they seek the one who defends the boundaries of Christendom and holds the secrets of the Order of Darkness.

Mary Boleyn comes to the court of King Henry VIII, where she falls for the dashing king, and begins to enjoy her growing role as unofficial queen, however, she soon realizes she is merely a pawn in her family's ambitious plots as the king's interest begins to turn towards her best friend and rival, her sister, Anne.

Alys finds herself in mortal danger when she uses the powers learned from the local wise woman Morach in an attempt to win the love of Hugo, the married son of her employer, only to have the magic she created spiral out of control.

John Tradescant the Younger, gardener to King Charles I, finds his loyalties questioned as England descends into civil war and his family is put in danger because of John's ties to the King.

In the years following World War I, Lily Valance becomes a chorus girl to help support her widowed mother and falls in love and marries war hero Stephen Winters, unaware of the dark secrets that will threaten their marriage and Stephen's sanity.

When Henry Tudor picks up the crown of England from the mud of Bosworth Field after the last Plantagenet king's (Richard III) death, he knows he must marry Elizabeth of York, and unify a country divided by war for nearly twenty years. Elizabeth of York is the daughter of the White Queen Elizabeth, mother of the young princes in the Tower of London whose fate remains decisively unknown to this day. But Elizabeth of York is in love with the dead Richard III, slain by her new husband, Henry Tudor, on Bosworth Field. And meanwhile, imposters who claim to be the York prince in the Tower threaten the Tudor monarchy with relentless consistency.

Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, is the most powerful magnate in fifteenth century England, instrumental in putting the kings of England on the throne. Without a son and heir, he uses his daughters, Anne and Isabel, as pawns in his political games, which include seeing one of his daughters become Queen of England. Isabel is married to George, King Edward's brother and Anne is married at fourteen and is soon widowed and fatherless. She then takes her own life in hand and marries Richard, Duke of Gloucester, King Edward's other brother, who eventually becomes Richard III. Her choice costs her the life of her only son, Prince Edward, but she does become Queen, thereby fulfilling her father's wish.

Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford, lived in 15th century England. As a young widow she married the Duke's squire, Richard Woodville, and remained loyal to the Plantagenet/Lancaster throne of England. Their daughter, Elizabeth Woodville, mother of the two Princes who disappeared in the Tower of London, becomes queen and plays a major role in uniting the Lancaster and York families into the English Tudor monarchy.

Hannah Verde and her father are Jews who have escaped the Spanish Inquisition by moving to England where her father sets up his printing business. There she meets Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, who introduces her to the court of King Edward VI as a "holy" fool, because Hannah can sometimes foretell the future. She stays at court after Edward dies to serve Queen Mary I and at the same time is also accepted by her half-sister, Elizabeth. Hannah soon finds her loyalties divided and she is at the center of the intrigue to replace the Catholic Queen Mary with the Protestant Princess Elizabeth.

In autumn, 1558, Anne Boleyn's daughter, Elizabeth, is crowned Queen of England. Crucial to her success is Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who has been her supporter (and some say her lover) during her struggle for the throne. In an age where women were thought to be unable to govern on their own, Elizabeth is urged to marry soon so England can finally have peace. However, the one man she desires is Robert Dudley who is already married to Amy, a wife who will not let him fulfill his ambitions at her expense. As Robert begins to court Elizabeth he asks himself whether it will be possible to put his wife aside to marry a queen.