Books with author Fiona Buckley

Loyal Servant. Devoted Friend. Perfect target. Rumor has linked Queen Elizabeth I to her Master of Horse, Robin Dudley. And what rumors, at that: but for his ailing wife, Amy, Dudley would wed her majesty, the gossipmongers are whispering. To quell idle tongues, Elizabeth dispatches Ursula Blanchard to tend to the sick woman's needs. But not even Ursula can prevent the "accident" that takes Amy's life. Did she fall or was she pushed? Was Ursula a pawn of Dudley and the Queen? Suddenly Ursula finds herself at the center of the scandal, trying to protect Elizabeth as she loses her heart to a Frenchman who may be flirting with sedition against her Queen. She can trust no one, neither her lover nor her monarch, as she sets out to find the truth in a glittering court that conceasls a wellspring of blood and lies.

In the worlds of passion and politics, Ursula Blanchard knows to follow her heart -- if she is to keep her head.... Happily married and enjoying the life domestic, Ursula has her mind on family matters, not court treachery, as she begins to plan a betrothal for her young daughter Meg. When the powerful Duke of Norfolk extends an invitation for Ursula and her family to travel to London to meet Edmund Dean, a potential suitor, Ursula's hopes are quickly dashed: there is something in Dean's eyes that Ursula distrusts. Furthermore, she has also stumbled upon a rapidly accelerating plot closing in on her dear half-sister, Queen Elizabeth I, whom she is sworn to protect. When murder strikes the Duke's household, and a ciphered correspondence hints at the return of the deposed Mary, Queen of Scots, it's up to Ursula to keep the intrigue under wraps while racing to preserve the Queen's life. With Meg quickly falling in love with the wrong man, Ursula must walk a knife's edge to save her innocent daughter...and an unknowing throne.

'A well written Elizabethan whodunnit.' - READING PANEL In September 1560, Robert Dudley's wife, Amy Robsart, was found dead at the bottom of the staircase in her house, Cumnor Place, Oxfordshire. Many suspected foul play. Queen Elizabeth, in love with Dudley, had a motive. Dudley, ambitious to marry Elizabeth, certainly had reason to wish his wife dead. Before her death, Amy herself had believed she was being poisoned, so Ursula Blanchard had been ordered to Cumnor Place to protect the Queen's reputation by protecting Amy. When Ursula's task ends in failure, and someone dear to her has also been brutally murdered, she begins a personal quest to learn the truth behind Amy's death...

Ursula Blanchard, illegitimate half sister to Queen Elizabeth I and sometime spy for the Queen, is happily married and living in the country. When an invitation to visit arrives from the powerful Duke of Norfolk, they welcome the chance for their daughter, Meg, to meet a worthy young man of the Duke's household. But soon, more weighty matters demand Ursula's attention - there may be a new plot to put Mary, Queen of Scots, on the English throne. Available only in Mystery 4.