When her lover was executed for his role in the Gunpowder Plot, lady-in-waiting Frances Gorges fled for her life—and that of her unborn child. Now Frances is compelled to return to the dangerous court to marry Sir Thomas Tyringham, King James's master of hounds, who has agreed to assume paternity of her son. But she also makes a new ally: Walter Raleigh, himself a prisoner in the tower of London. As he reveals his intentions, Frances again finds herself caught in a web of secrets, promises, and plots.